Sentence Words
More Positive
connotation
Less Positive
connotation
Martha has lived in her
on Third house,
Street for twenty years,
home
The star of the play was tall and
skinny, slender
and had short hair,
slender skinny
Carly had a
attitude toward the
other team
Nia was very
with her parents
money
The Russians showed signs of being
in the negotiation,
competitive,
hostile
extravagant,
generous
flexible,
soft
Walter is a
business dealings
bargainer in
determined,
vicious

active voice: my father cut the tree.

passive voice: the tree was cut by my father.

active voice: people buy newspapers every day.

passive voice: newspapers are bought (by people) every day.

active voice: people have been using movies as political propaganda since world war ii.

passive voice: movies have been used as political propaganda since world war ii.

active voice: donna gave me my birthday present.

passive voice: i was given my birthday present (by donna). / my birthday present was given to me (by donna).

active voice: mom will leave the keys on the counter.

passive voice: the keys will be left (by mom) on the counter.

the words in parentheses are the agent of the passive voice and can be omitted when obvious, generic, or simply unnecessary.

the most appropriate strategy would be to do a questions and answer type speech.