A Few Nice Words About the Passive Voice Voice is the quality in verbs that shows whether a subject is the actor or is acted upon.
Studies show that passives are used least in conversation and most in scientific writing.
We generally expect effective writing to be vigorous and direct. In nearly all circumstances, the active voice achieves vigor and directness better than the passive voice, because in the active voice the doer of the action, the actor, is the center of the sentence. In some cases, however, using the passive voice makes sense. Grapes are grown in California . When the writer wants to emphasize the receiver or result of the action.