A sentence construction where the subject receives the action rather than performing it, like "the ball was thrown" instead of "she threw the ball."
Passive voice flips the typical sentence structure so the thing being acted upon becomes the grammatical subject. Instead of "The detective opened the letter," you get "The letter was opened by the detective" - or, more commonly, "The letter was opened" with the actor removed entirely. The construction uses a form of "to be" (was, is, were, been) plus a past participle. It's not a grammatical error, but it does change how a sentence feels and where the emphasis lands.
Passive voice tends to drain energy from your prose. It puts the action at a distance, hides who is responsible, and often adds unnecessary words. In fiction, where you want readers to feel like they're right there in the scene, habitual passive voice creates a fog between the reader and the story. Learning to spot it gives you a concrete, mechanical editing skill that immediately tightens your writing.
Orwell identified passive voice as a tool for political obfuscation, showing how "mistakes were made" lets powerful people avoid accountability by hiding the subject.
Fitzgerald uses occasional passive constructions deliberately, as when Gatsby's death scene employs passive voice to emphasize his helplessness and the indifference of the world around him.
Academic writing historically mandated passive voice ("the solution was heated") to sound objective. Modern style guides increasingly encourage active voice even in science.
Sometimes you want emphasis on the receiver of the action: "She was born in 1842" is natural. "Her mother bore her in 1842" is awkward. Use passive voice intentionally, not accidentally.
"He walked" is active voice in past tense. "He was followed" is passive voice. The key marker is the "to be" verb plus past participle, not just a past-tense verb.
Not all dull sentences are passive, and not all passive sentences are dull. "The president was assassinated" is passive and perfectly appropriate. Diagnose the actual problem before applying the fix.
Pick a page of your current draft and circle every instance of "was," "were," "been," and "being." For each one, check if it's part of a passive construction (look for a past participle nearby). Rewrite each passive sentence in active voice, then compare both versions. Keep the passive version only when it genuinely reads better.