Inma, thank you for your response regarding passive voice in Spanish. As for its use in English, you're right, it's often used, at least in the United States where I live. It's not considered good usage, though, when the active voice would be stronger and/or clearer. Good writers in English avoid it when possible. 

You're right Mary Jane, avoidance of the passive voice is more prominent in the US. However, here in the UK it remains very common. You might even say it is overused, which can hamper comprehension, but we're generally encouraged to use it here for the sake of etiquette. Personally, I would prefer the US approach, but that can often sound too 'direct' to UK ears. 

You're right Mary Jane, avoidance of the passive voice is more prominent in the US. However, here in the UK it remains very common. You might even say it is overused, which can hamper comprehension, but we're generally encouraged to use it here for the sake of etiquette. Personally, I would prefer the US approach, but that can often sound too 'direct' to UK ears. 

Thank you for that cultural insight, Graeme! That explains a lot. I just finished a project as a copy editor for a Cambridge research scientist. She almost exclusively used the passive voice, and she refused to change it. And I know that in the US, it’s sometimes used by surgeons who seemingly want to shift responsibility from their own skills to the body part’s. “The appendix was unable to be separated.”