Passive voice is a writing style that can weaken the impact of a sentence or paragraph. It is a construction in which the object of the sentence becomes the subject. It can make your writing sound dull and unengaging. Detecting passive voice can be difficult for writers, especially when they’re in a rush, but Microsoft Word has some handy tools that can help.

Here is a step-by-step guide on how to detect passive voice using Microsoft Word:

1. Enable the Grammar Checker: The grammar checker is a tool available in Microsoft Word that looks for issues with sentence structure, grammar, and spelling. To enable the grammar checker, click on the “File” tab on the top left corner, select “Options,” then “Proofing,” and finally make sure the “Check grammar with spelling” checkbox is selected.

2. Turn on Passive Voice Detection: After enabling the grammar checker, turn on the passive voice detection feature. To do it, click on “Settings,” then select “Passive Sentences” and click on “OK.”

3. Scan Your Document: With the settings in place, run a spell check and proofread with the grammar checker. As Microsoft Word proofreads your document, it will highlight any instances of passive voice. You can identify passive voice in Word because the highlighted text will be underlined with a blue squiggly line.

4. Rewrite Passive Sentences: Once you’ve summoned Microsoft Word’s grammar checker to detect your passive sentences, it is time to rewrite them. Passive voice can often be improved by shifting the passive verbs into active verbs. For example, instead of saying “The cake was eaten by the guests,” you can write “The guests ate the cake.”