The passive moves the receiver of an action to the front and the doer to the back — or removes the doer entirely.

How it is formed

be + past participle.

  • Active: "The team completed the report."
  • Passive: "The report was completed by the team."
  • Passive, no doer: "The report was completed."

When the passive is the right choice

  • The doer is unknown: "My phone was stolen."
  • The doer is irrelevant: "The road was resurfaced last year."
  • The receiver is the real subject: "She was awarded the contract."
  • Formal procedure: "Applications must be submitted by Friday."

When it weakens your writing

The passive lets you avoid saying who is responsible, and in business writing that is usually a problem rather than a feature.

  • Vague: "It was decided that the launch would be delayed."
  • Clear: "We decided to delay the launch."
"Mistakes were made" is the classic example — grammatically fine, and deliberately evasive.

The test

Read your sentence and ask: can I tell who did this? If you cannot, and it matters, switch to active.

A note for Indian English

Indian professional writing uses the passive more heavily than British or American writing, partly from official and legal traditions. "The needful will be done" is the extreme case. Where your audience is international, active voice reads as clearer and more confident.

Quick conversion practice

  • "The issue is being looked into by our team." → "Our team is looking into the issue."
  • "An update will be shared shortly." → "I'll send an update shortly."