A Passive Voice Was Used

What is the difference between passive voice and active voice? Passive voice is when your writing makes it sound like something is being acted upon rather thank doing the action. Here are a couple of examples:

• Passive Voice - Information was presented to the crowd.
  
• Active Voice - I spoke to the crowd.

The differences are subtle but have a huge impact on readers. Word can check for passive voice as part of its spell check tool. To turn this on go to Tools>Options, Spelling and Grammar (Tab) and look for the settings button. Under the Style section you will see a check box for "Passive Sentences." Make sure it is checked.

If you are interested in reading more about the passive voice, the University of North Carolina has an excellent handout posted to their site.