“For the ordinary man is passive. Within a narrow circle (home life, and perhaps the trade unions or local politics) he feels himself master of his fate, but against major events he is as helpless as against the elements. So far from endeavoring to influence the future, he simply lies down and lets things happen to him.” - George Orwell

The passive voice is to be used as little as possible. Microsoft Word will calculate passive sentences with the word count function. The active voice gives a sense of immediacy to the sentence.

Passive Voice - Not active, but acted upon; suffering or receiving impressions or influences.

The passive voice changes the attention to the object being acted upon.

Active: I read the book.
Passive: The book was read.

The active voice adds more urgency and excitement to the writing.