Passive Voice

warning
Type existence Categoryexistence

[matched text] looks like passive voice. Use active voice instead.

Active voice makes documentation clearer and more direct. When you write in active voice, the reader knows immediately who or what performs the action.

Why it matters

Passive voice obscures the actor and adds unnecessary words. In technical documentation, readers need to know exactly what to do and what the system does.

Passive (avoid) Active (prefer)
The file was created by the system. The system creates the file.
The setting is required by the application. The application requires this setting.
Errors were found during validation. Validation found errors.

Exceptions

Passive voice is acceptable when the actor is unknown, unimportant, or when you intentionally want to emphasize the object rather than the actor. For example: “The package is installed automatically during setup.”

Flagged Tokens

  • was created
  • was deleted
  • was found
  • was made
  • was removed
  • was set
  • was updated
  • were changed
  • were found
  • were removed
  • is expected
  • is required
  • are expected
  • are required

Settings

Case-insensitive
No
Technical Details
Message template
'%s' looks like passive voice. Use active voice instead.
Extends
existence
Severity
warning