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Use ProWritingAid to correct your grammar and spelling while improving the structure, style, and readability of your content. Works like a personal online writing editor. But let's keep it short and focused on the review. Improves your vocabulary and writing style. Lets you easily correct grammar mistakes and improve the readability of your work. To check it out, find their website here.
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Your goal for a program like ProWritingAid should be to have it detect fewer mistakes with each new piece you write. I advocate using all the tools at your disposal to improve your writing. The Premium version gives you access to all the reports on manuscripts of unlimited lengths. The free version only allows you to run reports for a limited number of words.
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ProWritingAid allows you to generate a few select reports during a free trial of 14 days. Here’s how the Consistency Check worked in Google Docs for one of my recent blog posts.Īnd here’s how it looked in the ProWritingAid web app. Ideally it will teach you better writing habits. You might want to try it to analyze your short pieces to see how it works for you. It can serve as a word processor as well as an editing tool, but as I said, you can also apply it to the software you now use for writing. Identifies copied material so you can properly credit it to the source. You can tell the program to check specific words you tend to overuse or get wrong. This report lets you create custom rules for ProWritingAid. This Check lets you choose which ProWritingAidreports are most helpful so you can use your favorites. Helps identify various stylistic techniques. Highlights words of three syllables or more so you can decide whether you might want to simplify them. It allows you to make sure they’re all correct. This report creates a list of abbreviations formed from the initial letters of a group of words-like USA, CEO, and NFL. This is a form of what I call writtenese, language that may sound fancy but is pompous. This checks for words that sound the same but are spelled differently-like break and brake. This report helps identify and fix complicated writing. This report suggests replacement words but is programmed only for shorter pieces. This check helps you identify words you might want to change. I coach writers to choose the normal word over the obtuse. This report calculates these 4 scores for your manuscript so you can compare it to their guidelines: This report identifies tags so you can determine whether each is necessary. Jamie whispered.ĭialogue tags identify the speaker, but too many slow your story. The report identifies such sections, so you can address them. This check includes spelling, capitalization, punctuation. ProWritingAid recommends maintaining a score of at least 25%. This report generates a ‘transitions score’ based on the percentage of sentences that contain one. This report identifies the pronoun percentage so you can review your usage. Overuse can make your writing repetitive.
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Generates a graph of sentence lengths so you can identify where you might want to add variety.
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ProWritingAidrefers to these as glue words. If this is a new term to you, it simply refers to sentences that get readers stuck because they contain needless words. “She shrugged her shoulders.” What else would she shrug? Sticky Sentences “He clapped his hands.” What else would he clap? Clichés and RedundanciesĬlichés are self-explanatory, but here are a few subtle redundancies to watch for: This includes those that may be used in everyday conversation but are on-the-nose and don’t move your story along. This report catches words that weaken your writing.
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