WD2000: Passive Sentence Readability Percentage Is Wrong or Low

When you use the grammar checking tool on a document that contains sentences written in the passive voice, the document's Readability Statistics report displays an inaccurate or zero percentage (0%) statistic for passive sentences in the file.

By temporally turning off the passive sentence check done by the grammar proofing tool, you can obtain the correct Readability Statistics percentage for the document. Follow these steps to turn off the passive sentence check performed by the grammar checker:

1. On the Tools menu, click Options.
2. Click the Spelling & Grammar tab.
3. Under Grammar, click Settings, and clear the Passive sentences check box.
4. On the Tools menu, click Spelling and Grammar, or press the F7 function key to run the proofing tools.

The Readability Statistics now indicate the correct percentage of passive sentences contained in the document. To again allow the grammar checker to interactively find passive sentences, follow the steps above and select the Passive sentences check box in Step 3.

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article.