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Passives are an information structuring tool that writers use to control how information is presented in a sentence. They can be used well or they can be poor
by Veen 7y ago
Passives are an information structuring tool that writers use to control how information is presented in a sentence. They can be used well or they can be poorly.
For example, on the page you linked to the first line of the body text reads:
> This example was created for training and is not official agency text.
The first clause of that sentence is in the passive voice — “was created” — and is a good example of how passives should be used. Nothing is gained by replacing it with:
> We created this example for training and it is not official agency text.
- mbrock 7y agoSure, I agree that prohibiting passive voice entirely is a bad idea. No rule can ever substitute judgment and experience. I’d formulate the passive thing as “watch out for the passive voice and try if an active reformulation sounds better.”
- ghaff 7y agoIMO which of those works better is a function of the overall tone of the piece. The passive version probably fits better in a Howto or manual that is focused on just communicating information in a neutral just-the-facts way. The active version fits better with a style that's going for something more conversational.