We discuss passive voice often at our meetings (some people even count the number of times was is used). Here's a neat explanation:
8. Am/Is/Are/Was/Were (“to be” verbs)
Action verbs are always preferable to state-of-being verbs. Use words that describe the action occurring. Rather than saying what something/someone is, show the reader what something/someone does.
Example: “I am envious of her success.” This can be revised as “I envy her success.”
Example: “She was dressed in leather chaps and a flannel shirt.” This can be revised as “She wore leather chaps and a flannel shirt.”
The above is from snippet is from
10 over used words - see the rest are here.
http://preciseedit.com/Article10OverusedWords/tabid/215/Default.aspx
