Find likely passive constructions, separate named actors from agentless sentences, and leave good passive writing alone.
ENGLISH EXAMS & WRITING · LOCAL WORKBENCH · BROWSER WORKSPACE
See who did it. Review what the sentence leaves out.
Find likely passive constructions, separate named actors from agentless sentences, and leave good passive writing alone.
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01 · YOUR WRITING61 words · 7 sentences
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Passive voice is a choice, not an error.
Start with the sentences where the actor is missing. Passives that name who acted may be the clearest choice.
Heuristic, not a full grammar parser. It looks for be + a likely participle, while excluding common predicate adjectives.
02 · WHO DID IT?6 constructions
SENTENCES7
PASSIVES6
NO ACTOR NAMED5
SHARE OF SENTENCES57%
5 passive constructions have no actor named. Read those first and ask whether the missing person matters. 1 other still names the actor.
ACCOUNTABILITY CHECK
Where the actor disappeared
5were madeBy whom?
Mistakes were made during the rollout.
were restoredBy whom?
The incident report was written by the operations team, and the affected accounts were restored within an hour.
was accessedBy whom?
It is important to note that customer data was not accessed.
been updatedBy whom?
The policy has been updated, and staff will be retrained next quarter.
be retrainedBy whom?
The policy has been updated, and staff will be retrained next quarter.
STYLE CHOICE
Passive, actor still named
1was writtenActor: by the operations team
The incident report was written by the operations team, and the affected accounts were restored within an hour.
Your text, marked by actor
Amber: none named · green: named
Mistakes were made during the rollout. The incident report was written by the operations team, and the affected accounts were restored within an hour. It is important to note that customer data was not accessed. The policy has been updated, and staff will be retrained next quarter.
She was tired after the review. The door was open. The results are impressive.
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Runs in this browser. Results are estimates or editing cues. Review the assumptions and source-specific limits before using them in a consequential decision.
Find likely passive constructions, separate named actors from agentless sentences, and leave good passive writing alone. Review assumptions, source notes, and any context-sensitive flags before relying on the result.
