Do You Need Help?

This post by guest author Haziqa Ishtiaq reviews several online tools with the potential to improve your writing.

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Regardless of your experience, there is always room for improvement. In this digital age, it is easy to use writing tools to micromanage your writing and nitpick errors.

Writing is a diverse field that encompasses a variety of genres. Every writer has a distinct style that says more about their personality than they might realize.

Writing tools help you take out the mistakes you wouldn’t usually see in your writing.

I believe writers are their own worst critics, but even they can overlook certain things. Thus, I give you a few tips on how to use writing tools to improve your writing.

Grammarly

A writer’s work is not limited to articles, blog posts, books, and so on; there are emails, social media posts, and other online platforms that require you to deliver quality writing.

People don’t always praise well-written content, but they are quick to critique when it isn’t. Thus, Grammarly is one of the writing tools that you can use to remove many errors.

Grammarly doesn’t just fix your grammar and punctuation, but it also offers vocabulary suggestions, spell-check, and helps remove common contextual spelling errors such as except and accept.

Here are a few ways you improve with Grammarly:

1. Besides your errors, you will also find reasons for the suggestions, so you can make an informed decision and remember it for next time.
2. Grammarly tells you when your sentences are too wordy. It helps you break them up and improve your readability.
3. We all have a few words we use more often than not, especially common phrases. With the built-in dictionary and thesaurus, you can increase the words in your arsenal.
4. The plagiarism checker helps keep your content original.
5. With Grammarly being a Chrome Extension, you don’t have to download a separate app. It will automatically check your emails and social media posts, and offer suggestions where necessary.

In a nutshell, it is an automated proofreader that checks your grammar, spelling, vocabulary, as well as plagiarism in your content.

Mistakes are to be expected, but too many of them in any content disrupt smooth reading experience, thus lowering your credibility. Use of Grammarly will help you overcome the standard errors that people often overlook.

Writers Work

Writers Work is the complete package that all authors seek. Not only does it help you improve your writing style, but it also offers you the chance to view job listings and meet potential employers, all on one platform.

What you get with Writers Work:

1. They have a web-based text editor that will help you fix minor errors and enhance your readability.
2. You can keep track of your work, and review a statistical analysis. The time-logging feature will help you meet your word quota.
3. Writers Work enables you to build an online portfolio that you can share with interested clients.
4. You can browse a curated list of job prospects, look up publications that seek writers, and much more.
5. Best of all, Writers Work has an online library for new writers wanting to gain a bit of insight and training into this line of work.

Writers Work is a tool that does more than fix your writing; it helps you expand your audience and build your portfolio, taking you a step further in your career.

With all these features, one might think that they are an expensive service, but you’d be surprised to know they have super budget-friendly rates. Even without their coupons, you can afford them on any budget.

How you can use Writers Work to improve your writing is simple:

1. The text editor updates in real-time, meaning you can check your readability and reading grade as you type, so you know where the error lies.
2. It also incorporates word, sentence, and character counts, as well as a spell-checker to remove lengthy sentences and improve spellings.
3. Highlighting a word gives you access to dictionary definitions and synonyms, giving you the chance to enhance your vocabulary.
4. Time logging will help you keep track of how much time you spend on one document, and over time improve your speed.

Hemmingway Editor

The Hemmingway Editor is another one of the most helpful writing tools for a writer. It offers more than correction of spelling errors and grammatical mistakes. It can help you reduce the length of your sentences as well as the level of difficulty they pose.

Best features of Hemmingway:

1. It highlights in yellow sentences that are too long and complex.
2. Red highlighting means your sentences are too wordy.
3. It points out difficult words in purple.
4. It also indicates adverbs and weak phrases with blue highlighting.
5. Not to mention the green that shows you passive voice in your text.

With these features, it is easy to improve your writing.

Online content requires more straightforward sentences, and smaller paragraphs. It allows the reader to read, understand, and move on.

However, one point to note is that Hemmingway seems contrary. The lower the readability score, the better your text will be. Also, keep in mind, readability depends on your target audience.

Cliché Finder

Everybody loves a good cliché! But they portray lack of original thought.

A few clichés here and there are acceptable, but too many can make your work lose its charm. Thus, comes in Cliché Finder.

Put your text in the designated field, and it will point out any overused phrases you might have used. Replace them with a more original thought and improve the essence of your writing.

Stay Focused

We all tend to procrastinate. When you feel stuck in your writing, everything else suddenly seems very interesting.

The internet is a vast place, and once it has your attention might keep you in a loop that is impossible to escape.

It is easy to get distracted unless you use the Stay Focused writing tool.

Stay Focused is also a browser extension for Chrome that you can use to stick to the task at hand and reach your word quota.

What it does is temporarily block web browsing, forcing you to focus on your writing. If your work requires a bit of internet research, then you can also choose to allow specific sites like your writing tools, and block in-page content like games and videos.

The Most Dangerous Writing App

If you want to be daring, The Most Dangerous Writing App is what you should try. Like Stay Focused, the app helps you stay on track with your writing. But unlike the former, it is much more drastic.

If there is too long a break between writing your sentences, then The Most Dangerous Writing App deletes all the work you have done so far.

Talk about being forceful!

The goal is to keep you focused and ignore the voice in your head that doubts every word on the page. It will force you to go with the flow and edit later.

Despite its harsh method, the app is the best one to use if you are distracted easily.

Elevate

Elevate is different from your average writing tools. It doesn’t just improve your written content, but also sharpens your brain.

Through reading, writing, listening, and speaking activities, Elevate helps you be a better writer.

It enhances your thought process by working on your:

1. Memory
2. Focus
3. Precision
4. Comprehension
5. Vision clarity
6. Brain agility

You might wonder how that relates to writing. But if your memory is good, you can write about your experiences without missing any details. You can focus on your task and improve your writing speed.

750 Words

Maybe not for complete articles, but 750 Words is perfect if you want to measure where you stand as a writer.

As the name shows, you write 750 words a day, and the app tells you the time you took, calculates your writing speed, how long you were distracted, and even your emotional state as you wrote your piece.

If you are a newbie writer, 750 Words will help you measure your progress. Not only that, but the app has several motivational badges to keep you coming back and write every day.

Final Note

Everybody has their distinctive writing style, but there is no limit to how far you can improve. Try one of these apps or websites, and you’ll find yourself making dramatic headway in your writing.

© Copyright Haziqa Ishtiaq

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Author Bio

Haziqa Ishtiaq is a content writer and a rising blogger on the block and an active content writer for PennySaviour. She has written blogs on many diverse topics including travel, business, tech, fashion, etc.