Just find the doer and make him / her / it / them the subject of the sentence.

For example, let's locate the doer in this passive voice sentence:

The report was prepared by John Doe.

The doer (John Doe) is a prepositional phrase at the end of the sentence. To make the sentence active, we move John Doe to the subject position:

John Doe prepared the report.

In passive voice, the subject doesn't do anything; it is acted upon. In the passive example, the report does not deliver.

Here are some Quick Practice examples showing how to change passive to active voice:

1. Review comments were submitted by Tom Decker.

WERE SUBMITTED is the ACTION; TOM DECKER is the DOER.

Tom Decker SUBMITTED review comments.

2. A progress report was presented to Corning.

WAS PRESENTED is the ACTION; the DOER is not named. The reader does not know who presented the report to Corning.

Miles Smith PRESENTED a progress report to Corning.

Now that we know what active and passive voice are, next week we'll review when to use them.