Switch to the Proofing tab on the sidebar, followed by the 'Settings' button beside 'Writing Style.' Scroll down the list to find Passive Voice. By default, Word 2013 enables this but checks only grammar, not style. If the box is marked, change the Writing Style drop-down menu to 'Grammar & Style.' The Grammar Settings dialog box. Make sure there is no check mark next to the Passive Sentences option (Word 2013 and earlier) or the Passive Voice option (Word 2016 and later). (You'll need to scroll down a bit to see the option.) Click on OK to close the Grammar Settings dialog box.

How To Check For Passive Voice In Word Mac Download

There are many free passive voice checker tools you can use to help you. The bonus is that many of them will help you find other grammatical errors and spelling mistakes.

One of the essential skills for new writers to learn is to avoid using passive voice in writing as much as possible.

But it isn’t easy to spot when you are doing a quick proofread of your text.

The best free online tools will give you options or examples to change a phrase to the active voice. But before I get to my list of choices for a voice checker, it’s worth noting the difference between active and passive voice.

In This ArticleHideDon’t use the passive voiceHow to avoid the passive structureChange to the active voiceIs the passive voice a writing mistake?The best passive voice tools1. ProWritingAid (Free and Premium)2. Grammarly (Free and Premium)3. Hemingway App (Free) Best Free Choice4. Ginger Grammar (Free and Premium)5. Grammar Check (Free)Summary

Don’t use the passive voice

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Writing in the passive voice is a bad writing habit. It doesn’t explain who did what.

It is often called the first deadly sin of writing.

But like all habits, you can break it if you put your mind to it.

When you can identify where you are using it in your writing, you can change it to an active voice.

After a while, it will become an excellent new writing habit for you.

How to avoid the passive structure

When you write a passive sentence, it doesn’t tell the reader who is performing the action.

The reader knows something is happening or happened. But they have no way of knowing who did it or is doing it.

It happens when the subject of the sentence is not performing the action of the verb in the sentence.

The structure is the auxiliary verb plus the .

It can also use the verbs to have and to get in the causative form.

Because of the form, we don’t know who is doing the action unless we add an operator.

For example, the passive voice subject is usually a thing and not a person.

We don’t know who built the house because the house receives the action of the verb.
Now we know who built the house because John is the operator. But the house, the sentence subject, is acted upon by the verb.

Look at what happens when we change to the active voice.

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The subject is now the person who is performing the action of the verb. The sentence is much easier to understand.

Now it is clear who built the house.

Change to the active voice

In English language writing, subject-verb active sentences are always the best option.

You should use the active form of the verb in articles, fiction, blog posts, and any type of messaging, email, or general correspondence.

But in business, scientific, and academic writing, passive construction is used a little more.

It is because there may be a need to avoid saying who did something or to apportion blame.

A prepositional phrase is often used to introduce a topic.

In reply to your complaint, your delivery was delayed due to unforeseen circumstances.

There is also the causative form. It is sometimes called the have or get something done form. Again we don’t know who performs the action.

Take a look at these examples to help you identify the problem.

I really need to have my car serviced.Joe has to get his hair cut before his interview.You should have your blood pressure checked.Are you going to get your computer repaired?

In the examples above, again, you don’t know who is performing the action.

You need to change these sentences to the active form.

It is an easy fix. Make sure that you have a person as the subject of the sentence who is performing the action of the main verb.

I really need to have the garage service my car.Joe has to get the barber to cut his hair before his interview.You should have your doctor check your blood pressure.Are you going to get Apple to repair your computer?

The active voice is always the best choice. It is more precise and much easier for readers to understand.

All you need to do is use a grammar checker to find the passive structures in your text. Then you can re-write your sentences in the active form.

Is the passive voice a writing mistake?

When you use it too often, yes, it is a writing fault.

But there are times when it is appropriate to say what happened or is happening to the subject of a sentence.

William Shakespeare was born in April 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon, United Kingdom.

It would sound awkward to write this sentence in an active voice and refer to his mother.

