Augie, my two-year-old son, has mastered the art of implied passive voice. Here’s how it works. Say, purely as a hypothetical, he throws his new toy car off a bridge and into the Arno River. Rather than say “I threw my car into the river,” he immediately turns to me and asks “What happened?” In his question, he removes himself as the actor. No longer did he throw his toy car into the Arno. Rather, the toy car was thrown into the Arno. Brilliant, and it works brilliantly to avoid, at least in his mind, active responsibility.

“What happened?” Milk was blown through the straw and across the room.

“What happened?” Our front door was closed and we were all locked out.

“What happened?” The shoe was thrown out the fourth floor hotel window.

Augie’s use of implied passive voice teaches two lessons.

First, when used sparingly and intentionally, passive voice works, and works quite well. It’s likely most useful in the criminal context to remove an actor– usually a defendant– from an alleged act, as in “at that point, the gun was fired and two shots hit the victim in the chest.” Passive voice, in this context, gives the reader information but does not give the reader the full story, and that may be just what you want. But, when used in the wrong context, it fails to build the reader’s trust. That is, just as Augie raises with his question, you know you are not getting the full story. And that’s the problem.

Second, Augie’s “what happened” can be used with your own writing to ferret out passive voice and remove it from your sentences. Read your sentences and, after each one, ask what happened. If Augie or anyone else (or thing) is not there doing something– throwing, slipping, spilling, scribbling, mashing, or smashing — then you probably have an issue of passive voice. Rearrange your sentence so that someone or something is directly responsible for the action. Rearrange your sentence so that my son Augie is there. While he won’t be happy to be so responsible for his actions, your reader will thank you for a more active, direct and snappy sentence.