Why do scientists use passive voice more than writers in other subjects?

Question

writers in the sciences conventionally use passive voice more often than writers in other discourses. Passive voice makes sense when the agent performing the action is obvious, unimportant, or unknown or when a writer wishes to postpone mentioning the agent until the last part of the sentence or to avoid mentioning the agent at all. The passive voice is effective in such circumstances because it highlights the action and what is acted upon rather than the agent performing the action.

Q10- Why do scientists use passive voice more than writers in other subjects?

a) because they are more intelligent

b) because they like the way passive voice sounds

c) because other writers like active voice more

d) because they write about stuff and things

e) because they write about inventions,discoveries, and experiments

f) because nobody likes to read about science

Answer 1

In scientific writing, you usually don't want to have "I", "you", or "we" statements (first or second person) because you don't want to introduce bias: therefore, science writers use lots of third person statements OR write in passive voice (where you don't "need" a personal pronoun). For example, saying "the researchers experimented on the cells" versus "the cells were experimented on" - many writers would opt for the latter rather than repeat "the researchers" over and over again at the beginning of the sentence.

The question seems to simplify a bit, but the correct answer is E - because it is easier to write about inventions/discoveries without bias in passive voice.

Answer 2

So you can use process of elimination here. Since passive voice is the use of more words than needed, it makes a sentence sound more professional even though a sentence with active voice would be easier and more efficient to read and write. First, remove the answers with bias: a, b, and c sound like opinions more than factual statements supported by evidence. d sound very vague and f is also an opinion. Therefore, the remaining answer e would be correct because it is factual, specific, and ties into the idea of passive voice usage being important in the field of science to make sentences sound more professional and add detail.