How to Avoid Passive Voice
Passive sentence construction occurs when the object of an action becomes the subject of the sentence. For instance, "Why was the road crossed by the chicken?" is the passive version of the phrase "Why did the chicken cross the road?" Though passive voice is not always wrong, there is generally a better way to phrase the sentence. Often, passive voice makes a sentence difficult to understand, and re-writing it offers clarity.
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Instructions
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Identify passive sentences. Look for passive voice in the construction "to be" followed by a past participle. A past participle usually, but not always, ends in the letters "ed." Look for the ending "by..." as in "The girl was followed by the boy." Find the subject of the sentence. Decide if the subject is performing the action of the sentence, or if the action is the subject.
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Evaluate the sentence. Not all passive sentences need revision, but many do. Ask if the meaning of the sentence is clear, or does it need clarity? Is the passive sentence a result of lazy writing or something that the writer phrased intentionally? If the sentence emphasizes the object, it is okay to leave it in passive voice. For instance, "More than 100 barrels were dumped in the river," emphasizes the barrels, not who dumped them. Passive voice is allowable if you don't know who is responsible for the action.
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Revise the sentence. Re-write the sentence to make the subject and the actor of the sentence the same thing. Put the actor (now the subject) before the verb. In the example "The chicken crossed the road," the chicken is the subject and the verb is to cross.
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Start thinking actively. The more you revise, the more natural active sentence structure becomes. Revising passive sentences is an exercise best left to a second, or later, draft.
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Tips & Warnings
Do a search for the words "was," "were," and "to be." Though this won't catch everything, it is a good start to finding passive sentences.
The words "to be" in a sentence may not constitute passive voice, but may be worth re-writing anyway.
Grammar check does not catch all passive sentences. Passive voice is not always grammatically incorrect, so it can slip through automated systems.
Resources
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