The Passive Voice Sentences. The passive voice sentences turn the text weaker and make it sounds not so appealing. Comparatively, the active voice form of the sentence sounds more meaningful and appropriate. Many of the writers turn active voice sentences into passive voice ones to avoid plagiarism detection in their content.
- How To Check For Passive Voice In Word 2016 On Mac
- How To Check For Passive Voice In Word On Mac
- How To Check For Passive Voice In Word Mac Free
- How To Check For Passive Voice In Word Mac Os
- How To Check For Passive Voice In Word Mac Shortcut
“Prefer active voice” may be the single most frequently dispensed injunction to improve writing. Strunk and White, George Orwell, and all student handbooks of the past 50 years extol the virtue of active verbs.
How to check for passive voice in word on mac. Posted on November 13, 2020 by November 13, 2020. Plain Writing Tips - Passive Voice and Zombies. This week's Plain Language writing tip comes from Zombie Defy-er Hilary Parkinson. In honor of Halloween, this week's plain language tip is about the passive voice. Like mindless zombies thwarted by a chain-link fence, many writers struggle with the passive voice. How to check for passive voice in word on mac. Posted on November 13, 2020 by November 13, 2020. The grammar check takes care of all aspects of grammar and best style, so with 'Check grammar as you type' selected, and Formal Style chosen, it also will check for passive voice.
But two problems often go unremarked:
- Students cannot reliably identify passive constructions in their own work. How then are they to follow this sage advice?
- In a number of rhetorical situations, passive voice is preferable to active voice—though most beginning writers cannot reliably identify these exceptions either. (Ironically, my opening sentence above includes a judicious use of the passive. Did you notice?)
The free Writing Reviser Google Doc Add-on solves both these problems.
By making a simple menu selection, students can see all the passive verbs in their own essays. And by referring to the explanatory text, students learn to determine whether or not an active verb would be preferable to the passive in each instance. In other words, rather than simply “correcting mistakes,” Writing Reviser encourages thoughtful reflection, helping students begin to think like experienced writers and to gradually internalize the same informed judgments.
Understanding active and passive verbs is just one of the many ways Writing Reviser enhances student writing.
How To Check For Passive Voice In Word 2016 On Mac
Add Writing Reviser to your Google Docs today for free. Learn more about the Writing Reviser—and our complete suite of writing tools from Curriculum Pathways—at WritingNavigator.com.
All Writing Navigator tools are also available on the Curriculum Pathways website and as a free iPad app!
Looking for more resources that help students with passive voice?
Curriculum Pathways includes a number of engaging assignments on active vs. passive verbs. In one of these, students write two similar essays: one with passive verbs in which they try to deceive the reader, and one with active verbs in which they try to clarify the truth. In addition to the reliably amusing challenge, intentionally using passive verbs—and observing the impact—is a thought-provoking way to solidify the active-passive distinction. And Writing Reviser allows students to verify that they’ve used the active and passive verbs specified in the directions.
Check out these Writing Reviser resources on active and passive verbs:
Even as a full-time freelance writer, I have to admit: I don’t remember much of the grammar lessons I learned in grade school.
But when writing is your bread and butter (or even just your primary hobby), figuring out the most salient points of usage takes on a new importance — or, at least, feels more important than figuring it out just to pass a pop quiz.
Chances are at least one of your teachers drilled the idea that passive voice is bad into your head.
But why did they do that? Is it that bad, really? And, with however many years separating you from your classroom experience, do you even know how to identify passive voice in the first place anymore?
How To Check For Passive Voice In Word On Mac
Let’s take a quick, pain-and-pop-quiz-free review of this peculiar type of sentence construction.
What is passive voice?
The passive voice is a type of sentence construction wherein the subject and object switch places: rather than the subject acting on the object, the object of the action becomes, itself, the subject.
It sounds complicated, but you’ve definitely seen it used — and more than likely used it yourself without even thinking about it.
One common way the passive voice is employed (and thus an easy red flag to look for when trying to identify it in your own writing) is the use of some form of “to be” verb plus a past participle. For example:
The paper had been written when I was young and inexperienced.
(An active voice version of that idea might read: I wrote the paper when I was young and inexperienced.)
However, not all sentences that use “to be” verbs or past participles are passive! For example, all of the following sentences are in the active voice:
I had been writing all night long, but I wasn’t getting anywhere.
I have to submit my manuscript by tomorrow!
He had gone to his editor more than once about it.
“To be” verbs and participles aside, the most conclusive way to figure out whether or not a sentence is in the passive voice is to identify the subject, verb, and — if there is one — the object of the action. If the object of the action is in the front of the sentence and the subject is at the end, you’ve got yourself an example of passive voice.
Another example:
PASSIVE VOICE: The book was written by my best friend, Elizabeth.
ACTIVE VOICE: My best friend Elizabeth wrote the book.
Why is the passive voice wrong?
As discussed above, the last time you talked about the passive voice was probably in the context of being told, by some well-meaning teacher, that it’s incorrect.
How To Check For Passive Voice In Word Mac Free
So let’s be totally clear: the passive voice isn’t wrong, exactly. But it’s usually a lot clunkier than an active sentence construction.
Using the passive voice distances the subject from the action of the sentence, which leads to less clarity and urgency. It can also add unnecessary words to your manuscript, since the passive voice generally requires more auxiliary verbs than the active voice does. You need a lot more space to say The ball had been kicked by me than to say I kicked the ball.
That said, there may be times when you want to employ the passive voice to purposefully draw emphasis to the object of an action — or the fact that the object is, in fact, being treated as an object.
For instance, Writer Constance Hale argues that Germaine Greer, in writing “The Female Eunuch,” uses the passive voice “ to emphasize that a subject is not a ‘doer’ but a ‘done-to’ over at the New York Times. Here’s Greer’s passage with the passive portion bolded:
How To Check For Passive Voice In Word Mac Os
The married woman’s significance can only be conferred by the presence of a man at her side, a man upon whom she absolutely depends. In return for renouncing, collaborating, adapting, identifying, she is caressed, desired, handled, influenced.
When in doubt, however — and especially if you’re still working to understand exactly what the passive voice is — it’s usually a good rule of thumb to avoid it.
How to use less passive voice in your writing
Now that we’ve covered how to discern between passive vs. active voice and why the passive voice can be so problematic, you may be wondering how to fix or avoid it in your own writing practice.
And to be honest, like most things in the writing world — and in the whole world, as a matter of fact — a lot of it comes down to plain old practice. As you continue to write, take time to review your work specifically for instances of passive voice usage and change the sentences to active voice when you see them. Over time, using the active voice will become second nature.
Of course, everyone needs some help along the way. Fortunately, we’ve come across some grammar checker tools that include a passive voice checker amongst their suite of goodies — and although premium versions of those programs cost, many offer a free edition.
Armed with this knowledge of passive voice, go forth and do some writing…as opposed to letting your writing do you!
How To Check For Passive Voice In Word Mac Shortcut
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