Yes, Writers. Use the Passive Voice.

I know you've been told not to use it, but sometimes, the passive voice can be your friend.

I use it when the action (or the target of that action) is what I want to emphasize.

For example:

The nation's premier civil rights legislation, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, was signed into law on July 2, 1964.

I could've written: "The US president signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law on July 2, 1964 as the nation's premier civil rights legislation" ... but I wanted the "star" of the sentence to be the Civil Rights Act ...

or

My bike was stolen last week. I had to walk to work until I could get a new one.

I could've written, "Somebody stole my bike last week" ... but I wanted the attention to be on my bike and that it was stolen, not an anonymous thief.

Using the passive voice is a matter of style, not a grammatical error.

That being said, don't overuse it. The passive voice can make your writing wordy with complicated sentence structures. And overuse can make your writing flat and uninteresting