Passive voice is the most consistently condemned feature of writing instruction. Avoid it, the advice goes — use active voice, keep the subject doing the action, make your sentences direct. Grammar checkers flag it. Style guides warn against it. Writing courses treat it as a failure of confidence or clarity.

This consensus is worth examining, because passive voice in writing is not simply a weaker version of active voice. It does something different. Understanding what it actually does, and when that difference matters, is more useful than a blanket rule against it.

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