What passive voice actually is
Passive voice occurs when the subject of the sentence receives the action rather than performing it. "The report was written by the team" is passive. "The team wrote the report" is active. The information is the same; the emphasis shifts.
Many writers think passive voice means "bad writing." This is an oversimplification. Passive voice is a tool, and like any tool, its value depends on when you use it.
When active voice is better
Active voice is clearer, more direct, and usually shorter. It puts the actor front and center, which helps readers process information faster. In most business writing, emails, blog posts, and journalism, active voice is the better default.
- Passive: The quarterly targets were exceeded by the sales team. Active: The sales team exceeded quarterly targets.
- Passive: A decision was made to postpone the launch. Active: The board decided to postpone the launch.
- Passive: Mistakes were made in the onboarding process. Active: We made mistakes in the onboarding process.
When passive voice is the right choice
Passive voice earns its place in several situations. When the actor is unknown ("The window was broken overnight"), when the actor is irrelevant ("The vaccine was administered to 10,000 participants"), when you want to emphasize the result over the doer ("Three world records were broken"), and when diplomacy requires softening blame ("The deadline was missed" is gentler than "Your team missed the deadline").
Scientific and technical writing conventionally uses passive voice to focus on methods and results rather than researchers. Legal writing uses it to maintain objectivity. These are not errors, they are genre conventions.
How to decide
Ask two questions: Who or what matters more, the doer or the thing done? And will my reader understand this sentence faster in active or passive form? If the doer matters, go active. If the result matters, passive may be better. If clarity is equal, default to active because it is shorter.