How to Fix Passive Voice in Your Writing — Free Checker + Rewrite Tips

To fix passive voice: identify the hidden actor, move them to the subject position, and use an active verb. "The report was submitted by the team" becomes "The team submitted the report." That is the core move, applied sentence by sentence.

The Passive Voice Detector does the identification work — paste your draft and every passive sentence is highlighted. Your job is to rewrite the highlighted ones that matter.

Find Your Passive Sentences Before You Start Rewriting

Trying to spot passive voice by rereading your own draft is unreliable. You wrote it, so you read what you meant to say rather than what is actually on the page. Run the tool first and let it do the detection.

Paste your full draft into the passive voice checker. The tool highlights every passive sentence and shows your passive percentage at the top. Work from the highlighted list, not from memory or gut feel.

If your score is under 10%, a targeted pass is enough — fix the highlighted sentences in your intro, headlines, and calls to action first. If your score is over 20%, you need a systematic pass through the whole document.

The Three-Step Formula for Rewriting Any Passive Sentence

Every passive-to-active rewrite follows the same three steps:

1. Find the actor. Who or what is performing the action? In "The proposal was approved," the actor might be "the board," "the client," or "management." If you cannot identify the actor, the sentence may need to stay passive.
2. Move the actor to the front. Put the actor as the subject: "The board approved..." — that is your active sentence framework.
3. Cut the "to be" verb and use the main verb directly. Drop "was," "has been," "will be" and let the action verb carry the sentence.

Applied to five common passive patterns:

Passive	Active Rewrite
Mistakes were made.	We made mistakes. / The team made mistakes.
The feature was built by our engineers.	Our engineers built the feature.
Your order will be shipped within 2 days.	We will ship your order within 2 days.
The study was conducted in 2023.	Researchers conducted the study in 2023.
It has been decided that the event is canceled.	We canceled the event.

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Passive Voice Worth Keeping — When Not to Rewrite

Fixing every passive sentence is a mistake. Some passive constructions serve a clear purpose and rewriting them makes the sentence worse, not better.

• Unknown actor: "The window was broken" — if you genuinely do not know who broke it, passive is correct. Forcing an active rewrite ("Someone broke the window") adds nothing.
• Action matters more than actor: "The law was signed in 1965" — the law and the year are the focus. Adding the actor shifts emphasis when the reader does not need it.
• Scientific methods: "Samples were incubated at 37 degrees C for 48 hours" is standard in lab writing. Forcing active voice here reads as stylistically odd in most technical contexts.
• Deliberate ambiguity: "Errors were introduced into the data" avoids assigning blame. Sometimes that is intentional and appropriate.

The practical rule: only rewrite passive sentences where adding the actor makes the sentence clearer and more direct. If the rewrite is longer without adding meaning, keep the passive.

Priority Order — Where to Focus Your Passive Voice Fixes First

Not every passive sentence has equal impact on the reader. Fix in this order for the most improvement per minute spent:

1. Headlines and subheadings. These are scanned first. "How to Get More Clients" beats "How More Clients Can Be Acquired." Active headlines get more clicks and set a stronger tone.
2. Opening sentences. The first two sentences of any document determine whether the reader continues. Passive openings feel bureaucratic and slow.
3. Calls to action. "Sign up free" beats "A free account can be created." CTAs must be direct commands — passive voice kills conversion.
4. Sentences where you know the actor. "It was determined that pricing would increase" — by whom? If you know, say it. Naming the actor adds credibility and accountability.
5. Long passive chains. Multiple passive sentences in a row create a heavy read. Break the chain with one or two active sentences to restore momentum.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does fixing passive voice improve SEO rankings?

Not directly — search engines do not penalize passive voice. But passive voice correlates with lower readability scores, longer sentences, and higher grade level, all of which affect dwell time and bounce rate. Content that is easier to read gets more engagement. Run the passive voice checker alongside the readability scorer to see both signals at once.

How long does it take to reduce passive voice in a 1,000-word article?

With the tool highlighting your passive sentences, a targeted pass on a 1,000-word article takes 10 to 20 minutes. You are not rewriting everything — just the flagged sentences that matter. If your passive percentage is under 10%, you may only need to touch 3 to 5 sentences.

Can I fix passive voice without knowing grammar rules?

Yes. The simplest method: read the highlighted sentence, ask "who is doing this?", and rewrite starting with the answer. You do not need to understand the grammar mechanics. For sentences where the actor is genuinely unknown or unimportant, leave them passive.