When is passive voice appropriate to use?

• A. Always preferred over active voice.
• B. Only for rhetorical flourish.
• C. Passive voice is never appropriate.
• D. Use passive voice sparingly when it emphasizes the action or when the agent is unknown.

Answer: (D)

Passive voice is a useful option when you want to spotlight the action itself or when the person who did the action is unknown or not important to the point you’re making. It’s not the default, because active voice is usually clearer and more direct, so you should use the passive sparingly. For example, “The experiment was conducted under controlled conditions” emphasizes the process rather than who did it. If you need to credit the actor or make the doer clear, you’d choose active voice, as in “The researcher conducted the experiment.” So the best approach is to use passive voice only in situations where the emphasis is on the action or the agent remains unknown.