Automatic Text Analysis
ProWritingAid analyzes your text using a variety of statistics and its own algorithms. The analysis are based on established rules for good writing that actually can be measured, e.g. These rules can be measured, such as the usage of adverbs sparingly. If you’re interested in quality writing, you’ll likely try to stick to these guidelines more or less in your head. ProWritingAid makes it systematically visible.
Realtime is a great tool to speed up the process of working through a document.
Once you’ve fixed the errors, you can start editing the individual reports. These reports allow you to look at your word choices, sentence structure repetition of words, as well as other aspects. To find out what areas to focus on to achieve the greatest improvement in the fastest time, you can run the Summary Report.
How to Use it
ProWritingAid is available for download in a variety of formats. Their Web Editor lets you edit documents from your browser. Additionally, they have browser extensions that allow users to fix their grammar issues on sites like Twitter, WordPress, Gmail, Facebook and Facebook. Additionally, you can edit your Word documents with their Word extensions that are that are available on Windows as well as Mac.
We’ll be focusing on their Desktop App this morning, which is great for using alongside your Ulysses documents.
ProWritingAid.com Registration is necessary to access the tool. There are several ways to use Ulysses documents as well as ProWritingAid. Ulysses writers may choose to use the online Web Editor or download the desktop application. You’ll require a premium license to edit up to 500 words at one time and use the desktop app.
The desktop app can read and write 8 different types of files, Markdown among them. You can therefore export the Ulysses text to a Markdown File, conduct the editing with ProWritingAid, and import back into your Ulysses‘ library for further processing. It’s fast and easy, but you cannot keep images or sheet attachments such as writing goals. After some playing with the app I found the following procedure suitable for my workflow:
Open ProWritingAid to create Markdown files. Markdown file.
Go to your Ulysses sheet, choose the text you want to copy, then select the “Copy as Markdown” option from the Edit menu.
Paste into ProWritingAid.
Now go through each one of the reports, and edit within ProWritingAid.
Once you’ve finished editing, copy and paste the text.
Paste the text passage in your Ulysses document back to it.
The Reports
ProWritingAid reports underline any issues that you might have. You can click on an underlined section to find the explanation or suggestion. Simply click on the suggestion, e.g. a simpler word or a synonym, to make use of it.
The reports provide a brief explanation as well as a link to detailed information on the topic. I’ll explain the report in more depth with a few examples to give you an idea.
Writing Style The report can help you improve your writing skills. The report is based on several rules that are good for writing. For instance it identifies the usage of passive voice within your writing because sentences written that are written in active voice are more interesting to read. Writing Style Check also points out repetitions in sentence beginnings and adverbs. The report offers suggestions to improve readability.
The report looks at the words that are so ubiquitous in everyday life that they are nearly meaningless. ProWritingAid is able to identify the words you’ve used too often.
Sentence Length Check
Texts that contain sentences of varying lengths are more enjoyable to read. The report will show your sentence lengths as a bar chart, to help you quickly determine the areas that require improvement. What’s more, the report will identify especially long sentences, since they can render a text difficult to comprehend.
Pricing
ProWritingAid Online Tool is free. It’s not as intuitive and it won’t allow you to access all reports. But it might make a good first impression. You can use the desktop app as well as other add-ons when you have a premium membership. It costs $79 per year, or $399 for a lifetime license. ProWritingAid is backed by a 14-day money-back guarantee so you can take your time and decide if it is right for you.
Final Thoughts
ProWritingAid cannot (and isn’t intended to) replace an editor who is human. It focuses on specific aspects of text and performs an outstanding job. ProWritingAid cannot replace the manual editing of your text. However, it can make that process easier and more efficient.