Word checking for passive voice

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Word is a renowned program, thanks to its user-friendly features. With the ability to check for passive voice in-house, you can perfect your writing at its source.

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Using passive voice checkers is one of the best ways to edit the grammar in your writing. Many of these platforms can be downloaded and used with word processing software. However, did you know that popular programs, such as Word, have built-in grammar checking?

Enabling Passive Voice Checking in Word (Office 365)

This guide applies to individuals using Microsoft Word as a part of Office 365. This feature wasn’t initially available when the newer versions of Word were released. But, it’s an essential component of any writer’s arsenal at this point.

First, open Microsoft Word and navigate the “File” tab. Within the tab, you’ll find the “Options” menu in the left column.

Step #2: Change Proofing Settings

Now that you’re in “Options,” you’ll want to select “Proofing,” which is also on the left-hand side of the menu. Once the tab opens, you’ll find an assortment of adjustable features, including language modes, showing readability statistics, and more. For this process, the most important feature is “Show Readability Statistics,” which you need to check.

Step #3: Adjust Grammar Settings

After you’ve selected “Show Readability Statistics,” you can access the grammar settings menu. Right below readability, you’ll find another field that says, “Writing Style: Grammar” and a button titled “Settings.”

Once you’ve accessed the grammar settings, scroll down until you see the “Clarity” subheader. You’ll see several options under clarity, including adjective order, double negation, and passive voice.

Ensure that you click “Passive Voice” as well as “Passive Voice with Unknown Actor.” Now that you have your settings selected, you can opt to recheck your document with your new grammar criteria.

Step #4: Review Your Work

If you have yet to write, it’s easy to check for passive voice after you’ve finished your paper or article. All you have to do is access the “Review” tab under the “Editor” function. You’ll then see a list of future edits under “Clarity” on the right side.

In the editor pane, you can find plenty of other information about improving your work. You’ll receive spelling and grammar corrections, depending on the fields you have selected.

Enabling Passive Voice Checking in Word (2010)

This guide is for those who still have a past version of Word, like Microsoft Word 2010. Fortunately, enabling passive voice is equally as easy as it is in Office 365.

Step #1: Access the “Proofing Tab”

This process’ first step is to navigate the “File” menu and then the “Options” menu. Then, select the “Proofing” tab when the prompt is available, similar to Microsoft 365.

Step #2: Adjust Grammar Settings

In the “Proofing” tab, you’ll find another section titled “When Correcting Spelling and Grammar in Word.” Select this section and change your writing style setting to “Grammar & Style” from the drop-down list. By enabling this feature, you’re instructing the word processor to include other styles like passive sentences while checking for grammar.

Step #3: Enable Passive Settings

To take it one step further, we recommend visiting the “Settings” button located next to “Passive Sentences.” Ensure that you click “OK” to enable this feature to be checked and then apply the settings. When you return to the options window, select “Mark Grammar Errors As You Type.”

With this setting, Word will automatically direct your attention to specific sentences in question. These sentences will now include those with passive designs and other grammar issues as you write.

Step #4: Show Readability Statistics

This process isn’t necessary, but it can be beneficial for working toward improvement. By enabling your readability statistics, you’ll receive a generated report after you’ve finished. This report will detail the number of passive sentences in your text as well as other grammatical flaws.

By reviewing the readability statistics, you can pinpoint other errors in your writing. Over time, the quality of your work is sure to improve, so it’s near-ready for submission upon completion.

Many grammar checkers also have readability statistics for you to review. You can consider your text’s clarity, how it’s delivered, and whether it’s engaging.

Check for a Passive Voice Using Grammar Checkers

An alternative to using the built-in features of Word is to use a third-party grammar checker. Developers design these platforms with easy-to-use grammar tools that improve your writing’s quality. After you input the text into the program, it analyzes the writing and provides edit suggestions.

You’ll find the most popular grammar checkers, such as Grammarly, look for passive voice in sentences. You can then use the automated suggested edits or make your changes within the platform. Once you adequately review your writing, you can copy and paste the text back into Word.

Another option with grammar checkers is to find a program that works with your word processor. For example, Grammarly has beta features that allow you to grammar-check your writings directly in the processor. Writers will save plenty of time since they don’t need to copy and paste from one platform to another.

Conclusion

Word is a renowned program, thanks to its user-friendly features. With the ability to check for passive voice in-house, you can perfect your writing at its source.

