Writing is a skill that you’ll never stop refining and improving. There’s always more to learn, more styles to experiment with and tones of voice to find.
Whether you have a degree in journalism or creative writing, or you just love to write, we’ve listed some resources below that will help you hone your skills and grow your confidence.
Grammarly
The holy grail of writing and grammar programs, Grammarly is fantastic at pointing out typos and grammatical issues and alerting you to the clarity, correctness, delivery and engagement of your writing, giving you an overall score. Incredibly, there’s a free version and a premium paid version. If you’re good at knowing why something isn’t working in your writing when you see the yellow underline (and you know the fix), the free version will do you just fine. If you’d prefer Grammarly to tell you what the specific issue is and offer you the fix, paying for a premium subscription is likely worth it.
Readable
If capturing written tone is challenging, you might find Readable’s tone and sentiment tools a great help. By analysing the tone of your work, the tools help you make adjustments so you can connect with your audience. Readable will even evaluate and help you balance professionalism vs personal warmth for your corporate work, and will detect keyword density to ensure your pieces are found by the Google bots.
MindMeister
If you’ve got a brain buzzing with a million ideas, MindMeister can help you map out your plans and minimise the panic that you’ll forget something. Bright and colourful (which I can only imagine is to cater to us creative types), the mind mapping tool can be used for project planning, brainstorming and meeting management, and can be used collaboratively with a team if you’ve got one. There’s a free basic plan, or paid plans for personal and professional use.
Marinara Timer
If getting distracted is your Achilles’ heel, the custom timer/work productivity tool from Marinara Timer can be the nudge you need to stay focused. Based on the Pomodoro Technique – 25-minutes working, followed by a 5-minute break, cycled four times (and a 15-minute break after the fourth work cycle) – Marinara Timer has options to set time segments that fit your workflow, helping you reduce distractions and stay on task.
Hemingway App
If you’d like a program that can help you improve readability, Hemingway App has you covered. Grading you on things like hard-to-read phrasing, pointing out where you’ve got an overabundance of adverbs, where passive voice is impacting your piece, and pointing out when you might be using ‘big’ words just for the sake of it, Hemingway’s goal is to help make your writing bold and clear.
Of course, while these programs are all fantastic, none can replace the value of a professional proofreader and editor. With industry experience and a grasp of written tone that a computer can’t replicate (as well as the know-how to break a grammar rule or two), nothing compares to the real thing.
To see how a professional proofreader and editor can help improve your writing and your business, contact us today.