active, passive

Active voice is preferable.
passive: New fall products were introduced by Fisher-Price.
active: Fisher-price introduced its new fall products.

Often, the easiest way to figure out how to turn a lame-o passive sentence into a super fantastic active sentence is to ask yourself, "by whom?" Take the following sentence:

passive: Bumblebee was ordered to spy on the new Decepticon base.

Look at the passive part: "was ordered." Ask yourself, "by whom?" Bumblebee was ordered by whom? Oh, Optimus Prime gave the order. Now we can turn the sentence into:

active: Optimus Prime ordered Bumblebee to spy on the new Decepticon base.

Let's wish Bumblebee luck with his mission. Those Decepticons can be downright nasty.