New App In Town
- Posted: 3/21/14
- Category: Writing
- Topics: Writing Craft
Here’s some text before and then after making changes suggested by a writing aid, Hemingway App.
Before
There's a new app for writers and it's free. You write something, go to their website and copy/paste in your text, click the button and it tells you what you need to change to make it better.
Hemingway, as you may know, was known for short, direct sentences. He used simple words most of the time, a style he developed writing for newspapers for a long time.
The goal of this application is to help you write like that.
In reviewing your writing, it looks at sentence length and the complexity of the words you choose. It then marks overly long sentences and suggests breaking them up into shorter ones. It also marks hard words and complex phrases as more opportunities for simplification. And it identifies adverbs -- a no-no -- and passive voice. The latter comes from the "to be" verbs: am, is, are, was, were and so forth. These should be replaced with action verbs to liven up the text.
The only downside is you have to be on-line to use the app. It's not available as a download, at least not at this time. But it does ask if you'd be willing to spend five bucks for your own copy.
I said, "Yes!"
After
There's a new app for writers and it's free. You write something, they critique it.
Hemingway, as you may know, wrote short, direct sentences. He used simple words most of the time, a style he developed writing for newspapers for a long time.
The goal of this application is to help you write like that.
In reviewing your writing, it looks at sentence length and the complexity of the words you choose. It then marks long sentences and suggests breaking them up. It also marks hard words and complex phrases. Again, simple is better. And it identifies adverbs -- a no-no -- and also passive voice. The latter comes from the "to be" verbs: am, is, are, was, were and so forth. Replace these with action verbs to liven up the text.
The only downside is you have to be on-line to use the app. It's not available as a download, at least not yet. But it does ask if you'd be willing to spend five bucks for your own copy.
I said, "Yes!"