Active vs. passive

This is a very quick grammar thought as I am very very tired.

Active voice vs. passive voice

If you want to make clear who/what is responsible for something, use the active voice. If you want to be more ambiguous or you want to focus on what happened rather than who did it, use the passive voice. There is obviously lots of potential here for manipulation.

Example sentences:

Active: I keep the butter in the fridge.
Passive: The butter is kept in the fridge.

Active: They stole the painting.
Passive: The painting was stolen.

Active: They are repairing the road.
Passive: The road is being repaired.

Active: Shakespeare wrote Hamlet.
Passive: Hamlet was written by Shakespeare.

Active: A dog bit him.
Passive: He was bitten by a dog.