Automatic Text Analysis
ProWritingAid automatically analyses your text using different statistics and its own algorithms. The analyses are based on a set of rules for writing that can be assessed. To use adverbs sparingly and to make use of fewer transitions. If you’re interested in quality writing, you’ll likely adhere to these rules in some way, or at least in your head. ProWritingAid makes it systematically visible.
Realtime lets you quickly edit any errors in grammar, spelling or style.
After you have fixed these errors After you have fixed these errors, you can proceed to the individual reports to edit them in depth. The reports let you examine the word choices, sentence structure, repeated words, and other details. The Summary Report is a report that can be run to determine the areas you should concentrate your efforts to make improvements in the shortest time.
How to Use It
ProWritingAid is available for download in many formats. You can use their Web Editor to modify documents in your browser. Their browser extensions allow you to make quick grammar fixes on sites such as Twitter, WordPress, Gmail and Facebook as well as their Word add-ins for Windows and Mac allow you to modify your Word documents right from the word.
Today, we will concentrate on their Desktop App which is great to use alongside your Ulysses files.
ProWritingAid.com registration is required for access to the tool. There are a variety of ways you can work with Ulysses files and ProWritingAid. Ulysses writers have two options: the online Web Editor is free, or you can download the desktop application. To edit more than 500 words at once or use the desktop app you’ll require an upgrade license.
The desktop application supports eight file types, including Markdown. Export a Ulysses document as Markdown File. Next, make use of ProWritingAid to modify the text, and then import it back into your Ulysses Library to further process. It’s fast and easy, with the only drawback that you can’t keep the sheet and images such as writing goals. After some play with the app, this was a great fit for my workflow.
Open ProWritingAid.
Go to your Ulysses sheet, choose a text passage, and select the “Copy as Markdown” command in the Edit menu.
Paste into ProWritingAid.
Now go one by one through the reports, and edit within ProWritingAid.
If you are happy you are satisfied, copy the edited text.
Paste the text of the previous version onto your Ulysses page by selecting the “Paste from Markdown“ option in the Edit menu.
The Reports
In every ProWritingAid report, issues that you have identified in your report are underlined. Click on the underlined text, and you’ll be able to read an explanation or suggestion. If you need an idea, click it. You can simply click on a suggestion, e.g.
The reports include brief explanations and a link to comprehensive information about the report’s subject on the ProWritingAid website. To give an idea of what I’ll include examples and more information.
Writing Style The purpose of this report is to assist you in improving your writing skills, based on various rules for good writing. For example it will help you find passive voice in your writing that can make it difficult to comprehend. Writing that are active in voice are simpler to read. Writing Style Check highlights repeated sentence starts and offers suggestions for improvements to reading comprehension.
Overused Words Check This report identifies words so commonly used in daily life that they have been deemed boring and meaningless, e.g there and have . It’s impossible to avoid them, but ProWritingAid can identify the instances where you’ve used them to excess.
Check your sentences.
Texts with sentences that vary in length can be more engaging to read. The report will display your sentence lengths in bar graphs, so that you can see quickly if you need to improve. The report will also identify long sentences that can cause text to be difficult to comprehend.
Pricing
ProWritingAid provides an online tool that’s completely free. It’s not as user-friendly and you won’t be able to view all reports. But it might make a good impression on your first time using it. Premium memberships allow you to use the desktop app as well as add-ons, and are priced starting at $79 per annum or $399 for lifetime license. It is possible to take your time to determine whether ProWritingAid is for you, because it comes with 14-day money back assurance.
Final Thoughts
ProWritingAid isn’t designed to replace the human editor. The tool highlights particular measurable aspects of a text and does a thorough job. While you will still need to edit the text you write, ProWritingAid can speed up the process and make it more efficient.