Passive

A voice beloved of lawyers and scientists, the passive saps even the most energetic sentence of its joie de vivre; along the way obscuring responsibility for action and depersonalising and sterilising whatever meat there may have been.

to be sure, there are times where one should use the passive (if you can’t identify the author of the action, or if doing so might give offence), but in general a passive sentence is longer, flatter and duller than its active equivalent.