How to find passive voice
Passive voice has a tell: a form of to be plus a past participle. "The bug was fixed." "The data is being collected." "Decisions were made." The thing that did the action is either gone or shoved to the end behind "by". ClearPen highlights each of these for you — it errs toward catching too many rather than too few, so every hit is a "possible passive" you can confirm.
How to fix it: name the actor
| Passive | Active |
|---|---|
| The report was written by the team. | The team wrote the report. |
| Mistakes were made. | We made mistakes. |
| The feature is being tested. | QA is testing the feature. |
| It was decided to delay the launch. | The committee delayed the launch. |
Notice each active version is shorter and tells you who. That is why active voice almost always reads better.
When passive voice is the right call
Keep it when the actor is unknown ("the store was robbed overnight"), irrelevant ("the samples were frozen at −80°C"), or when you genuinely want to keep the focus on the receiver. The goal is not zero passives — it is making each one deliberate. A good working target is under about 5–10% of your sentences.
Passive voice also drags your readability score down by adding words. Fixing passives and splitting long sentences are the two fastest ways to raise reading ease.
Frequently asked questions
How do you identify passive voice?
Look for a form of "to be" (is, am, are, was, were, be, been, being) followed by a past participle — "was written", "is being reviewed", "were sent". The actor is missing or trails after "by". This checker scans for that pattern.
Is passive voice always wrong?
No. It is fine when the actor is unknown, unimportant, or deliberately de-emphasized, and it is normal in scientific writing. The issue is overuse — it adds words and hides the doer. Keep it under roughly 5–10% of sentences and make each one a choice.
How do I change passive voice to active?
Put the actor first. "The report was written by the team" → "The team wrote the report". No actor? Add one: "mistakes were made" → "we made mistakes". The subject should do the verb.