One Tool You Need to be a Better Writer

Don’t you wish sometimes you were a better writer? Maybe you just want to stop making so many mistakes?

Well, I feel your pain, because I still struggle with writing, even though I write every day. Writing just isn’t coming as naturally as I’d hoped and maybe it’s my typing speed, or my inability to translate thoughts into words. Maybe I’ll never be a great writer, but I’m not going to stop trying.

Sure I’ve read plenty on this subject and have listened to more advice than I care to admit to. But, it was only when I took a step back and had a look at what was really happening I suddenly realised it wasn’t my writing that was a problem, I just needed a good Editor.

Yes, I seriously considered sending all my blog posts to be scrutinised by an Online Editor because my writing confidence was way down, and I just felt like I could be doing better. But, as I poked around Google looking for a reasonably priced  Blog Editor I stumbled on a product called Grammarly and I was really impressed.

What is Grammarly?

Well it’s not quite the Online Editor I was thinking of but, as it turns out I really needed a great proofreading service, to eliminate the common grammar mistakes that were creeping into my writing, and although I read, re-read and re-read my writing again, I just wasn’t picking these mistakes up. Well, that is until I meet Grammarly.

Grammarly is a free proofreading and grammar checking tool, that claims better results than Microsoft Word and is certainly doing a better job than a standard Internet Browser like Google Chrome or Firefox does.

What impressed me so much about Grammarly was the compatibility with the different places I write such as; WordPress, Word documents, Facebook and even Twitter. Grammarly’s has my back everywhere I write. And when I don’t want to be distracted I just turn it off until I’ve finished, I can then concentrate on just editing. Brilliant!

It even allows you to turn it on or off for specific websites that you regularly use, or you can simply log out when you don’t want it looking over your shoulder. Which gives you a little more privacy.

OK, I promised some number and here they are…

My Grammarly Weekly Activity

So after using this tool for a short while I was surprised to see you get a weekly email with some statistics on how you’ve been going during the past week. So let’s take a quick look at some of my numbers. Gulp!

Activity: 78232

What The F!*@K? I know I write about 1000 words a day, so these numbers are outrageous. Surely something must be wrong, shouldn’t it? At first I thought so but then I started to think maybe this is a number related to the work I’ve read/reviewed. You see Grammarly is busy checking all the documents I’m working on and some are just works in progress. So it’ll be interesting to see if this number goes down next week after it realises it’s already performed grammar checks on those documents.

Mastery: 510

Now this figure is more believable because I know how many correction I’ve made, thanks to Grammarly. I do write a lot of words directly in WordPress, taking advantage of the distraction free feature and the standard browser auto-correct way missing a lot of common mistakes. I’m certain Grammarly has improved my quality of writing and again it’ll be interesting if these number fall as I improve my skills as I recognise common mistakes. Could this tool be ideal for primary school students?

Vocabulary: 2085

It’s good to know I’m using a good range of words, so as not to make my writing seem like the same broken record. I do want to improve this number, even though I typically write on the same subject, which is currently all things about starting a blog.

In your weekly update, you also get a little reminder of the mistakes you might have corrected if you had the premium upgrade.

It’s definitely on my radar, but I want to experience the free version of Grammarly for a little while longer so I can get a baseline of my current writing skills.

Overused Words:

Again I nice little feature, to help you expand your vocabulary and to recognise some common word choices that you could substitute out for similar words.

As you can see I used CHOOSE quite a bit and also DECIDE, and what’s interesting is both came up as common words, so at least I was trying to use different variations, but obviously wasn’t trying hard enough. Just these simple hints will permit me to settle on another word in the future 😉

I wonder which words will be my ‘Overused Words’ next week? It’s all most like gamifying my writing, and I do love games.

Top Grammar Mistakes:

Ouch! they don’t go easy on you do they? I have to admit to all these mistakes and although I’d pick up at least half of these while I editing, Grammarly certainly picked up quite a few that I’d missed.

I’m hoping to improve these numbers over the coming weeks, so check back with me again to see if I’ve improved any.

Although I can feel an improvement already!

I have to say I feel uplifted about my writing, even when I’m reviewing these numbers again with you. I thought the damage was way worse, but in reality I think I’m doing an OK job as an aspiring writer. However, despite the numbers it doesn’t stop those nagging doubts in our heads, does it?

So what are you waiting for? Go get Grammarly for yourself and see if it makes a difference to your writing and more importantly to your writing confidence. As an aspiring writer, I recognise all the words are in us and it’s just the confidence to write down those words that stops us. And when you’re starting out with a blog and there’s no feedback, it’s nice to know at least Grammarly has your back. I truly believe this tool has made me a better writer and hopefully I’ll continue to improve.

I hope you’ve enjoyed poking around in my numbers even though initially I was hesitant to put them out there. It just makes me more accountable for these numbers now. And just before I turn on Grammarly to see the grammatical damage, I’d just like to remind you to share this with anyone looking for a little writing confidence and/or for a subtle hint 😉