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ProWritingAid: A Useful Tool For Many Types Of Writing
Today’s post is brought to you by Resident Writing Coach, April Bradley, who knows her way around the editing desk (and then some!). Read on to get her take on ProWritingAid, a great piece of editing software for writers.
When Angela asked me to review some editing software, I was intrigued. I had never used this kind of tool before and wondered how developers could create something that performed better than a sophisticated grammar program. As a writer, I use self-editing strategies during revision. As a developmental and line editor, grammar programs are, of course, useful, but do not help me with nuanced problems that interfere with elements such as structure, character development, pacing, flow, voice, technique, style, and momentum. ProWritingAid exceeded my expectations.
ProWritingAid is an editing and style software that provides support to writers after the drafting stage. Users may compose within the program or work with other platforms such as Microsoft Word, Mac, Scrivener, Open/Libre Office, and Google by import within the on-line editor, as an add-on plug-in, and as a desktop application.
Premium users have unrestricted access to the premium toolbar in addition to the free editor and a number of operations that allow a user to analyze and edit on several levels, including a plagiarism checker. ProWritingAid does not supplant developmental, line, and copy editing, but it helps writers become better ones, and for those of us who do edit, it is a useful and fun program, especially for those of us who enjoy data.
This is no mere grammar and spell-checker. This is product is has a great deal of depth, and yet it is intuitively easy to use. Users easily can become dependent on the generated reports and neglect the features that provide more extensive analysis.
ProWritingAid provides 25 reports, including a Summary Report and an option to customize reports. The following reports are among my favorite:
- The Writing Style Report, a comprehensive report that revels elements that weaken readability such as passive voice and repetitive sentence starts.
- The Grammar Check that work much like one in any word processor but with the added benefit of the expertise of copy editors.
- The Overused Words Report identifies problematic words that falls into five main categories: Too Wishy-Washy, Telling Rather Than Showing, Weak Words Dependent on Intensifiers, Nonspecific Words, Awkward Sentence Constructions. In the drafting stage, these kinds of words on the sentence level is often where writers like to revise.
- The Sticky Sentence Report tallies “glue words,” which are the most commonly used articles, prepositions, and conjunctions that obscure clarity. The software’s suggestion is sentences that contain less than 45% glue words.
- The Sentence Length Report and The Pacing Check Report provide users with information about sentence variety and how a bar graph to reveal how readers experience the speed of your prose.
- The Sensory Check looks for words and constructions that refer to the five senses.
- The Alliteration Report looks for instances of words with repetitive consonant sound at the beginning. I found this particular report fascinating and helpful. Along with The Eloquence Check that is another technique report, writers who are working on the sentence level and over the arc of an entire work, word choice and the relationships between words is vital.
- The House Style Check is a feature I appreciate. Many businesses have their own style, even if it jumps of AP, Chicago, or MLA. This feature allows a user to look for specific issues in a document that are not standardized in word processors.
(Learn more about the full array of reports here as well visit as these articles on The Summary Report and The Combo Report.)
ProWritingAid analyzes seven types of writing: General, Academic, Business, Technical, Creative, Causal, and Web. I uploaded drafts and finished works (my own, and those solicited from friends) in the following categories: fiction, creative nonfiction, academic, blog posts, business technical writing, and casual email from 150 words to 15,000.
Here’s what a couple of the reports looked like for one of my published flash creative nonfiction pieces (click to enlarge):
The summary report is too long to grab in a single screenshot, but here is a sample:
According to this tool, my sentences are sticky with empty words and the pacing is slow. I agree. This is something I’d like to revise, but not for pacing. The slow pacing is deliberate. One thing I also notice: I never, ever break the 67 percent on editing.
The final feature I’d like to mention is Word Explorer. This feature is so much word-wonderful fun. I could fall into it and not emerge for days—and I am one of those people who fool around on the OED site.A sound bite from the site:
“The Word Explorer helps you break through writer’s block. It shows you definitions, synonyms, examples, rhymes, collocations and more. Type a word in the search box to get going.”
Word Explorer provoked a gasp from me, and I ended up playing with it for quite a while. This aspect of ProWritingAid is a writing prompt as well as a resource for finding the perfect word and make “semantic leaps.”
Overall, the program offered the most helpful analysis with Business, Creative, Causal, and Web writing. When I used it to analyze academic and technical writing, it focused too much on endnotes and minutiae. This is unsurprising, however, and my samples were highly polished: one was a soon-to-be-published article in a peer-reviewed journal, and the other was a report for the State of Tennessee by the Commission On Children.
ProWritingAid did offer a good analysis of readability and clarity Overall, I enjoyed the program. It doesn’t take the place of discernment and good judgment with what to do with the information. Pricing is currently $40 for one year, $60 for two years, $80 for three year, and $140 for a lifetime subscription. Plagairism checks are very reasonable from one-time charges to package deals.
Final Takeaway: Writers and editors, check it out! And if you do, there’s a special code for Writers Helping Writers readers and One Stop For Writers users: type in WRITERSHELPING into the discount code box and you’ll get 25% off.
How awesome is that?
Have you used ProWritingAid before? Would something like this help you strengthen your writing? Let us know in the comments.
She is the Associate Editor for Bartleby Snopes Literary Magazine and Press and the Founder and Editor of Women Who Flash Their Lit. Find out more about April here, visit her website, and catch up with her online.
The Bookshelf Muse is a hub for writers, educators and anyone with a love for the written word. Featuring Thesaurus Collections that encourage stronger descriptive skills, this award-winning blog will help writers hone their craft and take their writing to the next level.
Source: http://writershelpingwriters.net/2017/03/prowritingaid-a-useful-tool-for-many-types-of-writing/
