English is one of the most confusing and binary languages out there. Partly because it has multiple usage rules, and yet, it does retrospectively break them. While scholars have attempted to establish rules to guide English writers, there are still many exceptions and exemptions. Take passive voice, for example; it is widely accepted in certain writing genres, whereas others consider passive voice expressions a plague. This binarity makes it extremely hard to identify passive voice construction, especially for people learning English as a second language.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that “how to identify passive voice,” “how to detect passive voice,” and “how to spot passive voice” are some of the most popular online search phrases. In fact, chances are you are here after searching for any of these phrases.
Luckily, our passive voice identifier will help identify and correct passive voice expressions in your writing, as well as flag grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors.
But first, what’s a passive voice expression?
Definition of Passive Voice
Passive voice construction is created when the subject in a sentence receives the action. In other words, the person or the thing performing the action isn’t the sentence’s subject.
Example:
Passive: Why was the field crossed by the cow?
In the example above, the cow is the one performing the action, although it isn’t in the spot where you would typically find the grammatical subject in a sentence. On the contrary, the field has been elevated to the position of a subject in the sentence.
A more familiar phrasing would be (why did the cow cross the field?)
Why You Should Avoid Passive Voice in Your Writing
Before we get ahead of ourselves, it’s important to mention one thing: Passive voice construction isn’t necessarily wrong. Compared to active sentence construction, however, it can make your sentences a lot clunkier and hard to read.
Along with that, passive voice construction distances the sentence’s subject from the action, eliminating the sense of urgency. And since passive voice requires you to use more auxiliary verbs, it can make your texts sound wordy.
Example:
Passive: The food had been eaten by me.
Active: I ate the food.
Having said that, there are instances where passive voice phrases can be purposefully employed to emphasize the object of an action. Passive voice can also be used when the person or thing performing the action is obvious, unknown, or unimportant.
Example: Teachers are being notified that two students have missed classes.
Why Its Hard to Spot and Fix Passive Voice Manually
If you are dealing with short passages and pieces of writing, manual editing can be a quick, easy, and necessary solution. However, as the length and word count of your texts starts increasing, manual editing can become a time-consuming and cumbersome practice.
With the help of an online voice identifier, you easily improve your productivity and the overall quality of your writing. On top of helping detect passive voice, the tool can help flag grammar, spelling, punctuation, and tone-related errors in your texts. It also comes with a professional grade plagiarism checker, which helps catch accidental plagiarism in your writing.
Who Can Use Our Tool to Check for Passive Voice
Our passive voice checker uses AI and English grammar rules to scan your texts for passive voice construction and suggest possible edits accordingly. And since it is cloud-based, it is accessible from anywhere, as long as you have internet connectivity.
What’s more, the software works on your phone, tablet, and PC. It is also available as a Chrome Extension, letting you edit even when on the move. Below, we have listed group categories of people that can use our tool.
Students. On top of acting as a passive voice identifier, our tool can be used by students to flag and correct both glaring and low-level errors in their writing, as well as detect inadvertent plagiarism. This is particularly important, as it lets you focus on higher-level issues such as researching, critical thinking, and demonstrating your understanding of the subject.
Teachers. Teachers and tutors can use our passive voice identifier to offer advice to students on basic grammar rules. They simply need to upload a student’s piece of work, scan it for mistakes, and then accept suggestions, all with a simple click of the mouse.
Journalists and writers. If you are a journalist or a professional writer, our AI-powered writing assistant can significantly reduce the time you spend fixing a long article, publication, or manuscript before publishing it.
Professionals. Silly typos in a business report or an email can leave a bad taste in the recipient’s mouth. Worse still, more than a few typos demonstrate that you lack professionalism. With the help of our passive voice identifier, however, It’s relatively easy to flag and fix typos in all your offline and online documents.
English language learners. If you are learning English as a second language, our tool comes with a comprehensive suggestion feature and a thesaurus dictionary, which can help improve your grammar.
How to Check Passive Voice Using Our Tool
Using our tool to avoid passive voice is a breeze. It comes with an easy-to-use interface, letting you use it without any technical skills. Simply follow these easy steps:
- Copy/paste your texts into the tool’s editor.
- Click the Check button and wait for a few seconds.
- The passive voice identifier will highlight all the passive voice phrases and offer the most appropriate suggestions.
- Accept the suggestion by clicking on the highlighted mistake.
- Finish off by checking your writing for accidental plagiarism using the free plagiarism checker on our website.
Use our precise passive voice identifier today and make your writing shine.
