Is passive voice bad?
No. Passive voice is correct English, and every major style guide permits it. It gets a bad name for three reasons that are all real but all conditional: it adds words, it can hide who is responsible, and in quantity it makes prose feel distant. The problem is overuse and misuse, not the construction.
What the authorities actually say
- The Purdue OWL says active sentences are generally, though not always, clearer and more direct than passive ones — and gives cases where the passive is preferable.
- APA Style states that both voices are permitted, and that writers often overuse the passive.
- The federal plain-language guidelines call passive voice one of the biggest problems in government writing — because it hides who should do what — and still allow it in specific cases, such as when the law itself is the only actor.
- Yoast discourages passive voice in web copy and sets a maximum of 10% of sentences, acknowledging that some sentences get awkward in the active.
- Grammarly says the passive is not grammatically incorrect and is often useful and appropriate.
None of these bans it. All of them say: default to active, and use the passive when you have a reason.
The three real objections
It is longer. “The claim was denied by the adjuster” is seven words; “The adjuster denied the claim” is five. Across a document the difference compounds.
It can hide responsibility. “Mistakes were made” is the famous example. In a customer email, a safety report or a regulation, the reader usually needs to know who must act, and the passive lets the writer avoid saying.
In bulk it reads as distant. A paragraph of passives sounds like a form letter. Our Passive Voice Index shows how much this is about length: 18th-century inaugural addresses with 40-word sentences run 45% passive; modern ones with 19-word sentences run 14%.
When the passive is the better sentence
- The doer is unknown: “My bike was stolen.”
- The doer is obvious: “The suspect was arrested.”
- The receiver is the topic: “The vaccine was approved in 2021.”
- You are being deliberately tactful: “Your request was not approved.”
- The procedure matters, the person does not: “Samples were stored at −80 °C.”
See when to use passive voice for each case with examples.
How much is too much?
There is no number that applies to every kind of writing. For web copy, Yoast’s 10% of sentences is a reasonable ceiling. Reports, methods sections and legal drafting run higher and should. The better question is not “how many passives?” but “does each one hide something the reader needs?” Paste your draft into the checker — it tells you, sentence by sentence, whether the passive is probably justified or probably worth rewriting.
Questions people ask
- Is passive voice grammatically incorrect?
No. It is a standard construction. Grammar checkers flag it as a style suggestion, not an error.
- Why do teachers say passive voice is bad?
Because students overuse it, and because active sentences are a reliable way to make writing shorter and clearer. “Avoid the passive” is a teaching shortcut for “name the doer when the reader needs to know it.”
- Is passive voice bad in academic writing?
No. APA Style permits both voices and expects the passive in methods sections, where the procedure matters more than the person. It does warn against overusing it.
- Is passive voice bad for SEO?
Google does not penalise it. Readability plugins like Yoast flag more than 10% passive sentences because it makes copy harder to read, which can affect engagement.
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