John Lennon is believed to have known his killer, who was a fan.

In this example referring to John Lennon, it is a better style because using active voice would not have the same meaning.

John Lennon knew his killer.

You might also use it occasionally to avoid placing the blame on the subject.

All of his letters were lost, so she never knew.

As with all elements of writing style, you need to know when, how, and why you use them.

The best passive voice tools

If you are not sure how to check, you can use free or premium software and tools to help you find passive sentences in your writing.

A passive voice finder will help you locate your uses, and then you can correct them quite quickly.

There are many options to find a passive voice checker online. You can choose the best one to suit your needs.

1. ProWritingAid (Free and Premium)

Prowritingaid is a great writing tool and grammar checker. I use it a lot to improve and correct my writing.

I use it mostly for checking long-form writing because there are just so many reports to help me improve a text.

But it is also an excellent tool to find the passive voice. As a passive corrector, it is by far the best because it gives you a simple one-click correction.

ProWritingAid not only detects passive sentences for you, but it also gives you helpful clues about how to fix your sentences.

Unlike other apps, the suggestions are based on the actual words in your sentence, so it is a very quick and easy fix.

Just click the suggestion you prefer to change your sentence to active voice automatically. Or you can edit your sentence using a different subject.

Read our full review of ProWritingAid.

2. Grammarly (Free and Premium)

It is no surprise that Grammarly is my number two choice.

That is because I use it every day, day in, and day out for my online writing.

For me, it is always on. Then it is only a matter of one click, and I can find and re-write any passive phrases.

Here is a screengrab of my Grammarly editor for this post as I was writing it in WordPress.

You can see it detects passive voice sentences and highlights the occurrences for you. On the right, there is an explanation and examples of how to change the voice.

It makes it easy for me to find any of these forms. Then I can quickly change and re-write these sentences in the active voice.

The reason I have Grammarly in second place is that it doesn’t use your words as Prowritingaid does. But it still does a great job.

You can read our full Grammarly review for more details.

3. Hemingway App (Free) Best Free Choice

The Hemingway App is very well known as a tremendous passive tool.

This is true. It is super fast, and it identifies passive voice with a clear green highlight for every structure it finds in your writing.

But then it is up to you to change your sentences.

The Hemingway Editor doesn’t give you any examples. So there are no hints to help you re-phrase your sentences in the active construction.

Read our review of the Hemingway App and Editor.

4. Ginger Grammar (Free and Premium)

Ginger Grammar is super quick and easy to use as a free Chrome extension.

For bloggers, this is a great free tool to have.

It will work in unison with whatever blog editor you use on your site.

Ginger will check for passive and underline each phrase in your text. Then you can re-write them in the active form.

With the browser extension, you can correct your writing anytime you are writing online.

But one of the bonus features of Ginger is the sentence checker that uses contextual spelling correction.

It will mark your spelling errors based on the context of your sentence. It will find mistakes, including bare and bear, to and too, and many other common homonyms.

5. Grammar Check (Free)

If you want a really quick and easy way to check your writing, you can try Grammar Check.

It is an online passive checker that is free to use, and you don’t even need to register or supply your email address.

That’s a nice change from a lot of free apps that pester you for your details.

You don’t need to download any software, either. All you need to do is paste in your text and then check for any words that are underlined.

It’s a simple but effective passive voice detector.

When you click on the underlined text, the app will tell you if it is passive.

There is also an option to give you an explanation about the grammar point.

That is a lot of help for you from a simple free checker online.

Summary

All the free grammar tools I have mentioned above will do a great job for you. They will help you to write better and more accurately.

They will find your passive structures very fast, and then you can get to work on fixing them.

It doesn’t take much time to change to active sentences. It will improve your writing clarity.

No matter which passive voice corrector or checker you select to use, you will be making a good choice.

I suppose ProWritingAid and Grammarly stand out for me because they come with many more features and tools.

They are the two that will give you a lot more help when you are re-writing your sentences.