Articles about ProWritingAid reports
How to use... The Diction Report
by ProWritingAid May 23, 2016
The Diction Report helps you avoid unnecessarily complicated writing by analyzing your word selection and sentence construction.
When it comes to writing, less is more. Make every word count. If it's not essential, cut it. Too often when writers are trying to sound authoritative, they choose the wordy ways of saying something simple. Why write “has the ability to” when you can write “can”? You’re just using more words to say the same thing, which actually makes your writing much less clear.
Read More »How to use... The Vague & Abstract Words Check
by ProWritingAid May 19, 2016
There are two types of words that muddy the waters for clarity and concise writing: vague and abstract words. Replacing them with strong specific words can make a huge difference to your document.
Read More »How to use... The NLP Predicates Report
by ProWritingAid May 18, 2016
It’s important to use all five senses in your writing. Every writer has a tendency to favor one or two of their senses over the others, and this affects the way that he or she experiences the world, processes information and makes memories. This means that we tend to describe characters, settings or actions using words related to our own favored senses. Writing that skews too far toward one sense over the others will resonate more with readers who favor the same sense and less so with those who do not.
The term “NLP predicate” refers to those words (primarily verbs, adverbs and adjectives) associated with the specific senses.
Read More »How to use... The Pronoun Check
by ProWritingAid May 18, 2016
When you are writing in creative mode, you often rely on pronouns to keep your narrative moving: “He did this,” “She did that,” “They ran there,” “I found out.” That’s fine. It’s more important to keep your writing momentum up than it is to get every sentence just right.
When you go back and edit, however, you should check your pronoun percentage. Ideally it should fall somewhere between 4% and 15%. Any more than this and your writing can feel dull. This is especially so with initial pronouns – those at the start of the sentence. Your initial pronoun percentage should be under 30%.
Read More »How to use... The Thesaurus Check
by ProWritingAid May 18, 2016
Often, changing just one word in a sentence allows a writer to present a more nuanced or specific idea. The contextual thesaurus allows you to explore a wider vocabulary. Unlike most thesaurus suggestions, our report takes into account the context of the word in the sentence and offers replacement words that fit within that context.
The Thesaurus Report helps you expand your vocabulary and enrich your writing.
Read More »How to use... The Consistency Check
by ProWritingAid May 17, 2016
The Consistency Check checks your writing for consistency in four key areas: 1) Spelling, 2) Hyphenation, 3) Capitalisation, and 4) Punctuation.
Read More »How to use... The Grammar Check
by ProWritingAid May 09, 2016
The Grammar Check is similar to the grammar and spelling checkers that you have probably used in within your word processor. It highlights any word that’s not in our dictionary in case it’s misspelled. It also looks at the construction of the sentence to make sure that the structure, punctuation and tense are correct.
But, in addition to these standard grammar checks, our team of copyeditors have been inputting thousands of specific checks that they have come across in their years of editing. Our goal over the next couple of years is to have a simple explanation associated with every grammar issue that the software picks up.
Read More »How to use... The Writing Style Check
by ProWritingAid May 03, 2016
The Writing Style Check is one of the most popular and comprehensive reports that ProWritingAid offers. It highlights several areas of writing that should be revised to improve readability, including passive voice, overuse of adverbs, hidden verbs, overused words, clunky phrasing, repeated sentence starts, and more.
Read More »How to use... The Transition Report
by ProWritingAid Apr 25, 2016
Imagine a road with no street signs. How would you follow the right route if you didn’t have a sign showing you which way to go?
Transition words are the road signs in writing. And great transitions help your reader follow your train of thought without becoming bogged down trying to discern your meaning. Words and phrases like “similarly”, “nevertheless”, “in order to”, “likewise,” or “as a result” show the relationships between your ideas and can help illustrate agreement, contrast or show cause and effect:
Read More »How to use... The Clichés and Redundancies Check
by ProWritingAid Apr 25, 2016
Whenever you use a cliché, you are knowingly writing something unoriginal. Clichés are what you write when you don’t have the energy or inspiration to think of something new to say.
