Passive voice obscures the actor performing the action and uses forms of the verb "to be" like "is", "are", "was", and "were". This dulls writing by removing action and requiring more words. To identify and cut passive voice, look for forms of "to be", verbs ending in "ing", nouns that could be changed to verbs, and phrases starting with "there is/are". While passive voice has some uses like questions, active voice is generally preferred as it is more direct, dynamic, and cuts unnecessary words to create more potent writing.