Go to Word > Preferences, then choose Spelling & Grammar. Under the Grammar section, for the Writing style option, choose Grammar & Refinements. Once you’re in the Grammar Settings window, scroll down until you find Passive Voice and Passive Voice with Unknown Author. Tick them both.

How to Check for Passive Voice in Microsoft Word 2010

1. Open Microsoft Word.
2. Select the File tab.
3. Choose Options.
4. Click the Proofing tab.
5. Click Settings next to Writing Style.
6. Check the Passive sentences box.
7. Click OK, then OK again.

How do you fix passive voice in Word?

How to fix passive voice

1. Identify who or what is actually performing the action described by the verb in the sentence.
2. Get rid of the verb be and turn the past participle into a correctly conjugated verb.
3. Take the subject of the old sentence and turn it into a direct object.

How do you check for passive voice in Word 2019?

Select the File tab.

1. Select Options on the left-hand side of the Backstage view.
2. Select Proofing in the Word Options window.
3. Select Show readability statistics in the When correcting spelling and grammar in Word section.
4. Select Passive sentences in the Grammar Settings window.

How do you check for active and passive voice in Word 2016?

How to Use Microsoft Word’s Passive Voice Tool

1. Select the Review tab.
2. Select Spelling & Grammar.
3. Complete the Spelling & Grammar check in the Editor sidebar.
4. Review your passive voice statistic in the Readability Statistics dialog box, which will automatically appear after the Spelling & Grammar check is complete.

How do you distinguish between active and passive voice?

When a sentence is in the active voice, the subject of the sentence is the one doing the action expressed by the verb. In the passive voice, the subject is the person or thing acted on or affected by the verb’s action.

How do you rewrite passive voice?

To revise an active sentence into passive voice, follow these steps:

1. Shift the object of the action into the beginning of the sentence (the subject position).
2. Change the verb as needed.
3. If you want to keep the actor, the original subject, shift it to the end of the sentence and insert the word by in front of it.

What is passive voice error?

The gist is summed up here:
The passive voice isn’t a grammatical error; it’s a matter of style. Use the active voice if it makes your sentence sound clearer and more natural. Forming passive voice requires the verb “to be” and a past participle.

Why does Microsoft Word not like passive voice?

In practice, we encourage writers to avoid the passive voice because it obscures agency, making it difficult to determine who is doing what to whom. In some cases, however, that can be a good thing, most of all when you want to emphasize the grammatical object of a sentence rather than its subject.

How do you use active in Word?

The word active is used in grammar to indicate that the subject of the sentence is performing an action. The word active has other senses as an adjective and a noun. If something or someone is active, a lot of activity is going on or they are using a lot of energy.

What is passive voice examples?

A verb is in the passive voice when the subject of the sentence is acted on by the verb. For example, in “The ball was thrown by the pitcher,” the ball (the subject) receives the action of the verb, and was thrown is in the passive voice.

How do you check tenses in Word?

To start a check of the spelling and grammar in your file just press F7 or follow these steps:

1. Open most Office programs, click the Review tab on the ribbon.
2. Click Spelling or Spelling & Grammar.
3. If the program finds spelling mistakes, a dialog box appears with the first misspelled word found by the spelling checker.

What are active passive examples?

Active and Passive Voice Comparison

How do you know if you have an active voice?

When the subject of a sentence performs the verb’s action, we say that the sentence is in the active voice. Sentences in the active voice have a strong, direct, and clear tone.

What is passive voice misuse example?

Passive voice misuse occurs when a writer simply tells a story, as in the example we just used: Peter was going to the store. The afternoon sun was hot.

What are the rules for passive voice?

Active and Passive Voice Rules for Present Simple Tense

Did he killed the snake change into passive voice?

Answer: A snake is killed by him.

How do you change into passive voice?

In these sentences the verb is in the Present perfect tense and its general structure is: [has / have + past participle].The rules for changing a sentence from Active to Passive are: [i] We have to interchange the subject and object when we change a sentence from Active voice into Passive voice.

Is passive voice grammatically incorrect?

Before we jump into those questions, let’s clear up something right away: the passive voice is not grammatically incorrect, and you are not “wrong” if you use it.The “voice” of a verb is the quality that indicates whether the subject of the sentence is doing the acting or receiving the action.

