Avoid Passive Sentences when possible.

Active sentences:
 

Bob broke the window.        will break, breaks, has broken Ron made mistakes.

Active and personal ◄any tense/ time ◄focus on actor + action

Passive sentences:
 

The window was broken by Bob.       will be broken, is broken, has been broken Mistakes were made (by Ron, by someone).

Official/ impersonal  ◄any tense/ time  ◄focus on the thing

Is passive always bad? No.  Often it's useful.

	The test will be completed by me. ?? Why not write “I completed the test”?? Or Why not write "The test was completed." This is passive but that's ok if you don't care who completed the test.
	On the line, the bolts are adjusted to the correct tightness.  Who cares who “tightens the bolts"? Does it matter? No.  So passive is ok here.
	Cars will be made from plastic in the future. Here the focus is on cars -- not who makes them and that is appropriate here.

How can you tell if a sentence is passive?
To have a passive sentence, you need 3 elements:

1 BE (is/ are/ was/ were/ been/ be) + 2 VERB + 3 Past Form
 

was  will be  has been  is

shocked found <past form/irregular determined requested

Are these sentences passive?

1. He was electrocuted.	Yes: 1+2+3
2. She had received the award.	No: no past form (3)
3. They are tabulating the results.	No: No Be verb(1)
4. The results are being tabulated.	Yes: 1+2+3
5. Ralph completed the test.	No: Be verb (1)
6. The test has been completed.	Yes: 1+2+3