Word and passive sentence count.

Passive

I can't give you an exact percentage, but the one thing grammar check usually does very well is flag passive sentences. The real question is how many passive sentences are good, and how do the particular passive sentences read? Are they intentionally passive, or passive because the writer doesn't know the difference?

Very true, James. There are times when passive sentences are needed to convey a mood or to calm the reader after a high-excitement scene.

Word does an excellent job of catching passives, but I have no idea how many affect readability. I think "seat of the pants" may be the only way to gauge it.

James is correct. Not all passive sentences are bad. You need to go through your ms. and see which one to keep. But the Word count would help you decide if your ms. has TOO MANY, say 40% passive is not good. I'd say anything above 10% (in novel), you should pay attention.

Is there such a program to determine the percentage of passive sentences in a manuscript? If there is, could someone let me in on what it is? Could come in handy.

What is a passive sentence?

Active is the subject ACTING upon someone/something or DOING something:

Dean threw the ball.

Passive is something BEING DONE to the subject:

The ball was thrown by Dean.

...I would also like to add that I absolutely DESPISE the passive voice. SOmetimes, it sneaks upon you without you noticing, but I nearly always catch it in revision, and there are only a few instances where I have ever used it deliberately:

"She was kidnapped."

or

"He was murdered."

These are times when the state of being (I know there's a much better way to describe this) is strong enough on its own that there is no need for any additional embellishment of the sentence structure. I tend to think of life and death as the two most excusable wanderings into the passive voice.