Structure: ‘The passive voice in formal writing’

Why does formal writing avoid naming who did what?

The passive voice reverses the usual sentence structure: instead of saying who performed an action, it focuses on what was done, and often omits the actor entirely. Active: “Boeing confirmed the deal.” Passive: “The deal was confirmed by Boeing.” In formal prose the agent (by Boeing) is usually dropped, since the action or outcome is the point, not who carried it out.

The passive is essential in aviation journalism, regulatory language, and official statements precisely because it shifts focus from actor to outcome. Diplomatic communiqués, safety reports, and trade announcements all rely on it: “New deliveries were suspended.” “The agreement was framed as a concession.” “General Electric was identified as a beneficiary.” Every one of those sentences comes straight from this week’s coverage of the Boeing–China aircraft deal.

How the passive is formed

The passive combines a form of to be with a past participle. It works across all tenses and with modal verbs:

The deal was confirmed on 16 May.: past simple passive
Production has been suspended since 2019.: present perfect passive
Boeing had been locked out of the Chinese market for nearly a decade.: past perfect passive
The order could be expanded to 750 aircraft.: modal passive

Notice that each form requires the correct part of be (was / has been / had been / could be) followed by the past participle, never the base form or present participle. This is where most errors appear.

Error correction: find the passive problem

Each sentence below contains one error involving the passive voice, a missing auxiliary, a wrong verb form, or incorrect word order. Identify it and write the corrected sentence, then check your answers.

1. The 200-aircraft agreement has confirmed by Boeing on 16 May.
2. Boeing’s commercial relationship with China had suspended since the crashes of 2019.
3. General Electric was identify as an additional beneficiary of the trade deal.
4. The full financial value of the agreement has not revealed by Boeing.
5. The planemaker’s re-entry into the Chinese market could been expected to attract close scrutiny.
6. The commitment by Chinese authorities separately corroborated was in an official statement.
7. Boeing was effectively lock out of the Chinese market for nearly a decade.

Before you check the answers, look again at your corrected sentences:

• Does each corrected sentence still mean the same as the original?
• Did you use the passive correctly, a form of be + the past participle (is inspected, was issued, has been completed)?
• Did you keep the same tense as the original, and leave out the doer (or move it to a by… phrase)?
• Is each a full sentence, with a capital letter and a full stop?

Now improve your sentences. Look at any answer that was different from yours and rewrite it correctly: a first draft is a first attempt, not the finished version.

CEFR Level C1 / ICAO Level 6

Passive constructions appear densely wherever aviation professionals read and write, safety directives, airworthiness bulletins, accident reports. If you want to see how they interact with another advanced structure, Structure: ‘Participle clauses’ covers the reduced-passive forms (the aircraft identified by the FAA, the order placed last month) that turn up just as often in formal prose.