This week my client Katie and I had fun diving into this distinction and found that it’s not so easy to explain active vs. passive voice. To clarify, I turned to Grammar Girl, who says, “In an active sentence, the subject is doing the action. In passive voice, the target of the action gets promoted to the subject position.”
So Steve loves Amy is active.
Amy is loved by Steve is passive.
Active voice is preferable because it’s snappier, bolder, and more direct!
(Full Grammar Girl article here.)