- Passive voice puts the receiver of the action as the subject.
- Active voice ("she threw the ball") is usually clearer and stronger.
- Passive ("the ball was thrown") can obscure the actor.
- Search for "was/were" plus a past participle to find it.
- Passive voice is sometimes the right choice, not always wrong.
Fix passive voice by finding sentences where the subject receives the action rather than performing it ("the ball was thrown by her") and recasting them into active voice ("she threw the ball"), which is usually clearer, stronger, and more concise. Search for forms of "to be" plus a past participle to spot it. But passive voice is not always wrong — use it deliberately when the actor is unknown or unimportant, or when you want to emphasize the receiver. The goal is replacing weak, accidental passive, not eliminating all passive.
Chapter i·Why it matters
Excessive passive voice weakens prose, making it indirect, wordy, and sometimes evasive about who acts. But the common advice to "eliminate all passive voice" is wrong and leads to awkward writing. Understanding passive voice — how to spot it, when to make it active, and when passive is genuinely the better choice — lets writers strengthen their prose with nuance. It is a key line-editing skill, valuable in both fiction and nonfiction for clear, strong sentences.
Chapter ii·What to include
- Sentences where the subject receives the action.
- Recasting into active voice.
- A search for "was/were" plus past participle.
- Clarity and concision from active voice.
- Deliberate passive where it serves.
- Nuance over blanket elimination.
Chapter iii·Example
A writer finds "Mistakes were made and the report was filed late." She recasts the weak passive into active: "The team made mistakes and filed the report late" — clearer and accountable. But she keeps one passive sentence where the actor is unknown ("The window had been broken sometime in the night"), because passive serves it. Nuance, not elimination.
Chapter iv·Related questions
WriteLoom's Edit studio supports a focused line pass, so you fix weak passive voice while keeping it where it serves.
See the Edit studio