Writing is a process of constant editing and revision. When the dreaded red or blue squiggle appears under the text you’ve just written, it can induce frantic back-tracking and even self-doubt. If you don’t know where to start, staring at a blank screen can be disheartening.
Many authors still prefer to write long-hand for this reason. I rarely write long-hand, except for poetry. But writing by hand on a physical piece of paper can be a great way to marshal your thoughts.
Why style matters
Writing style, grammar, and ease of reading matter because they are the basics of effective communication. They suggest to people that your business is trustworthy and values attention to detail. Communicating clearly avoids confusion, and even lawsuits. Using plain English helps your website rise to the top of search results.
Does AI help?
People are currently debating whether AI tools help or hinder the creative process. In reality, “AI” would be more accurately described as a Large Language Model.
AI tools use large amounts of text scraped from the web, plus a set of rules, to make suggestions. AI can be helpful, but if you do not already have a good sense of what makes a piece of writing great, it may actually make things worse.
As this article from Allegrow points out:
Tools can help do some of the monotonous work of proofing, but there are many areas that machines just can’t match. Those include context, industry-specific jargon, brand voice, cultural nuances, emotional intelligence, and originality. For that, you need a highly skilled human.
Other editing tools
The standard grammar and spelling tools that come with most word-processing tools are pretty useful. However, if you want to do something more complicated, then you need other tools to help you. Examples include writing in a specific variant of English, or checking the reading ease of your document.
GrammarCheck will check grammar, spelling, and punctuation, wrong words, punctuation and capitalization errors, run-on sentences, dangling modifiers, style issues, and incorrect tense. It uses a minimal amount of AI. It offers an app and a browser extension. It will check six regional variants of English, including Canadian, British, and American. This is especially helpful for people who have moved from the UK to Canada, like me.
The Flesch-Kincaid Calculator is a useful tool for checking how readable your writing is. It looks for long sentences, subclauses, and other complex constructions. It doesn’t highlight the sentences that need changing, though. You have to figure that out on your own, although it does give you general guidance.
I just used Flesch-Kincaid to check this article. I then edited it to make the sentences shorter. This reduced the level to Plain English. Personally, I feel it makes the style rather staccato.
The Oxford Text Checker will analyze a piece of text and give you the CEFR reading level of each word (except for the ones it has not classified yet). If you’re writing English for people with a different mother tongue, this would be very useful.
TextGears checks grammar, readability, and style for multiple languages (English, French, Russian, German, Portuguese, Italian, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Greek, and Arabic). There is a standard package and an AI-enhanced package.
LanguageTool is a free open-source language checker. It uses AI to check your text for grammar mistakes, help you find the right tone, and rephrase your sentences. It can be added to browsers and supports multiple languages.
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