Is passive voice always wrong?

No. It is correct when the actor is genuinely unknown or irrelevant, for example in a description of a physical process. It is a problem in an instruction, where the reader must know who acts.

How does the detector work?

It looks for a form of be or get, an optional adverb, and a past participle. It notes separately whether an actor is named with by.

Will it flag correct passive descriptions?

Sometimes, and that is expected. Each finding carries a false-positive note, and you can mark it reviewed or dismiss it for the document.

Reviewed 18 August 2026 · next review 17 February 2027

Passive voice in technical writing

The problem is rarely the grammar. It is the missing actor, and the reader who assumes somebody else will do the step.

Last updated 18 August 2026 · Written and reviewed by Jonatan Tensetti · Tensetti Tools

The instruction that nobody owns

“The valve is closed before service” describes a state of the world. It does not tell the technician to close the valve, and it does not say whether somebody else already did. In a procedure, that ambiguity is a defect.

Passive instruction — edit it and watch the finding disappear

The valve is closed before service and the isolator is locked.

CS_PASSIVE_ACTION — The action is written in the passive voice and no actor is named. Name the actor and use an active instruction, for example 'The technician closes the valve.'

Possible false positive: Passive voice is correct when the actor is genuinely irrelevant or unknown.

The same content in active voice

Naming the actor makes the obligation testable in a review, and translatable without guesswork.

Active version — no passive finding

The technician closes the valve and locks the isolator before service.

No finding from these checks in the current wording.

When passive voice is the right choice

The actor is genuinely unknown: “The unit was delivered damaged.”
The actor is irrelevant to a physical description: “The coolant is heated by the exchanger.”
A quoted requirement must keep its original wording.

ClearSpec still reports these; a reported finding is a prompt to decide, not a verdict. In safety documents the passive check is raised to high severity, because that is where an unowned action costs the most.

A practical editing routine

Find the action. Ask who performs it.
Put that role in front of the verb.
Keep one action per step.
Re-run the checks and confirm the span is gone.

Check a procedure for passive instructions

22 checks, no account, and the text is analysed in your browser.

Questions

Is passive voice always wrong?: No. It is correct when the actor is genuinely unknown or irrelevant, for example in a description of a physical process. It is a problem in an instruction, where the reader must know who acts.
How does the detector work?: It looks for a form of be or get, an optional adverb, and a past participle. It notes separately whether an actor is named with by.
Will it flag correct passive descriptions?: Sometimes, and that is expected. Each finding carries a false-positive note, and you can mark it reviewed or dismiss it for the document.

References

Checked 18 August 2026. Referenced for context only; no standard text or dictionary content is reproduced.

Clear content objective — W3C WAI. Accessibility-oriented clear-content guidance informing general principles.
Writing for web accessibility — W3C WAI. First-party accessibility writing tips informing general principles.

ClearSpec reports automated heuristics from method version 1.0.0. The clarity indicator is not a measure of technical accuracy, usability, legal sufficiency, safety or standards conformance. A competent person must decide the final wording, especially for safety content.