Active vs. Passive Voice: Who Did What?

Why it exists

Writing needs to be clear about cause and effect, especially in technical fields. The distinction between active and passive voice gives writers a tool to control emphasis—either on the actor performing an action or on the object receiving it. Choosing incorrectly can lead to vague, wordy, and unaccountable text.

The mental model

Think of it as camera focus. Active voice focuses on the actor: "The cron job deleted the temp files." You know exactly what did what. Passive voice focuses on the recipient of the action: "The temp files were deleted." The actor is either missing or tacked on at the end ("...by the cron job"). Active voice is a direct shot; passive voice is an indirect one.

How it works

In an active sentence, the grammatical subject performs the verb's action. In "The developer wrote the test," the developer (subject) is doing the writing (verb). In a passive sentence, the subject is acted upon. In "The test was written by the developer," the test (subject) receives the action. Passive constructions often use a form of the verb "to be" (is, was, were) plus a past participle (written, parsed, deployed).

When to use it

Use active voice for the vast majority of your writing: documentation, commit messages, post-mortems, and emails. It forces clarity, improves conciseness, and removes ambiguity about who or what is responsible for an action. It makes your meaning clear and your sentences easier to read.

When not to use it

While active voice is the default, passive voice is a tool, not an error. Use it deliberately when the actor is unknown, irrelevant, or less important than the action's recipient. For example, "The server was compromised" is appropriate if you don't know who did it. "The build was completed successfully" is fine if the specific build agent doesn't matter. The mistake is using it by default, not using it at all.

One canonical example

Passive: "The meaning of the sentences can be clouded by too much use of passive voice." This sentence is indirect and a bit convoluted.

Active: "Too much use of passive voice can cloud the meaning of your sentences." This is shorter, more direct, and clearly identifies the agent ("too much use of passive voice") causing the problem.