Microsoft Word’s Review tab has tools that can automatically check grammar and spelling in your document. A red or blue squiggle appears when it detects an error, and you can check and recheck document quality after fixing mistakes until you are satisfied with the quality of your writing.

A word processing program in today’s day and age needs to be more than just a basic text editor. It needs to have tools that allow you to add content from the Internet, it needs access to templates that make document creation easier, and it needs tools that can check your work for mistakes. Microsoft Word 2010 is an industry leader in word processing programs so, of course, it has all of these things.

But not all of the settings that you might need are enabled by default, so you need to do some tinkering within the program to get it to operate the way that you want. Luckily it can check your document for instances of passive voice usage, and allow you to correct those before you submit the document to someone that could penalize you for using it.

You can continue reading below to see how to use the passive voice checker in both Word 2010 and Word 2013.

How to Check for Passive Voice in Microsoft Word 2010

1. Open Microsoft Word.
2. Select the File tab.
3. Choose Options.
4. Click the Proofing tab.
5. Click Settings next to Writing Style.
6. Check the Passive sentences box.
7. Click OK, then OK again.

Our article continues below with additional information on checking passive voice in Word 2010, including pictures of these steps.

How to Check Passive Voice in Word 2010 Documents (Guide with Pictures)

There are many situations where a passive voice checker could come in handy, so it is a little surprising that it is not enabled in Word 2010 by default. It would be one thing if you needed to install a plug-in or add-on to gain that functionality, but it is built-in. Luckily it is a simple matter to have the Spelling and Grammar checker look for passive voice, so you can simply follow the instructions below to include that search whenever you run the tool.

Step 1: Open Microsoft Word 2010.

Step 2: Click File at the top of the window, then click Options at the left side of the window.

This opens a new window, titled Word Options.

Step 3: Click the Proofing option at the left side of the Word Options window.

Step 4: Click the Settings button to the right of the Writing Style drop-down menu in the When correcting spelling and grammar in Word section.

This opens a Grammar Settings window.

Step 5: Scroll down to the Style section of the Grammar Settings window, then check the box to the left of Passive sentences.

While you are here, you can also check the boxes for any additional options for which you would like the checker to search.

Click the OK button at the bottom of the Grammar Settings window, then click the OK button at the bottom of the Word Options window to close it and apply your changes.

How to Use the Passive Voice Checker in Word 2013 (Guide with Pictures)

The method for enabling this feature is very similar in Word 2013 as it is in Word 2010.

Step 1: Launch Microsoft Word 2013.

Step 2: Click the File tab at the top-left corner of the window.

Step 3: Click Options in the column at the left side of the window.

Step 4: Click the Proofing tab.

Step 5: Scroll down and click the Settings button that is to the right of the Writing Style drop-down menu.

Step 6: Scroll down and click the box to the left of Passive sentences.

Word will include a passive voice check with the Grammar & Spelling check if there is a check mark in that box.

You can then click the OK button at the bottom of each of the open windows to save and apply your changes.

More Information on How to Use the Passive Voice Checker – Word

While there isn’t a specific passive voice checker in Microsoft Word, it is an option that is part of the grammar checker. But if you have been trying to find passive voice in Word and haven’t found anything when you check for grammar, then it’s likely that the option isn’t turned on. Using the steps above should let Word highlight instances of passive voice.

Microsoft Word 2019 also has options to check for passive voice. For example, if you go to File > Options > Proofing you can check the box next to Mark grammar errors as you type. Now when you are typing or when you perform a spelling and grammar check you should see passive verbs with a blue underline. If this isn’t happening then Word may not be configured to detect passive voice errors (or you might just be typing in active voice.) If so then you will need to go back to the Proofing settings menu on the Word Options window, click the Settings button next to Writing Style, then select passive sentences.

Note that there is another option on the Proofing dialog box that you can check to show readability statistics. If you enable that option then you will be able to see a score for how readable the document is after you have corrected the spelling and grammar mistakes that Word has identified.

Once you have configured the Spelling and Grammar checker, you simply need to run it on your document to locate any grammar or spelling mistakes, including the one that checks for passive voice. You can follow the instructions in this article to learn how to run the checker on your document.

See also

• How to insert a check mark in Microsoft Word
• How to do small caps in Microsoft Word
• How to center text in Microsoft Word
• How to merge cells in Microsoft Word tables
• How to insert a square root symbol in Microsoft Word