Following my Keep the Joint Running column on good writing that recommended avoidance of passive voice ("Sounding smarter," 11/27/2006) and the followup in this space ("An active discussion about passive voice," 12/12/2006), several correspondents asked the question, "What exactly is passive voice, how do you recognize it, and how do you rewrite sentences to get rid of it?"Good question.Passive voice is a constr Following my Keep the Joint Running column on good writing that recommended avoidance of passive voice (“Sounding smarter,” 11/27/2006) and the followup in this space (“An active discussion about passive voice,” 12/12/2006), several correspondents asked the question, “What exactly is passive voice, how do you recognize it, and how do you rewrite sentences to get rid of it?”Good question.Passive voice is a construction in which the verb happens to the subject, instead of the subject making the verb happen to the object. “Projects were planned,” is passive voice, as planning happens to projects. “Project managers planned projects,” is active voice: Now the subject of the sentence (Project managers) are causing the verb (planned) to happen to the object (projects). Avoiding the passive voice is pretty simple. Just make sure the subject of the sentence is the actor, not the acted upon. The hard part is avoiding overuse of the word “I” when you do so. The secret is to shift perspective from yourself to what you’re interested in.For example, “I reviewed the performance of every employee in my department …” is active voice, but the focus is on the writer. “With few exceptions the employees in my department performed very well …” is also active voice, only this time the writer stays out of the picture.Another example shows how to use the imperative to avoid passive voice: “A happy holiday should be had,” is grammatically correct, but very poor construction. The imperative – “Have a happy holiday,” – is much better.So stop reading this and go have one!– Bob Technology Industry