Essay Content: Writing Style

Description:
After you have developed a thesis statement and an outline for your essay, it will be time to start writing. Keep in mind that the scorers will be looking for specific strengths in your writing. In particular, whenever possible you should use active voice and demonstrate variety in sentence structure.

Active voice is generally contrasted with passive voice. Passive voice means that the subject of your sentence is receiving the action rather than performing the action. By using active voice, your writing conveys a stronger sense of purpose and intention; active voice creates positive associations between the subject of your sentence and the action being performed.

The readers who score your essay also look for varied sentence structure as an indication that you know how to capture and engage your reader's interest. This does not mean that you must have a compound-complex sentence in your essay. Simply be aware that reading sentence after sentence with the same structure becomes tedious for the reader.

Learning Resources
Active and passive voice 1
Active and passive voice 2

Sentence variety 1
Sentence variety 2