Automatic Text Analysis
ProWritingAid conducts an automatic analysis of your text according to various statistics and proprietary algorithms. These analyses are based in established guidelines for writing that can be measured. You should use adverbs sparingly, be more careful when transitions are used, use fewer pronouns or glue words, etc. These guidelines will assist you in writing better when you are interested in the writing. ProWritingAid makes the rules accessible.
If you’re looking to go through your document in a hurry, the Realtime feature can assist you in removing all spelling, grammar or style issues:
After you have corrected these mistakes After you have fixed these errors, you can proceed to individual reports and edit more in detail. These reports allow you to look at the word choices, sentence structure, repeated words, and other aspects. A Summary Report is a report that can be run to determine where to focus your efforts to improve within the shortest amount of time.
How to Use it
ProWritingAid is available in a host of formats. Their Web Editor is a tool to edit documents in your browser. You can also use their extensions for your browser to correct grammar problems on websites like Twitter or WordPress. Word addins allow you to directly edit Word documents on Windows as well as Mac.
Today, we will concentrate on their Desktop App that is fantastic to work alongside your Ulysses files.
ProWritingAid.com registration is required to utilize this tool. There are a variety of ways to work with Ulysses files and ProWritingAid. Ulysses authors can utilize the web-based Web Editor for free or download the desktop software. Premium licenses are needed to edit over 500 words simultaneously or to utilize the desktop software.
The desktop app can read and write eight different file types, Markdown among them. Markdown File can be used to export Ulysses text. ProWritingAid will then edit the text, and you can then import it to Ulysses to further process. It’s quick and easy however you’re not given the option of saving the images or attachments (e.g. writing goals). After some play using the app, it was a great fit for my workflow.
Open ProWritingAid.
Open your Ulysses sheet and select the text section. Next, use the Edit menu’s “Copy As Markdown” command.
Paste into ProWritingAid.
Then, go through each report individually and edit them within ProWritingAid.
Once you are done, select the edited text, and then copy it.
Copy the text from the previous version onto your Ulysses page by selecting the “Paste from Markdown“ option in the Edit menu.
The Reports
ProWritingAid reports identify the problems in your writing. When you hover your mouse over a paragraph that is underlined and you’ll receive an explanation and/or a recommendation. If you require an idea, click it. Click on the suggestion to see a simpler word, or an equivalent.
The reports include brief explanations as well as a link to more detailed details about the report’s topic on the ProWritingAid website. Let me give you an example to help you understand what I mean.
Writing Style Check This report is meant to assist you in improving your writing skills, which is based on a variety of rules that are essential to good writing. For example, the report will find passive voice in your writing that could make your writing difficult to understand. Writing in active voice are easier to read. Writing Style Check also recommends readability enhancements.
The report looks at the words that are so common in daily life that they are almost meaningless. ProWritingAid might not be able tell if you are using them in excess.
Check the length of your sentences
Texts with sentences of different lengths are easier to read. This report will visualize your sentence lengths as a bar chart, so you can quickly see if there are areas for improvement. In addition, it highlights long sentences which could make the text difficult to understand.
Pricing
ProWritingAid offers an online tool that is free. While it’s less user-friendly and doesn’t offer all the reports that are available, it could be helpful for getting a first impression. Premium memberships let you access the desktop application, add-ons and are available beginning at $79 per year and $399 for lifetime license. ProWritingAid lets you be patient, and it provides a 14-day money back guarantee.
Final Thoughts
ProWritingAid doesn’t replace human editors, and isn’t designed to replace human editors. The tool highlights the most crucial aspects of a document and does a thorough work. ProWritingAid is not a substitute for editing the text. However, it can help speed up this process.