When to Use the Passive Voice

Below is an explanation of when to use the passive voice in writing. It is adapted from a post at www.grammarly.com. If you want to read the original, click on the link at the end of this post. Otherwise, you can read my lightly edited version right now:

When to use the passive voice

There are times when the passive voice does a better job of presenting an idea, especially in certain formal, professional, and legal discussions. Here are three common uses of the passive voice: 

1 Reports of crimes or incidents with unknown perpetrators

     My car was stolen yesterday.

If you knew who stole the car, it probably wouldn’t be as big a problem. The passive voice emphasizes the stolen item and the action of theft. 

2 Scientific contexts

     The rat was placed into a T-shaped maze.

Who places the rat into the maze? Scientists, duh. But that’s less important than the experiment they’re conducting. Therefore, passive voice is used.

 3 When you want to emphasize an action itself and the doer of        the action is not as important:

     The president was sworn in on a cold January morning.

How many people can remember off the top of their heads who swears in presidents? Clearly the occasion of swearing in the commander in chief is the thing to emphasize here. In each of the above contexts, the action itself—or the person or thing receiving the action—is the part that matters. That means the performer of the action can appear in a prepositional phrase or be absent from the sentence altogether.

 Adapted from:

LINK: Writing in the Passive Voice at Grammarly.com