Automatic Text Analysis
ProWritingAid will automatically examine your text using a variety of statistics and proprietary algorithms. These analyses are built on proven guidelines for writing that can be measured. Adverbs should be used in a limited amount, be extra cautious when transitions are used and use fewer pronouns, glue words, and so on. If you care for good writing, you’ll probably try to stick to these guidelines more or less subconsciously. ProWritingAid allows them to be easily seen.
Realtime lets you quickly work through documents.
After you have corrected these mistakes, you can go on to individual reports and edit more in depth. They allow you to look at word choices, sentence structures and repeated words. The Summary Report can be used to pinpoint where to concentrate your efforts to make improvements within the shortest amount of time.
How to Use it
ProWritingAid is available in a variety of formats. Their Web Editor lets you edit documents using your browser. Additionally, they include browser extensions that let users to fix their grammar problems on websites such as Twitter, WordPress, Gmail, Facebook and Facebook. You can also edit your Word documents with their Word add-ins that are available on Windows as well as Mac.
However, today we will be focusing on the Desktop App, which can be used to work with Ulysses documents.
To use ProWritingAid.com You will have to sign up. There are a variety of options available for working using Ulysses documents. Ulysses writers can either use the free online Web Editor or download the desktop program. Premium licenses are needed to edit over 500 words at a time or to use the desktop application.
The desktop app is capable of reading and writing 8 file types, including Markdown. You can therefore export the Ulysses text as Markdown File, conduct the editing with ProWritingAid and then import it back into your Ulysses library for further processing. This is fast and convenient, with the only drawback that you can’t keep your images and sheet attachments like writing goals. After some testing with the app, I discovered the following workflow works well for me:
Open ProWritingAid.
Go to Ulysses and select a text paragraph, and use the Copy as Markdown command from the Edit menu.
Paste into ProWritingAid.
Now go one by one through the reports and edit within ProWritingAid.
Copy and select the edited text once you’re done.
Copy the text from the original passage to the Ulysses sheet.
The Reports
In every ProWritingAid report, issues that you have identified in your report are underlined. Move your cursor to the underlined text, and you’ll be able to read an explanation or recommendation. If you’re in need, simply click on a suggestion, e.g. Click on the suggestion to view the word in a simpler form, or a synonym.
The reports include a brief explanation and an online link that takes you to extensive details about the report on ProWritingAid. To give an idea, I’ll provide examples and more information.
Writing Style Audit This report can help you improve your writing. As an example, the report identifies the usage of passive voice within your text because sentences written that are written in active voice are more interesting to read. Writing Style Check will also identify repeated sentences starts and suggests ways to increase readability.
Overused Words Check This report identifies words that are so frequently used in everyday life that they’ve become boring and almost meaningless, e.g there and have . ProWritingAid will help you find those words that have been used to excessive extent.
You can check the length of your sentence
Texts with sentences with different lengths can make texts more interesting to read. This report visualizes the length of your sentences as a bar graph so you can see in a glance whether there’s an opportunity for improvement. It can identify long sentences that are difficult to comprehend.
Pricing
ProWritingAid is available online for free. While it’s less user-friendly and doesn’t provide all the reports available, it can help you get an initial impression. Premium memberships allow you to use the desktop app, add-ons and are available starting at $79 per annum or $399 for lifetime licensing. ProWritingAid comes with a 14-day money-back guarantee, which means you are free to take your time in deciding whether ProWritingAid is the right choice for you.
Final Thoughts
ProWritingAid doesn’t replace human editors, and isn’t designed to replace human editors. This tool highlights specific measurable elements of text and performs an excellent job. It is still necessary to edit your texts on your own, however ProWritingAid will help you improve the process and speed it up.