Stephen Pinker has the following (and more) to say about the passive versus active. From _The Sense of Style_, “The passive voice, too, has several uses in Eng

Stephen Pinker has the following (and more) to say about the passive versus active. From _The Sense of Style_, “The passive voice, too, has several uses in English. One of them […] is indispensable to classic style: the passive allows the writer to direct the reader’s gaze, like a cinematographer choosing the best camera angle.” The example he gives -- and I'm sure you can come up with many more -- is, See that lady with the shopping bag? She's pelting a mime with a zucchini. versus, See that mime? He's being pelted with zucchini by the lady with the shopping bag. And there's this, “As the linguist Geoffrey Pullum has noted, there is nothing wrong with a news report that uses the passive voice to say, ‘Helicopters were flown in to put out the fires.’ The reader does not need to be informed that Bob was flying one of the helicopters.”