Do you conduct or prepare business presentations in English? Do you respond to emails from customers, your supervisor, or even the main office in English? Do you write business memos in English? Do you participate in meetings in English, maybe asking questions or being called upon to respond to questions? If you're not doing this now, do you aspire to having a job position in which you will have to do these things?

In all of these situations, it's not enough that your communication is grammatically correct. Whether in writing or speaking, you must sound professional and formal. That's what you'll learn in this course.

The passive voice is a special verb form used to communicate professionally, whether in business, law, politics or in any situation that requires a degree of formality. In this course, you'll learn:

(1) How to construct the passive voice for a variety of common verb tenses.

(2) When you should use the passive voice. Some of the reasons might surprise you!

(3) You'll practice your skills at using the passive voice with exercises that increase in difficulty. These exercises will be corrected in a corresponding video lecture that provides explanations for the answers.

(4) All of the examples are taken from a business environment. In addition to learning the passive voice, you'll gain exposure to professional business writing and will see how questions, statements and memos are made in the business world.

(5) Along the way, you'll receive insights into the North American business culture.

(6) When done, you will be better able to communicate with professional business English, and doing so will serve you well throughout your entire business career.

To get the most from this course, your English proficiency level should be intermediate or higher.