Six simple tools for polishing up your writing skills

Writing practice makes perfect—whether you need to write a compelling blog post, or a clear business plan, or a persuasive cover letter. There are also numerous online resources that can help you improve your writing skills. Below are six of the best ones.

1. Hemingway Editor

A massive mistake is not making your writing easy to read. Many people feel that using lengthy sentences and complex phrases shows off their writing skills. This is not always the case. Studies show that if you are writing for an online audience, you should assume your reader is at no more than a sixth grade level! Even in an academic piece of writing, being too wordy can bury the point you are trying to make. Hemingway Editor is a free app that highlights sentences that are difficult to read. It will also offer a readability grade.

2. WriteMonkey

Obviously, procrastination also has a negative impact on writing. When you are battling the urge to log on to your email or check Facebook every couple of minutes, it will be impossible to settle into your groove. If your writing is going to flow, you need to ditch the distractions. Which is exactly what WriteMonkey does: this productivity tool hides everything on the screen apart from your text. This means you can focus on your writing without anything else catching your eye. WriteMonkey is only for Windows, but if you are a Mac user try OmmWriter.

3. JetWriters

Despite the rapid development of machine algorithms, a human eye is the best tool for proofreading and editing. JetWriters provides custom writing solutions within very strict deadlines. You can turn to their professional editors to ensure a high quality paper/letter/business proposal, or if you’d like to order writing from scratch. Sometimes having an excellent example of a certain kind of writing helps the most—you see how it should flow and can fix your common mistakes easily.

4. Polish My Writing

This online proofreader is really helpful. When you copy and paste your writing into the Polish My Writing website, it will scan your writing for spelling mistakes and grammatical errors. The tool will also make style suggestions wherever appropriate. Each type of issue is color-coded to help you learn from your mistakes.

5. SpellChecker.net

This online spellchecker may not look very fancy, however, it does the job that it’s intended to do. Copy and paste your text and select the appropriate language, and the tool will find any spelling errors that may be lurking in your work within just a matter of minutes.

6. 750Words

The very best writers develop a habit of writing. Even if you do not have anything urgent to write, you should still put some thoughts on a page every single day. If you have ever taken a creative writing class, then you have heard about “morning pages.” This is a technique where each morning, a writer sits down and writes freely about anything for a set amount of time. 750Words is an online version of that. Each day, an email reminds you to log on and write 750 words. It is completely private, and you don’t have to share what you create, but developing this habit will make you a stronger writer.

These are just several of the countless resources available on the Web for writing assistance. So remember: there is always room for improvement writing-wise, as long as you make the commitment and effort to becoming a better writer.

 

 

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