If you knew who stole the car, it probably wouldn’t be as big a problem.
The passive voice emphasizes the stolen item and the action of theft.
2
Scientific contexts
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. The classic
example:
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 speaker from whatever