By monkeys 🐒🐒

Your monthly internet costs are increased. By monkeys.

What does this sentence have to do with good communication?

One of the most important pieces of writing advice is to use the active voice. And to avoid the passive voice.

An example of an active sentence is ‘Joseph cooks the spaghetti’. The passive counterpart is ‘The spaghetti is being cooked’.

An active sentence is more direct and visual: it paints the whole picture. Active sentences are therefore usually clearer, more attractive and easier to read.

If you want to use the active voice, it’s important that you recognize passive sentences immediately.

You can do this by paying attention to the auxiliary verb ‘to be’. Cooking is taking place, decisions have been made, internet costs are increased…

But wait – it’s much more fun this way.

Check if you can add ‘by monkeys’ to the sentence. Possible? Then the sentence is probably passive.

Regards,

Arnaud

 

PS I found the monkey trick on the website of Monzo. You can also use zombies, if you prefer.