Very interesting post, Carton, thanks for starting the thread. I’ll post the ‘twisted pencil’ to mark a new day.
Yes I know it is sort of a rule to avoid the passive voice, as in
‘the sails were set’
‘the coffee was served’
‘the floor was swept’
and so on, which leaves out the person or thing doing the action.
I am not so sure it is always a bad thing.
First of all, it is a short-and-sweet way of describing an action, when you don’t want to go into a lot of detail.
I am at present re-reading Patrick O’Brian’s maritime series and he uses the passive voice as a quick way of describing something.
‘The mainsail was set’ is quicker than ‘the forecastlemen hurried up the shrouds to set the mainsail’.
Creative writing teachers seem to hate it, however.
Maybe some people habitually overdo it?
Eveything has its use. Here’s the twisted pencil.
In other words, there is no agent, as they say.
He writes mostly in the passive voice.
The only time I notice the passive voice is when it is pointed out to me. Other than that, I don't. Not when I read... I never stop and say, my word, this is all written in passive voice.
It is easily corrected. But I wonder if it really is that big of a deal.
For the most part, I use passive voice only when I have to. Active voice is easier to write in.