I tell my students that they aren’t allowed to use passive voice unless they do it on purpose. Passive voice is just that passive. Instead of the doer actively doing something to something or someone, something or someone has something done to it.
EXAMPLES:Â Â
The dog bit the mailman. (ACTIVE)
The mailman was bitten by the dog. (PASSIVE)
Though passive voice is generally frowned upon in most academic writing because of its wordiness and lack of active movement, there are situations where passive voice is more appropriate. Some examples of these situations include: when you don’t want anybody to know who did something; when you want to emphasize the “done to” rather than the doer; when you are writing science-y stuff.
-The toilet is clogged. (Who did it? Could be anyone.)
-The suspect was apprehended by the task force after 12 months of investigation. (The focus is on the suspect rather than on who did the apprehending.)
Chemical X will be mixed with Chemical Y. (an objective distance.)
If passive voice is used judiciously, then the effects can be powerful. Cases in point, “The village was bombed” connotes distance from a violent action whereas “We bombed the village” denotes responsibility for that violent action. “A new drug was used to treat dementia this week” gives priority to the new drug rather than to the doctor(s) who prescribed the drug.
One of my favorite examples of well-placed, passive voice construction comes from DonorsChoose.org . The subject line of their email notifications when a project has been funded is always in passive voice. I came home today (July 15, 2013) to find this email notification in my mailbox. Oh, how I love smartly and deliberately used passive construction. Â 
