Automatic Text Analysis
ProWritingAid analyses your text with a variety of statistics and its own algorithms. The analyses are based on established guidelines for writing that can actually be measured. Make use of adverbs sparingly, fewer transitions, fewer pronouns, glue words, and so on. These rules can assist you in writing better if you care about it. ProWritingAid makes these rules systematically visible.
If you’re looking to go through a document quickly, the Realtime feature will help you edit away any glaring spelling, grammar or style issues:
Once you’ve fixed the errors, you can start editing each report. The reports let you examine your word choices, sentence structure, repeated words, and other aspects. The Summary Report is a report that can be run to determine the areas you should focus your efforts to improve in the shortest time.
How to Use It
ProWritingAid is available in a host of formats. Their Web Editor can be used to edit documents within your browser. It is also possible to make use of their extensions for your browser to correct grammar problems on sites such as Twitter or WordPress. Word addins allow users to edit directly Word documents for Windows as well as Mac.
Today, however, we’ll focus on their Desktop App , which is great to work on your Ulysses documents.
To access ProWritingAid.com, you will need to sign up. There are a variety of ways Ulysses documents may be used and ProWritingAid can be used. Ulysses writers can either utilize the free online Web Editor, or download the desktop application. A premium license is required to edit more words than 500 words in a session or use the desktop software.
The desktop application can read and write 8 different types of files, Markdown among them. Markdown File can be used to export Ulysses text. ProWritingAid will then edit the text and then you can then import it to Ulysses for further processing. It’s fast and simple. However, you can’t save images and other sheet attachments, such as writing goals. After some experimentation with the app, I discovered that the following workflow is effective for me:
Open ProWritingAid, and create a Markdown File.
Open your Ulysses sheet and select the text section. Then, select the Edit menu’s “Copy As Markdown” option.
Paste into ProWritingAid.
Then, go one at a time through the reports and then edit them in ProWritingAid.
Once you’ve finished editing, copy and paste the text.
Copy the text of the original passage to the Ulysses sheet.
The Reports
In every ProWritingAid report, problems that you have identified in your report are underlined. The explanations and/or suggestions will be displayed when you drag your cursor over the underlined portion of your text. If you need a suggestion, click on it. a simpler word or a synonym or a synonym, and use it.
The reports include a short explanation and a link to more detailed information about the report’s subject on the ProWritingAid website. To give an idea, I’ll provide some examples and further details.
Writing Style Check This report is meant to help improve your writing style, based on a variety of rules that are essential to good writing. This report, for example, identifies the passive voice that is present in your text. Active voice sentences are more readable to read. Writing Style Check also identifies repetitions in sentence beginnings and Adverbs. The report offers suggestions to improve the readability of your text.
Overused Words: This report examines the meaning of words that are used so often in everyday life that they are almost meaningless. ProWritingAid can help you identify the words that are extensively used.
Verify your sentences
Texts with sentences of varied lengths are more engaging to understand. The report will show the length of your sentences as a bar chart, so you can quickly see the areas that require improvement. The report can also help you identify long sentences that can cause text to be difficult to comprehend.
Pricing
The ProWritingAid online tool is free of charge. It’s not as intuitive and it won’t allow you to view all reports. However, it could make a good impression on your first time using it. Premium memberships let you access the desktop application as well as add-ons, and are priced starting at $79 per annum or $399 for lifetime licensing. ProWritingAid allows you to be patient, and it offers a 14-day refund assurance.
Final Thoughts
ProWritingAid does not replace editors, and isn’t designed to. It highlights certain elements of text and performs a thorough job. ProWritingAid can’t replace manual editing process of your texts. But it can make that process easier and more efficient.