All writers should spend part of their editing phase removing passive sentences. After all, the proliferation of such constructions alone can turn a promising article into a confusing and boring jumble of words.

Do you write in passive voice or active voice? Although most writers use the active voice in their writing, the passive voice is still important. But somehow, for it to work, you need to know how to write your sentence well.

Now, the passive voice is not all bad. In fact, there are cases where you can let it go. When you find one in the edit and find yourself in one of these situations, you can continue with the next sentence if you have too much time to rewrite:

1. When the actor is unknown.
2. When the actor is irrelevant.
3. When you intentionally want to be vague to avoid pointing fingers.
4. When you are speaking of a general truth.
5. When you want to emphasize the object on which you act.
6. When required in your field (ie most scientific genres).

Aside from those six situations, it’s usually smart to rewrite passive sentences into an active construction.

1. Most grammar checking programs can help you check passive sentences. Use them, especially as a first pass, when cleaning your eraser.
2. After that, keep an eye out for forms of the verb “to be” with a relevant actor missing from the statement.
3. When rewriting, a good rule of thumb is to start with the actor. If he does, his sentence will have no choice but to end in the active voice.