Avoid the Passive Voice
He was arrested for beating and robbing a woman on the street
See example:
He was arrested for beating and robbing a woman on the street as the victim was attempting to enter her church.
lewis mayo
New member
1 answer 
Passive voice is saying something was done to someone. Active voice tells who the someone is and who they did it to. A lot of times, passive voice is caused by a missing subject. In this case, whoever performed the arrest is what is missing. Obviously, some law enforcement agency made the arrest. You could say:
Police arrested him for beating and robbing a woman on the street.
If you don't want to mention the police, you could restructure it:
He beat and robbed a woman on the street, leading to his arrest.
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edited Mar 27 '12 at 19:36
Courtney
Contributor
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Is it proper to state "polices"?Police is a collective noun?Please help.
Police is a collective noun. A specific synonym would be "officers" or "police officers."
I just edited what I said. Polices was a typo. I meant police. It is a collective noun.
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He was arrested for beating and robbing a woman who was attempting to enter a church.
Although you want to avoid it when you can, the passive voice is more efficient here.
– Janet Kay Jensen – Mar 27 '12 at 03:34 add comment