‘How to replace passive voice’, ‘how to fix passive voice in an essay,’ and ‘how to fix passive voice sentences’ are some of the most searched phrases on Google and other search engines. But how do you know when? In the next section, we’re going to see how you can check for passive voice to determine whether it’s correctly used. Instead of: ‘I asked twenty volunteers to fill in the survey forms.’, ‘We asked twenty volunteers to fill in the survey forms.’Īs you can see, there are exceptional circumstances where passive voice use is allowed. In formal writing and certain academic contexts: To stay removed from the official findings of a formal research paper, a writer is allowed to use passive voice. Example: Twenty volunteers were asked to fill in the survey forms’.

When making statements that provide information that the general public can easily access but doesn’t have a subject: Example: ‘All her memoirs can be found in the National Library.’ Instead of: ‘All memoirs about her can be found in the National Library.’.

She will be discussing the Laws of Physics in our next lesson.’ The Law of Physics will be discussed in our next lesson.’ Instead of: ‘Mrs.

When the subject has been specified before: Example: ‘Mrs.

When the subject is irrelevant: Example: ‘Are you hungry?’ ‘No, I have already eaten.’ Instead of: ‘Are you hungry?’ ‘No thanks, I already ate at the restaurant.’.

When the reader already knows the subject: Example: ‘He had been instructed to submit the assignment by noon.’ Instead of: ‘His professor had instructed him to submit the assignment by noon.’.

When the subject is unknown: Example: ‘We don’t know who fell, but there was a loud scream.’ Instead of: ‘We don’t know who fell, but someone was screaming out loud.’.

When Is It Ideal to Use Passive Voice in Your Writing? As earlier said, however, there are instances where you’re allowed to use passive voice. Even if you have the most basic English knowledge, you can tell that passive voice makes the sentences illogical and hard to read.

Passive voice corrector