The use of passive voice and MS Word

MS word constantly complains about the use of passive voice and sometimes I struggle to find a better way to express myself. For instance, how do I say the following differently? "Despite all the windows being shut there was still a draught."

Solution 1:

First of all, MS Word can complain all it wants about the use of the passive voice, but sometimes the passive voice is the better choice. You'll have to use your judgment. If you're writing about bees, for example, the active Bees make honey is likely better. But if you're writing about honey, the passive Honey is made by bees is likely better. You can find other good excuses for the passive voice at RIT's Use of the Passive Voice

Secondly, without any further evidence to the contrary, your example does not use the passive voice; it just happens to follow a pattern that MS Word uses to flag* a (possible) passive voice construction: a to be verb (e.g. being) + a participle (e.g. shut).

Your sentence, with its absolute phrase all the windows being shut, uses that same pattern—but it's not passive. Instead, being shut functions as an adjective to modify windows.

You can test this by rephrasing:

Despite all the shut windows, there was still a draught.

And you can further test this by swapping in a non-participle adjective:

Despite all the open windows, there was not a draught.
Despite all the windows being open, there was not a draught.

Indeed, the latter sentence—with its non-participle adjective open—will smooth MS Word's passive voice hackles.

Still reading? You do need a comma after shut, but I think that matter is for another question.

* _{MS Word flags things based on your Preferences settings in Spelling and Grammar. Set Writing style to Formal for the strictest review. When you see something flagged with the squiggly line, you can right click or option click it to see details regarding what it's upset about.}