Comment by russfink
3 days ago
Active voice makes it clear who or what is performing the action. “The connection is then terminated” vs. “The client terminates the connection.”
3 days ago
Active voice makes it clear who or what is performing the action. “The connection is then terminated” vs. “The client terminates the connection.”
I agree with you and GP.
Specifically, passive voice is what I'd choose when it is unclear or unimportant who the subject is. Maybe there's a race condition and the client or server may send a termination notice sepend on whose clock ran out first, but the result is (by design, ideally) exactly equal.
On the other hand, if there a a particular party that must terminate the connection, or which party does the termination will have a relevant effect (in the context of the text) it should be made clear through active voice.
(Of course you can skip passive and explain that it's immaterial who performs the action, but whether you want to go into that detail will depend on context.)
Unfair comparison. It would be:
“The connection is terminated by the client.”
Which is just as clear.