active vs. passive voice

[Fred Ridder]

Michael Ronquillo wrote:
> Why not use the word shown instead? 
> 
> I personally hate displayed as it reminds me of a store putting an item
> on display. My thinking is that shown or appears is better. Shown may be
> quite informal whereas appears could be formal.
 
If the objective is to avoid the passive voice, changing from "is displayed"
to "is shown" doesn't do the job.  And when I read "shown" in a document,
I tend to start looking for an figure *in the document*, not a window on 
the monitor. 
 
But the real issue is whether it is necessary to eliminate the passive 
voice in all cases.  And here I add my voice to others who say that thepassive voice is not incorrect and may be perfectly appropriate in many
cases when writing about software application when it is completely 
irrelevant to the task at hand to know what entity is performing the 
action being described.
 
-Fred Ridder
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