It’s not enough that your online content is engaging and entertaining. The writing has to be mechanically perfect, too. This means no technical mistakes, no spelling errors, and certainly no factual inaccuracies. Sound like a lot of pressure? These nine online tools can really help the next time you need to proofread your work:
‘It’s especially good if you know something needs changing, but you’re unsure as to how.’ Illustration by Josh Quick.
1. Hemingway Editor: If you’re looking to improve your writing skills while you edit, this tool is great. Paste your writing into the text field, and the app will offer detailed feedback. The text is highlighted in different colors, based on what types of mistakes are in it, so you can see at a glance what you’re struggling with.
2. Proofread Bot: Getting copy out quickly is important when there’s breaking news to respond to. Even so, there’s no excuse for poor spelling or grammar. This tool is one of the quickest ways to publish your blog post without errors. Paste text in, get the feedback, make the changes, and you’re done.
3. Boom Proofreading: No one likes being distracted by errors in something they’re reading. This writing service knows that, so they’ve made it easy to send in your work for proofing. Their professional proofreaders will weed out the mistakes and even correct them for you — this can be an excellent time saver when you’re unable to proofread yourself.
4. Whitesmoke: This suite of tools can be downloaded directly into the text editor of your choice, so there’s no need to copy and paste. You’ll be able to get your work checked and make edits immediately in Word or Pages. What could be easier?
5. After The Deadline: When you paste work into this proofreading tool, it offers all kinds of editing options. Hover over highlighted words or phrases for improvement suggestions. After The Deadline is especially good if you know something needs changing, but you’re unsure as to how.
6. UK Writings: Online proofreading tools are great, but sometimes they don’t catch everything. There’s nothing better than having a real human read your work to check for mistakes — that’s where this writing service comes in. Their editors will proofread work for you, picking up errors digital tools could miss.
7. Slick Write: This site offers everything you need in a single package. As you write, it will detect errors and offer suggestions for improvement. It also provides lots of great additional features, such as calculating how often you use certain words or phrases, which is really helpful for any writer to know.
8. Assignment Writer: This service understands that sometimes you just need another human being to check your work for you. The spelling and grammar may be great, but it’s important to be sure that your ideas and explanations come across clearly. Assignment Writer can check this, in addition to providing title pages, tables of contents, and bibliographies.
9. Readability Formulas: ‘Readability’ refers to the ease with which someone can read and understand your writing. There are several formulas out there, which perform analysis to determine the average reading age required by your work. Generally, lower is better. This tool will compare your writing against several readability scales, and give you an average score. This can tell you whether changes are required to make your writing more accessible.
Try out these handy online tools the next time you need to do some proofreading. They’ll make the editing process a lot easier, and result in much better writing. In fact, you’ll be left wondering how you ever did without them.
Note: The opinions expressed by guest bloggers at the Submittable blog are theirs alone and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Submittable.
Mary Walton is online editor at Assignment Writing Service and researcher at Academized. She has been a professional editor and proofreader for more than 8 years, and she loves sharing tips and tricks in her posts. Read Mary’s recent article on her blog: Essay Roo Review.
