How and when to use passive voice

Everything ever written about writing agrees on one thing: active voice is better. People shit all over passive voice with the easy confidence of LinkedIn businessmen telling people what to do while capitalising incorrectly.

Identity redacted to protect the confident men of LinkedIn.

But I disagree! Take that, businessman!

Active voice is used in most situations, sure. For example, if you're writing a story, you would expect the active voice most of the time, like this:

She ran down the stairs.

Instead of the bizarre passive voice alternative:

The stairs were run down by her.

But the truth is active and passive voice both have their place in writing and it's far too simplistic to say "Use the active voice when writing an email for business. Always.". When passive voice is a tool, a choice you consciously make, it can be incredibly effective and useful. Wielding the option to subtly shift the doing of a sentence away from the doer comes in handy, particularly when managing people. You've likely already done it intuitively, like in this example.

Active voice: You didn't attach the documents.

Subtext: You massive moron, you absolute clownfish!

Passive voice: The documents were not attached.

Subtext: Perhaps a wizard swooped in on his hoverboard while the email was flying through the internet and stole the documents? I'm not making assumptions. Blessings upon you.

Or in this example where my hunt for a flight was timed out because I got distracted.

Subtext: Time-outs occur all the time on the internet, whoopsie doodle! Possibly a goblin chewed through the internet wires.

Rather than the active voice alternative (“We timed you out.”) where the subtext is “You were taking too long! You are suspicious to us, why does it take you so long to book flights?! They've probably all sold out now so you need to start again! Moron!”.

There are many situations where passive voice is expected by the industry you're writing for, like when writing academic or scientific papers. In everyday writing, these are the situation when you can and should use passive voice.

When the doer is unknown or irrelevant.

• The policy was drafted in the 1980s.
  Example: A new policy will be drafted.

• You're intending to be vague about who is doing the doing.
  Example: Words flew across the screen and a new draft of the policy was created.

• You want to emphasise the object being acted upon and not the doer.
  Example: The new policy was created by reading tea leaves, deciphering portents in the entrails of rabbits, and by reviewing previous policies.

TL;DR? Passive voice is a powerful tool if used mindfully and don't let LinkedIn tell you otherwise.