This may be a bit self-indulgent, but writing style is a favorite topic of mine. Dan Tudor over at Landing the Deal authored this post – Great Sales Copywriting a couple days ago. The tip in the post are applicable to all writing, not just sales copy.
The takeaway tip:
The opposite of active voice is “passive” voice. Here’s an example: “While visiting China, a brand-new idea in vitamin supplementation was discovered by Dr. Smith.” You feel like Dr. Smith just stood around until he accidentally bumped into the idea, right?Now let’s change that sentence to active voice: “Dr. Smith discovered a brand-new idea in vitamin supplementation while visiting China.” That’s much better, isn’t it? You can almost see him talking to herbalists and picking plants beside the Great Wall.
Email’s casualness has a numbing effect on skillful writing. Don’t give in to it – the slight modification noted above makes a tremendous impact on written communication.