Passive Voice Detection

Passive voice flips the natural order of a sentence. Instead of "the dog bit the man," you get "the man was bitten by the dog." The action feels distant. The reader works harder. TextScore flags passive constructions so you can decide which ones to fix and which ones to keep.

The Pattern

TextScore scans for a specific grammatical pattern: a "be" verb followed by a past participle. That is the backbone of every passive construction in English.

• "Be" verbs: is, am, are, was, were, be, been, being
• Past participles: words typically ending in -ed, -en, -t, -n (written, taken, built, seen, created)

Examples of Detection

• "The report was written by the team." - Detected: was + written
• "Mistakes were made." - Detected: were + made
• "The data is being analyzed." - Detected: is being + analyzed
• "The feature has been shipped." - Detected: has been + shipped

• Good (0-10%): Strong, direct writing. Most sentences name the actor and the action clearly.
• Fair (11-20%): Some passive creep. Review flagged sentences and convert the ones that do not need to be passive.
• Poor (21%+): Heavy passive usage. Your writing likely feels vague, bureaucratic, or evasive. Rewrite aggressively.

Clarity

Active voice tells the reader who did what. Passive voice hides the actor, forcing the reader to guess or skip back. On platforms where users scroll fast, that extra mental load means they scroll past your content.

Word Count

Passive constructions are almost always longer. "The button was clicked by the user" is 8 words. "The user clicked the button" is 5. On character-limited platforms like X, that difference matters.

Engagement

Active voice creates momentum. It feels like things are happening. Passive voice feels like things happened to someone, somewhere, at some point. Readers engage with action, not with reports about action.

Business Communication

Passive

"The quarterly targets were exceeded by the sales team, and new records were set in three regions."

Active

"The sales team exceeded quarterly targets and set new records in three regions."

Product Updates

Passive

"A new dashboard has been added and several bugs have been fixed in this release."

Active

"We added a new dashboard and fixed several bugs in this release."

Social Media

Passive

"Your feedback is appreciated and will be taken into consideration."

Active

"We appreciate your feedback and will act on it."

When Passive Voice Is Fine

Not every passive sentence needs fixing. Keep passive voice when:

• The actor is unknown: "The window was broken overnight."
• The actor is irrelevant: "The server was updated at 3 AM."
• You want to emphasize the receiver: "Three employees were promoted this quarter."
• Scientific or technical convention requires it: "The sample was heated to 200°C."