

This article is wild already, on the first page there’s this quote
‘Do not use the passive voice when such use makes a statement clumsy and wordy. . . Do not, by using the passive voice, leave the agent of the verb vaguely indicated, when the agent should be clearly identified.’ [Edwin Woolley, Handbook of Composition, 1907, p. 20]
Emphasis mine on… a clear usage of the passive! In active this would have to be “when you should clearly identify the agent” or something of the like, the fuck, how hard is it to not expose your whole ass like this mate
My immediate gut reaction to a rule as general as this is that there’s fat chance it’s universally applicable, there will always be cases where active would be clunky.
Like I can’t imagine an RPG protagonist exclaiming that “Someone trapped this chest!” instead of the 100% more natural “This chest was trapped!”