Writers do well to avoid adverbs whenever possible, so on March 20, Gina Trapani published a Javascript bookmarklet for writers… the -ly detector.
One click, and it flagged adverbs on a web page in bright yellow. I love the -ly detector and use it daily to perceive my literary failings, and those of others.
Tonight, I took Gina’s code and modified it to flag passive verbs, as well as adverbs.
See also: The Forbidden Word Flagger which will highlight gems such as “outsourcing” and “functionality”.