Writers often use clichés when they are working on their first draft because thinking up original wording takes time and can interrupt creative flow. That’s fine. But, when you go back to edit, be creative and brainstorm for fresh ideas. A new analogy or metaphor will make much more of an impression on your readers than a dusty old cliché. A good writer may create and reject over a dozen images before finding the right one, so don’t worry if it takes you a while.
Read More »How to use... The Dialogue Tags Check
by ProWritingAid Apr 25, 2016
Dialogue tags are the words that refer dialogue to a specific character. The two most common examples are “said” and “asked”.
- “I’m not going!” said Charlie.
They are essential in writing, particularly in scenes that include several characters, because they help the reader follow the conversation. Novice writers, however, have an annoying tendency to use more flowery dialogue tags and pepper them with adverbs.
- “I’m not going!” said Charlie angrily.
- “I’m not going!” shouted Charlie.
- “I’m not going!” roared Charlie furiously.
How to use... The Overused Words Check
by ProWritingAid Apr 25, 2016
There are some words and sentence constructions that are fine to use occasionally, but become problematic when they are overused. They fall into five main categories:
1) Too Wishy-Washy
Words like “could”, “might” and “maybe” are indefinite in their meaning. “I could bring a salad to dinner” feels hesitant and unsure, whereas “I will bring a salad to dinner” feels resolute. If your writing is peppered with these non-specific words, it will feel unconvincing. Try to limit your use of these undefined words to times when they are really necessary and replace them with definite words when you are able.
Read More »How to use... The Pacing Check
by ProWritingAid Apr 25, 2016
Pacing refers to the speed at which a story is told and how quickly the reader is moved through events. Good writing contains faster-paced sections, such as dialogue and character action, as well as slower-paced sections, such as introspection and backstory.
A book that is entirely composed of car chases without taking the time to make you care about the character being chased just won’t be effective at bringing readers into the story. Likewise, a story that has four chapters in a row dedicated to your main character’s Zen contemplation may need a bit of action to keep readers interested. Differently paced sections should complement each other, allowing the reader to move with you through the narrative.
Read More »How to use... The Repeats Check
by ProWritingAid Apr 25, 2016
Repeating a word or phrase happens to the best of us, especially if you’re writing an article and using a specific vocabulary for your topic. You won’t even notice you’ve used the same word several times in the span of one paragraph because it’s foremost in your mind. But those repeats can set off an echo in the reader’s mind – that subconscious feeling of “Didn’t he just say that?” It can be irritating to read and, worse, it can detract from what you are trying to say. The more uncommon a word or phrase, the more likely it is to echo, even pages apart.
Read More »How to use... The Sentence Length Report
by ProWritingAid Apr 25, 2016
Varied sentence length is an important feature of good writing. To maintain your readers’ interest, use a variety of sentence lengths: some short and punchy, others long and flowing.
The late Gary Provost illustrated it best. Click through to see how.
Read More »How to use... The Sticky Sentence Report
by ProWritingAid Apr 25, 2016
A sticky sentence is one that is full of glue words.
Glue words are the empty space that readers need to get through before they can get to your ideas. Generally, your sentences should contain less than 45% glue words. If they contain more, they should probably be re-written to increase clarity.
Read More »Life After NaNoWriMo: Facing the Technical Edit Like a Pro
by Lisa Lepki Nov 27, 2015
You wrote a novel! Well done. Reaching the NaNoWriMo goal of 50,000 words in a month is an impressive feat. So, now you can just sit back, put up your feet and wait for the publishers to come knocking.
The 6 Best Manuscript Editing Software Packages
by ProWritingAid Apr 15, 2015Picking the right manuscript editing software can be daunting. Several packages exist, and they all have different features. Here we list the best 6 manuscript editing software packages on the market. We give you an overview of their features to help you choose the best.AutoCrit
Read More »What You Need to Know About the Plagiarism Check
by ProWritingAid Jan 23, 2014
Every writer knows plagiarism is bad. We must all express ourselves uniquely without stealing thoughts, words, and ideas from others. But sometimes it’s hard to be original and unintentional plagiarism creeps into our work. Especially when on a tight deadline, you may let another’s words slip into your content without proper attribution. ProWritingAid is here to help.
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