Use the active voice

Here are some examples of the passive

1. This is known as the Local Offer
2. it may be decided
3. teacher can ask for you to be assessed  
4. you can be helped and supported by SENDIASS    
5. The information you will be asked to provide for your Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan    
6. If it is decided that an Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan would help you,      

In each case, the person who is doing the action is not named. Let's change it to the active voice as see what happens:  

1. We call this the Local Offer  
2. the local authority may decide  
3. teacher can ask for the local authority to assess you  
4. SENDIASS can help and support you  
5. We will ask you to provide
6. If we decided that an Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan would help you

Now we know who is doing the action - deciding, asking, helping. Mostly it's the local authority, but also it's the SENDIASS.

(I have written a lesson on "we" and "you" and being clear about who's who. You'll read it later.)

It's generally agreed that using active verbs is easier to read than passive verbs.

Readability experts generally agree that using active verbs is easier to read than passive verbs.  

What do you think?  

A lot of us were taught to write using the passive:

It is said that...

It has been found that...

In academic writing, the passive voice is used...

This hides the agent, the actor.

But sometimes the active sentence is just silly

 ✅ A lot of us were taught to write using the passive.

 ❌ Our teachers at school and university taught a lot of us to write using the passive.

With the Local Offer, I think being clear is important.

• WHO will decide?
• WHO will write the report?
• WHO will help?

 📝  If you find some other examples of the passive voice which you think you should keep, share them in the discussion.