This is a guest post by Bella Williams, an academic researcher & private tutor. Bella guides the new age professionals and students with their career. A graduate of Monash University, Bella organizes free coaching workshops for and promotes free sharing of knowledge. You can find her on LinkedIn.
Some of the tools she lists here, I already knew. Grammarly, for example, I use daily. Others, however, were news to me, such as the Learning Path, which I plan to visit right after I finish scheduling this post. I hope there’s something new here for you, too!
9 Standard Online Tools to Push Your Writing Standards
No matter how good a writer you are, there is always scope for improvement. Polishing one’s writing skills comes with a lot of practice. But worry not, for we bring here 9 amazing online tools to help you improvise your English writing skills. Read on to become the writer that you have forever wished to be.
1. Hemingway
One of the most preferred writing tools on the internet, Hemingway is your ultimate writing guide. It helps you frame sentences that are simple to understand for readers. It identifies long and complex sentences and highlights them for you. All you need to do is modify them into simpler versions of themselves. Click here to find out what editing software can teach you about writing.
Pro Tip: Compose your blog on Hemingway itself instead of checking for complexity later. You will save a lot of time that way.
Image Source: https://nybookeditors.com/2016/02/instantly-improve-your-writing-with-these-11-editing-tools/
2. Thesaurus
Don’t be deceived by the name of this tool; it has a lot more to offer than you can possibly imagine. Thesaurus lets you find quotes, blogs, synonyms, apps, and crosswords to help you hone your writing skills. It is extensively used by writers for writing content ranging from academic to abstract.
Image Source: https://www.quora.com
3. Readability-Score
This powerful tool helps you judge how readable your content is. You may consider yourself to be a good writer, but with a low readability, you need to push yourself a little harder. Reability-Score studies your content to give it a score between 0 and 100. The score is indicative of how easily your content can be read and understood by readers. In order to obtain your score, simply copy and paste your content on the website. For just $1 annually, you get to check the readability of your content before posting it online. Isn’t that amazing?
Image Source: https://www.webpagefx.com/blog/web-design/readability/
4. Grammarly
This is one of the most commonly used tools for proofreading content. It provides a summary of all the errors you could have possibly committed while composing your content. It checks spelling mistakes, grammar, and even plagiarism. It also recommends the use of alternative words, thus improving your vocabulary. Be it an academic paper, a sales pitch or important business reports, Grammarly is your one-ultimate guide for proofreading all kinds of content.
You can read a detailed Grammarly review here.
Source: https://crackvilla.com/grammarly-chrome-14-759-926-download/
5. Bartleby
In order to be able to write well, it is first necessary that you read well. The more you read, the better equipped you become as a writer. Bartleby offers its users a wide array of books to be read online. Easily accessible at any hour of the day, reading good content here helps you learn all that a writer must know. The website also offers quotations, a thesaurus, and lets you learn how to use the English language in the best possible manner.
Image Source: https://www.collegerag.net/top-10-websites-for-undergraduate-students-for-finding-free-college/
6. Plagiarism Checker
As the name suggests, this tool helps you detect plagiarism in your content. Originality is the key to producing good content and one of the essential skills of a writer. Therefore, this user-friendly plagiarism detection tool is a must before you post your content for the world to read. What makes it all the more amazing is that Plagiarism Checker comes free of cost. The tool also permits you to find out if your content has been used by other writers on the internet. Accessible through Google or Yahoo browsers, this tool is the ideal plagiarism detection software.
Image Source: https://plagiarismcheckerx.com/download.php
7. Novelguide
In order to improve your writing skills through Novelguide, all you need to do is to set up an account. Once that is done, you get access to various online resources that would help you create quality content. This tool offers free literary analysis to its users. Novelguide will help you gain a better understanding of contemporary as well as classical literature, using an educational supplement. Try it out for free to understand better how useful it can be.
Image Source: https://technofaq.org/posts/2015/05/12-edtech-online-tools-to-improve-studying/
8. Daily Writing Tips
As the name suggests, this tool offers valuable writing tips to its users. Informative articles on tips for writing are published on a daily basis. Identify your weak areas and read articles that offer you helpful tips on how to overcome them. For example, you may be great with vocabulary but face difficulties with punctuation marks. This website has useful information on various facets related to writing such as grammar, vocabulary, punctuation, correct use of words etc. Whether you are a student struggling to complete an essay or a business tycoon attempting to draft an impactful email, Daily Writing Tips is your one-stop solution.
Image Source: https://www.scriptmag.com/features/columns/screenwriting-website-week-daily-writing-tips
9. Learning Path
Learning path gives you access to several online creative writing courses. Use them to your advantage and become a better writer. And guess what? You need not pay a penny for availing the courses. They all come for free! The cherry on the cake is that these courses are taken from top educational university websites and are therefore extremely useful. Some of the courses readily available are on poetry, fiction writing, and essay writing.
