Who Decided That? How Passive Voice Is Quietly Draining the Power From Your Writing

Imagine getting an email that says, "A decision was made to move forward with the new vendor."

Your first question is probably: Who made that decision?

You're not being difficult. That's just a completely natural response to a sentence that erases the person doing the thing. And yet, this kind of writing shows up constantly — in business emails, corporate reports, project updates, and internal memos. It's so common that most people don't even notice it anymore.

But readers notice the effect, even when they can't name the cause. Passive voice makes writing feel distant, vague, and sometimes even evasive. And if you're using it in your professional communication, it may be quietly chipping away at how seriously people take you.

So What Exactly Is Passive Voice?

Here's the quick version: a sentence is in passive voice when the subject receives the action instead of performing it.

Active voice: Maria approved the budget. Passive voice: The budget was approved by Maria. (or worse: The budget was approved. — Maria has vanished entirely.)

In the active version, Maria is front and center. She did something. She made a call. In the passive version, the budget is the subject, and Maria has been shuffled to the back — or cut out completely.

That might seem like a small grammatical difference, but in professional writing, it's the difference between sounding like a leader and sounding like a footnote.

Why Writers Fall Into the Passive Trap

Passive voice doesn't show up in your writing because you're careless. It usually shows up for a few very understandable reasons.

You want to sound formal. There's a long tradition — especially in academic and corporate settings — of using passive constructions to sound official. "It has been determined that..." feels weighty and serious. But that formality often comes at the cost of clarity.

You're trying to avoid blame. This one's honest. Passive voice is incredibly useful when nobody wants to own a decision. "Errors were made" is the classic political dodge. "The project timeline was adjusted" sounds a lot softer than "We missed the deadline."

You genuinely don't know who did something. Sometimes the actor really is unknown or irrelevant. That's one of the few cases where passive voice earns its keep.

The problem is when passive voice becomes a default habit rather than a deliberate choice.

What It's Actually Costing You

Let's look at some real-world examples from the kind of writing most professionals deal with every day.

In an email:

"Your request has been received and will be reviewed."

Who received it? Who's reviewing it? When? This sentence answers none of those questions. The reader is left with vague reassurance and zero accountability. Compare it to:

"I received your request and will review it by Thursday."

Suddenly there's a person, a commitment, and a deadline. That's a completely different level of professionalism.

In a report:

"It was found that customer satisfaction scores declined in Q3."

Found by whom? Through what process? The passive construction makes this feel like the data just appeared out of nowhere. Try:

"Our analysis found that customer satisfaction scores declined in Q3."

Now there's ownership. There's a team behind the finding. That's more credible, not less.

In a project update:

"The launch date has been pushed back."

This one stings because it reads like the launch date just decided to move itself. Who pushed it back? Why? What happens next?

"The product team pushed the launch date back to November 15th to address a UX issue discovered in testing."

Yes, it's longer. But it's also honest, clear, and accountable — which is exactly what professional communication should be.

How to Catch Passive Voice in Your Own Writing

The fastest trick is to scan your writing for any form of the verb to be — words like was, were, is, are, has been, have been, will be — followed by a past participle (a verb ending in -ed or -en, like decided, approved, reviewed, written).

That combo is your passive voice signal flare.

• was decided ✓ passive
• were notified ✓ passive
• has been completed ✓ passive
• will be reviewed ✓ passive

Once you spot one, ask yourself: Who's doing this? If there's a clear answer, put that person or group at the front of the sentence and let them own the action.

If you use Microsoft Word or Google Docs, both have grammar tools that flag passive constructions. They're not perfect, but they're a decent starting point when you're training yourself to notice the pattern.

When Passive Voice Is Actually Fine

Let's be fair here — passive voice isn't always wrong. There are times when it's genuinely the better choice.

• When the actor is unknown or irrelevant: "The building was constructed in 1923." Nobody needs to know which construction crew.
• When you want to emphasize the receiver of the action: "The award was given to a first-generation college student." Here, the student deserves the spotlight.
• In scientific or technical writing: Lab reports and research papers traditionally use passive voice to keep the focus on the process rather than the researcher. "The samples were heated to 200 degrees Celsius." That's fine. That's convention.

The goal isn't to eliminate passive voice from your writing entirely. The goal is to stop using it by accident — and to recognize when it's making you sound less confident than you are.

The Mindset Shift That Makes the Difference

Here's something worth sitting with: passive voice often reflects passive thinking. When you write "a decision was made," you're framing yourself as someone things happen to, not someone who makes things happen.

In a professional context, that matters. Managers, clients, and colleagues form impressions of you based on how you communicate. Someone who writes "I reviewed the proposal and recommend we move forward" reads very differently from someone who writes "the proposal has been reviewed and moving forward is recommended."

Same information. Completely different impression.

Confident writing isn't about sounding aggressive or self-promotional. It's about showing up clearly on the page — owning your work, your decisions, and your voice. Active sentences do that. Passive sentences, by design, don't.

So next time you're about to write "it was decided," stop and ask yourself: Who decided? Then say it. Put their name — or yours — right there at the start of the sentence, and let the writing do what it's supposed to do: communicate.