My Grammar and I (Or Should That Be 'Me'?): Old-School Ways to Sharpen Your English

The voice of reason
And there are two voices: active and passive .

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Rule: with the active voice the subject acts; with the passive voice the subject is
acted upon.
Active: The teacher reprimanded the boy because he spilt ink on his copybook.
Passive: The boy was reprimanded because ink was spilt on his copybook.
The  two  sentences  say  the  same  thing  but  with  different  emphasis.  Using  the
passive  voice  too  often  can  make  writing  dull  (let’s  get  on  with  some  action!).
However, consider:
If it were done when ’tis done then ’twere well it were done quickly.
Should auld acquaintance be forgot , and never brought to mind ?
Yossarian  was  moved  very  deeply  by  the  absolute  simplicity  of  this  clause  of
Catch-22.
The stars are not wanted now.
The passive should not be ruled out altogether. It may be found to have its uses.
‘C-l-e-a-n, clean , verb active, to make bright, to scour. W-i-n, win , d-e-r,
der , winder , a casement. When the boy knows this out of the book, he
goes and does it.’