Passive Voice for Web 2.0 Writing
Jakob Nielsen,
Useit.Com,
Oct 29, 2007
As with any rule, the recommendation to "use the active voice" has its exceptions. An example is shown in this Jakob Nielsen column, where, when readers read only the first two words, use of the passive voice may actually offer more information. Well, sure. Because what we really need to note is that the subject of our sentence ought to be what we are talking about - and sometimes (usually) the subject does the acting, but sometimes, what is important is that the subject is acted upon. My rule (and yes, there are exceptions) is to decide what I am talking about, and to put it first. Via