How to Spot Passive Voice in Your Own Writing
Most advice about passive voice is unhelpful because it treats the construction as a fault. It is not. It is a choice, and the problem is only that writers make it without noticing, usually because the actor is inconvenient to name.
The Writing Pattern Analyser estimates what share of your sentences are passive. This article explains how to recognise the construction yourself, so you can decide case by case.
Quick answer
Passive voice is a form of “to be” or “to get” plus a past participle, where the thing acted upon becomes the subject: “the report was written” rather than “she wrote the report”. It is a fault only when it hides an actor the reader needs, or when it makes the sentence longer without adding anything. Keep it when the actor is unknown, obvious, irrelevant, or deliberately not your point.
The mechanical test
Look for a form of “to be”, such as is, was, were, been, being, or “to get” in its various forms, followed by a past participle. “The file was deleted”, “the results have been checked”, “the form is being reviewed”. If you can add “by someone” and the sentence still makes sense, it is passive.
The test fails on adjectives. “The door was closed” could be a state rather than an action, and adding “by someone” is awkward in that reading. If the sentence describes a condition rather than an event, it is not really a passive construction.
Why it hides the actor
The passive moves the actor out of the subject position and often deletes it entirely. That is precisely why it appears in institutional writing. “A decision was taken” does not say who took it. “Mistakes were made” names nobody.
Sometimes that is honest. If the actor genuinely does not matter, the passive keeps attention on the thing that does. If the actor is unknown, the passive is the only accurate option. The problem begins when the passive is used to avoid responsibility, or when it removes information the reader needs in order to act.
When to keep it
- The actor is unknown or genuinely irrelevant: “the building was demolished in 1974”.
- The actor is obvious from context, so naming it adds nothing.
- The thing acted upon is the topic of the paragraph, and putting it first helps the reader follow.
- In scientific and technical writing, where the procedure matters more than the person carrying it out.
When to change it
Change it when the sentence does not say who does what and the reader needs to know. Change it when the passive forces extra words for no gain. Change it when several passive sentences run together, because the cumulative effect is vagueness even where each one is defensible.
The repair is not always to add the actor. Sometimes the honest fix is to name a specific person or team, and sometimes it is to restructure so the actor is no longer needed. What you should not do is mechanically convert every passive to active, which produces sentences that claim more certainty than you have.
For how the analyser fits with the other measures, see What a Writing Pattern Analyser Can Tell You About Your Draft. For the rhythm problem that often accompanies passive-heavy prose, see Sentence Length Variation and Why It Affects Readability.
Paste a draft into Writing Pattern Analyser and treat the passive estimate as a proportion to judge, not a count to drive to zero.
Common questions
How can I tell if a sentence is passive?
Look for a form of to be or to get followed by a past participle, such as was written or have been checked. If you can add by someone and the sentence still makes sense, it is passive. Watch out for adjectives, since the door was closed may describe a state rather than an action.
Is passive voice always wrong?
No. It is correct when the actor is unknown, obvious, or deliberately not the point, and it is standard in scientific writing. It becomes a problem when it hides who is responsible or when it makes a sentence longer with no gain.
My teacher says to avoid passive voice entirely. Is that right?
That is a simplification for learning to write clearly. Converting every passive sentence produces claims that sound more certain than you can support. The useful habit is noticing when you have used it and deciding whether that was the right choice.