TIP 7 Avoid passive verbs.
Passive verbs are wordy and often hide the identity of the actor in your sentence. “I was tickled” uses a passive verb that hides the identity of the tickler. It is not as interesting or as concrete a sentence as “Owen tickled me.” Readers want to know who acted.
So tell them (unless there’s a good reason not to). Scour your writing for passive verbs and convert them into active verbs.Passive verbs often use “is” or “was” followed by verbs that end in -ed or -en. Thus, “My client was arrested and beaten” contains two passive verbs. Instead, emphasize who wronged your client: “Officer Wilson arrested John and beat him with a police baton.”
Passive verbs have some legitimate uses. For instance, you should introduce familiar information before you introduce unfamiliar information, even if doing so requires you to use a passive verb. For example: “In 2012, this Court followed Myers. But Myers was subsequently overruled by the Overturn Myers Act of 2013.” The word “Myers” is familiar information; it should therefore appear earlier in the second sentence than the new information, which is the unfamiliar statute that overturned Myers — even though doing so requires you to use a passive verb (see generally Tip 8 below). You should also use a passive verb when you want to hide the agent’s identity or when you don’t know who acted. Unless you have compelling reasons to use passive verbs, however, avoid them. More often than not, their presence reflects undisciplined writing.