Writer's Secrets: Hiding behind the passive voice

The poor maligned passive voice.

Your English teachers probably scorned it.  The venerable Strunk and White (Elements of Style) advise against it.  The live-in grammar checker in Microsoft Word doesn't approve of it.  Heck, I've expounded myself on how flaccid the passive voice is. But that's just for public consumption.

We writers use the passive voice* all the time, especially for camouflage operations.

To sweeten bitter pills

If you need to bring up some unpleasant facts in your copy, the limp and foggy passive voice will soften those sharp edges.

A deposit is required.

This sounds much less crass than "We require a deposit," or "You must pay some money up front, or no dice."  In the passive voice it sounds as if it's really no one's fault.  It's just a fact of life in some way.

Licensing fees are based on the number of installed machines.

This takes the blame off of US.  It's not that WE decided to charge you for every darn machine, the fees are just somehow arranged that way.  And it doesn't even sound like YOU actually have to pay these fees.  (Although see what happens if you don't.)

Penalties are applied only in months when the committed billing amount is not reached.

A double hide-behind.  It's not that WE assess these penalties.  They just appear in some vague fashion.  But it's ONLY in certain months.  And besides, it's not YOUR fault, either;  the committed amount just isn't reached for some unlucky reason.  In the passive voice, it's no longer a stinging nettle in your contract. It's just "one of those things."

To make sentences face the right way

In your marketing copy, the passive voice can help you get the spotlight off yourself, and back on the customer where it belongs. 

With ABC Systems, your core software will be upgraded automatically — by periodic downloads — whenever updates are released.

Or:

With an XCompany network, all your connections will be monitored 24 hours a day, 365 days a year — and each device will be polled for alarms every thirty minutes.

Don't listen to Microsoft Word's Grammar checker and re-write these passages into the active voice.  (ABC upgrades your software automatically. . . XCompany monitors all connections 24 hours a day. . .)   Here the passive voice is, paradoxically, more customer-centric.   Instead of talking about what WE do, you focus on the customer and what he will experience.  It's better mannered, I think. 

As with any trick, however, the passive voice should be used sparingly.

Make that:

Use the passive voice sparingly.

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* Just for reference, the passive voice is a verb construction that sounds like this:

The operating system was installed on the primary server.

(As opposed to:  We installed the operating system on the primary server.)

Premises-based virtual networks are created when intelligent devices are incorporated onto the customer premises.

(As opposed to:  CDE creates premises-based virtual networks by incorporating intelligent devices on the customer premises.)

Read the back of your lease agreement for your new car. You will see the passive voice taken to high art.