Example: The rat was placed into a T-shaped maze.
Who places the rat into the maze? Scientists, duh. But that’s
less important than the experiment they’re conducting.
Therefore, passive voice.
3 When you want to emphasize an action itself and the
doer of the action is irrelevant or distracting:
Example: The president was sworn in on a cold January morning.
Getting away with the passive voice in writing:
The above examples show some formal uses of the passive voice,
but some writers take advantage of the shift in emphasis it
provides for other reasons. Here are moments when the passive
voice is a stylistic decision that suits the author’s writing goals.
1 Avoid getting blamed there are times when you want to
get away with something without making it crystal-clear
who’s at fault.
Example: “Mistakes were made.” —most politicians
Who made them? Is anyone taking responsibility? What’s the solution here? One political
scientist dubbed this structure the “past exonerative” because it’s meant to exonerate a