Sentence Checkup:
What I liked about this tool is its suggestions for tightening the sentences by pointing out unnecessary words . Like it suggested MANY is enough, instead of MANY DIFFERENT. My text contained a sentence 'BUT THERE IS NO ONE TO LISTEN TO ME NOW.' The tool suggested removing TO ME. The suggestion makes perfect sense. Similarly , in the sentence I HEARD THE SOUND OF SOBBING COMING FROM THAT ROOM, it suggested the removal of THE SOUND OF . Again, it makes sense. Though I'd need to change the sentence a bit more if I accept this suggestion. Five words saved in one small paragraph. The tool also works well at pointing out missing or unnecessary determiners (a, an, the)
As this is an online tool, it is more suitable for checking shorter text. However , there is no text limit. So, you can use it to check even novels, one chapter at a time.
Grammarly:
(Links to Grammarly for MS Office, Windows, online checker etc. are present in the footer of the Grammarly homepage)
Hemmingway App:
Hemmingway online text editor is simple to use and has a clean user interface. You can write on it or copy paste the text on its editor. It automatically highlights the mistakes in different colours. Also, it has text formatting options like Bold, Italics, Bullets, Headings and Link.
Hemmingway also has a Desktop app for offline use. It is a paid software which includes features like HTML editing, export to MS Word, Save as PDF with Hemmingway highlights, publish directly to WordPress & Medium, etc .
Slick Write:
But overall , it works well.
One thing I dislike about Slick Write is that the Critique and Editing features are separate. The critique shows you mistakes but you must switch to the Editing to remove that mistake. The Editing space shows no underlines, so you must find that mistake yourself. And then switch back to Critique to see the next mistake. Then switch back to editing to remove it. And so on. It's weird and irritating.
I know this is not an online tool, though it to has its online app. But I'm talking about the offline program that most of us use. We must not ignore the spelling and grammar checking abilities of the good old MS Word. The newer versions of MS Word are quite good at weeding out mistakes. I have a subscription of Office 365. MS Word 365 is frequently updated. In just a year, I've seen several improvements in its checking abilities. Also, if you dig deep into the Setting of the Editor, you can further enhance its abilities. Click at Editor's Settings, then open the Settings next to Writing Style. In these settings, you can choose all the mistakes you want MS Word to check. Make sure you have chosen Grammar and Refinements in the Writing Style box. The refinements include checking for clarity and conciseness, punctuation conventions, and Vocabulary Choice.
Which text editor I use?Well, I have been relying on MS Word, mostly . For my blog posts, I have the Jetpack plugin's checker and the Yoast plugins readability suggestions . For my novel There's still no alternative to the good old diligence and reading and rereading the text to spot out mistakes . You Came Like Hope, I also used the Hemmingway app. I checked every chapter of my novel on it. For this blog post, I used all the editors I've mentioned above. They all serve their purpose. But none of them scored 100% in weeding out mistakes. They can lessen the proofreading work, but you still need to do manual checks.
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