Disclosed are systems and methods for analyzing and improving document readability. For example, a computer-implementable method of improving authored text is disclosed that can identify passive voice text within authored text by performing the following steps: scanning for a “to be” verb in the text; identifying from the scan an occurrence of a “to be” verb; scanning for a past participle in the text; identifying from the scan an occurrence of a past participle in the text; and providing information to a user regarding a proposed edit to improve the text. Various other rules for improving text are also disclosed.