Image Source: https://sur.ly/i/learningpath.org/
10. BibMe
Another useful tool is the BibMe plagiarism checker. Aimed at students, BibMe can also be useful to bloggers and web content writers. It offers certain advantages compared to other plagiarism checkers. Specifically, it highlights phrases within a paper so it can be evaluated in the context. Also, it links straight to the potentially plagiarized source. Finally, it lets you rework the copy or add an in-text citation without ever leaving the checker. As a bonus, a grammar check can be done within the same window; no new browser window is necessary.
Update: Grammar Checkers
- My author friend, Chuck, has kindly shared one more resource with us. As Chuch explains, reading out loud will help find errors. He has found a software for that called Natural Reader. They have a free version or you can upgrade. It helps find those awkward sentences or misused words!
- If you’re not happy with Grammarly, you can try the free grammar checker on EssayOnTime.
- Another alternative to Grammarly is ProWritingAid. They both offer integration with MS Word and Chrome along with automated grammar and spell checking. But is it better than Grammarly? You can read a full review of their relative pros and cons here.
Update: Plagiarism Checkers
I have been contacted by a number of people with suggestions for other plagiarism checkers, including:
- Edubirdie, an essay-writing platform which includes a free plagiarism checker. You can check it out on the Edu birdie website.
- Another free online plagiarism checker is on Eduzaurus, an essay-writing platform.
- A Research Guide for Students also offers a plagiarism checker. It’s free, easy to use and the main benefit it is without any ads.
- Citation Machine Plagiarism Checker: A free online tool created by librarians and writing professionals at Citation Machine and a leading provider of online citing and writing tools. Citation Machine is dedicated to helping students work smart, write ethically, and succeed. Its Plagiarism Checker enables students to proactively spot errors and learn from their own writing, thus helping them become engaged, ethical researchers and writers.
Thanks a lot for this informative article. I usually use Hemingway and Grammarly when creating content but I will take a look at other great tools you recommend.
Thank you, Daniel! Apologies it took me longer than usual to respond; I’ve been away 🙂
This is extremely an awesome post the individuals who come to peruse your article will discover heaps of accommodating and useful hints. UK Best Essays
Thank you for the enthusiastic comment 🙂
This is really a fantastic post those who come to read your article will find lots of helpful and informative tips.
Thanks, I hope so!
I love tools like these but get a bit twitchy that they will are in the wrong language. I write in English, so I fear many of these things will just ‘correct’ my English into American.
Lol – I hear you. Surely some of these, at least, support UK English?
Could be but they still spell words like specialised and realised with a zed.
Sigh…
🙂
Thanks, Nicholas. Also, I want to say that your posts jump-starts my writing, since I find so many ways to get distracted on the web.
Thank you! I’m not sure if it’s best to write up posts that are so interesting they distract you further, or ones that are so boring that send you straight back to the desk 😀
Thanks. I find Grammerly annoying!! It’s like my English teacher standing over my shoulder while I write! Sometimes pain can be good.
Thanks for the resources.
Lol – a perfect description of Grammarly 😀 Still, I use it daily.
Excellent post!
Thank you, Dannie 🙂
Thanks for sharing these helpful tools. I use some of them already but bookmarked. 🙂 Oh, and I’d like to add something to your add on about Natural Reader. So funny I have a post going out on Tuesday about having our work read back to us from text to speech. My friend Marcia from the Write Stuff posted on Natural Reader a few months back, when someone commented that they already use the similar program, built right into Word. I didn’t even know I had it, so I uninstalled Natural Reader because Word is at my fingertips. It works great! 🙂
I had no idea you can connect Natural Reader to Word, I’ll add that into the post! Thank you, D 🙂
No, sorry for the misunderstanding. Word has its own read back feature – Read Aloud, which is the same as Natural Reader, so it’s another option to use. 🙂
Oh, I see! Thank you 🙂
Most welcome. I just didn’t want your readers to mix up the two. 🙂
Thanks, Bella for passing along this helpful information. Thanks, Nicholas for having Bella as a guest. 🙂 — Suzanne
And thank you, Suzanne, for the always sweet comments 🙂
Hi Nicholas,
You are always providing us information and tips that are valuable. I’ve been using Hemmingway for almost a year. It is great for pointing out unnecessary verbs and adjectives. What I especially like is when I get a little wordy. Hemingway will indicate I’ve created a complex and hard to understand sentence. We are taught that reading out loud will help find errors. I found a software for that call Natural Reader. https://www.naturalreaders.com/index.html They have a free version or you can upgrade as I did. It helps me find those awkward sentences or misused words. Thank you for the valuable information.
Thank you so much for the tip, Chuck! I’ll add Natural Reader to the post 🙂
This is great. I’m going to check out the ones I’m not familiar with. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you, D! 😀
More good tips from you and Bella. Many of those online tools look to be invaluable.
Thanks as always.
Best wishes, Pete.
Thank you so much, Pete 🙂
You are a wealth of information sharing, Nicholas! Thank you for this post. I knew about Hemingway and Grammarly but the others were new to me. I also use Lexile.com to know the grade level my writing is on because I write for children. It’s free to use BTW.
Many thanks for the Lexile link! I’ll try it out, as I, too, need to know which grade level my writing is on.
You’re welcome!