Active voice

Be concise and direct. Active voice supports these and it makes your content more engaging, too. Using the active voice can help the reader easily identify the subject of the sentence. In the following example, the person who submits the form is essential information. Omitting that leads to a confusing and impersonal sentence.

Passive: The Remote Work benefits form must be submitted to the appropriate representative.

Active: Submit the Remote Work benefits form to Human Resources.

The passive de-emphasizes who should take an action. Most text written written in the passive voice has more words and these texts are harder to follow.

Passive: The JIRA notice should be saved in your email, as it will be required for future inquiries.

Active: Save the JIRA notice in your email for later use.

When in doubt, start with the verb. Or start with the actor and then the verb.

My doctor gave me a clean bill of health.

When to use the passive voice

There are always exceptions. Don't use the passive voice in a way that makes actions seem like they happen magically, without anyone doing them. Your documentation should always make it clear who (or what) is doing something.

In some cases, you can soften an error message with passive voice.

Rewording either of these sentences with active voice complicates the sentence or pull focus away from its main point:

Responses sent from JIRA include Waiting for Support and Closed.

Support is required to respond to requests within 4 working hours.