Communication with general statements instead of specific statements?

What's it called when you opt to use terms like "can be" instead of "is". It's a more general form of stating things that I was reading about in an article a while back. but forgot what it was called. If it helps, the article was saying that these can be :o) more effective speech patterns.

Answer:
i'm sorry i'm not sure, is it the active voice and passive voice? lol!
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