The active and passive voice in the medical literature in Spain and in the United States.: A comparative study

The majority of the manuals on style and scientific writing recommend limiting the use of the passive, preferring the active forms. In order to know the degree of monitoring of this recommendation we have carried out an analysis of a sample of articles of Spanish and United States journals in two different times (1989 and 2001). The use of the active voice is declining in Spain even being almost anecdotal, while in increases in the United States. In both times evaluated the American authors use the active voice more than the Spanish. The possible reasons of this situation are discussed and solutions are suggested.