On the use of the passive and active voice in astrophysics journal papers: With extensions to other languages and other fields

Abstract

In this paper we examine the frequency of the active and passive verb forms in two astrophysics journal articles, finding that we plus an active verb occurs at least as frequently as the passive in both articles. On the basis of consultation with an informant in astrophysics we find that astrophysics papers typify a previously unidentified type of research article, the logical argument scientific paper; in this type of paper, the rhetorical structure is quite different from that of the ‘standard scientific’ experimental paper. Within the structure of the logical argument paper, we propose four rhetorical functions of the passive as opposed to we plus an active verb: (1) we indicates the author's procedural choice, while the passive indicates an established or standard procedure; (2) we is used to describe the author's own work and the passive to describe the work of others, unless that work is not mentioned in contrast to the author's in which case the active is used; (3) the passive is used to describe the author's proposed studies; and (4) the use of the active or the passive is determined by focus due to the length of an element or the need for emphasis. We suggest that similar uses of the passive and active voice may also extend to English journal papers in other fields, particularly those in which the subject matter does not lend itself to experimentation, and in which papers take the form of a logical argument rather than an experimental study. We review evidence produced subsequent to this study which suggests that astrophysics papers written in Russian may use the equivalent of the passive and active voice in a similar way to that described for English.