VERY much like the human body, English prose has to be kept trim and slim to command attention, to be credible, and to merit continuing interest. Compositions become unsightly and a pain to read when they use the passive voice much too often, when they take recourse to expletives at every turn, and when they rely too much on adjective clauses to qualify or relate ideas. The result is unhealthy flab that must be ruthlessly excised through self-editing and — if need be — total rewriting.
We already know that using the passive voice indiscriminately makes English sentences such sluggish creatures. That's what happens when the subject of the sentence receives the action of the verb rather than does it: "The key was inserted into the doorknob by the woman, and it was turned by her." Two actions ("was inserted" and "was turned") were done to the subject ("the key") by someone ("the woman"). Things happen as if in slow motion right before our eyes.
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