Passive/Active Voice

[Androxine Vortex]

This is really helping me with being able to identify passive/active voice. Thought I should share it with the community. I hope you can find some use of it too.

The Passive Voice: What Is It, and is it Bad to Use? | World-Leading Language Solutions by WhiteSmoke

 

[T.Allen.Smith]

Did you know that you can set Microsoft Word to recognize passive voice?

 

[Androxine Vortex]

Yeah but I'm using something else I think its called open office or something. That's kind of sad I don't know what program I use -_____-

 

[Fyri]

I hate passive voice! I set microsoft to recognize it as I type and found that I use it a lot. It is very helpful in not only understanding what passive voice is but also how to fix it. But is it so harmful to use passive voice every once in a while?

 

[T.Allen.Smith]

?...is it so harmful to use passive voice every once in a while?

In my opinion, no....not as long as you have good reason. However, if its not a conscious choice to use passive voice, that doesn't serve a specific purpose (and therefore worth it), then it is harmful.

 

[ThinkerX]

I have MS word set to recognize passive voice. When I first made the switch, I had paragraphs and pages underlined in green. These days, I'll get maybe one sentence in twenty with two to five underlined words. A lot of the time, I'll let those pass.

That said...sometimes passive voice is good for quickie descriptions. Your MC enters a new town. A sentence or two of passive voice can provide enough of an overview to convey an impression of the town without detracting from the story.

Likewise, if your MC is reading from some academic/instruction manual type text...well, a lot of that would be considered passive voice as well.

Plus, there are some (academic/bureaucratic type) characters who manage to speak in passive voice.

Passive voice probably should be restricted, but not completely killed. If I remember right, somebody here once posted a formula on the allowable percentage of passive voice...