Why do many manuals and technical documents seem to prefer passive voice?
It seems like many manuals and technical documents prefer passive voice over active voice. Is this true, or is it just my perception? If so, why?
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Well, there is no good practical reason for it. In other words, there are no studies showing that passive voice is more effective in communicating technical information. That leaves us with social reasons, which are necessarily a little more speculative and anecdotal. There is history to suggest that the following may be factors:
People often feel that because documentation is a "business document" it must be formal, and they often feel that the passive voice sounds more formal than the active voice. Neither of these propositions is true but they seem to be frequently held by people whose training and experience is not in communications.
The passive voice can be used to conceal the actor. "John hit Frank" becomes "Frank got hit" with the accusatory "by John" elided out. Thus it absolves the speaker either of taking responsibility or of assigning it. Communicators who seem unsure of themselves or who don't really want to communicate at all often take refuge in the passive to avoid taking or assigning responsibility.
If people are in a field where passive documentation is common, they may simply copy that style. It is remarkable the extent to which people will produce information designs that they would never use or like themselves just because they think those designs are conventional. People choose the conventional over the useful all the time.
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Speaking only from my own experience, passive voice is often a last resort. I write a lot of user guide material, and my company's style guide discourages using passive phrasing, but even more strongly discourages using second-person pronouns. So while it may feel more natural for me to write "You can access the setting in the widget," I may have to use "The setting can be accessed in the widget" instead, assuming I can't figure out another way around it.
I suspect this is true of other widely-used style guides as well.
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