Convert passive sentences to active voice
Every passive sentence with a knowable actor flips to active, shown as before/after pairs; the ones that should stay passive say why.
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Your prompt
Model-agnostic — works in Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini or any AI chat.
Why this prompt works
- →"Never invent a subject" targets the exact failure of passive-to-active conversion: a model confidently supplying a fake actor just to complete the sentence.
- →Requiring a reason for every sentence left passive turns the exceptions into a deliberate editorial choice instead of an unexplained inconsistency.
- →Before/after pairs make each change auditable at a glance, instead of asking you to diff two full paragraphs yourself.
Part by part
- only where the actor is known or can be reasonably inferred
- The condition that stops this becoming a mechanical transformation. Not all passive voice can be converted without adding information.
- never invent a subject the text doesn't imply
- The failure this prevents. Turning "mistakes were made" into "the team made mistakes" assigns blame the original deliberately withheld.
- For each sentence you leave passive, say why
- Makes the exceptions visible. Otherwise you cannot tell whether a passive sentence was considered and kept or simply missed.
- the passive is actually the clearer choice
- Explicit acknowledgement that passive voice is sometimes correct, which most style advice omits. It is why this prompt reports rather than converts everything.
- Show a before/after pair
- Makes each change checkable in place, rather than requiring a diff of two versions of the whole text.
Common mistakes
Rewrite this in active voice.Converts every passive sentence, inventing actors where the original had none. Scientific writing and incident reports both use passive deliberately, and a blanket conversion changes what they claim.
Remove all passive voice from this text.All is the problem. Passive voice is the right choice when the actor is unknown, irrelevant, or deliberately unstated, and removing those instances makes the text less accurate rather than more direct.
Make this more direct and punchy.Directness is achieved by cutting hedges as well as flipping voice, so the output changes claims as well as constructions. Voice and strength of claim are separate edits.
Questions
Is passive voice actually bad?
No — it is overused and it is not an error. It is the correct choice when the actor is unknown, when the object is genuinely the subject of the sentence, or when naming the actor would be a claim you cannot support.
Why does inventing a subject matter?
Because it converts a description of an event into an attribution of responsibility. In an incident report or a policy document that is a substantive change wearing the appearance of an edit.
When should I keep the passive?
When the actor is unknown, when the sentence is about the thing acted on, or when the surrounding paragraph flows from the object. Scientific method sections use it for the second reason almost throughout.
Do grammar checkers handle this?
They flag it accurately and cannot judge whether it is warranted, which is why they produce so many suggestions people dismiss. The judgement is the whole task, and it is why this prompt asks for reasons.