Writing is an important form of communication. It not only helps us communicate ideas with the world outside our minds but is also a window into our inner world. The way you write and phrase your sentences speaks volumes about your personality and, in certain situations, can mean the difference between landing or missing that coveted job you always dreamt to have.
Effective communication breathes clarity and unless you are able to articulate your ideas in clear and comprehensible language, your communication will always hamper your progress. One important way to enhance the clarity of your writing is to make sure it is error-free.
Let’s be honest, nobody likes to read a piece of text with glaring grammatical errors. It turns you off. I get tons of emails on a daily basis and those with too many spelling and grammatical errors are the first to be crossed off my reading list.
In an age where grammar and spell checkers are just a click away, sending an email riddled with grammar and spelling errors is a clear sign of disengagement and, in certain contexts, an indicator of lack of respect. We all make grammar and spelling errors.
Certainly, nobody is perfect, but as teachers and educators we can instantly tell whether the writer of a piece of text has put some effort into editing their text or not. The point I want to make here is that to err while writing is human but to refrain from proofreading is foolish, to say the least.
Writing is not only about communicating ideas but is also about building rapport with readers, ones you have never met and probably would never meet. The clearer your writing is the better chances you stand of enhancing the overall comprehensibility and outreach of your message.
There is a wide variety of tools to help you with your writing. The purpose of this post is to share with you some of my favorite writing tools that offer the following features: grammar check, spell check, and paraphrasing.
In other words, it is not only about spotting (standard) grammatical and spelling errors that we are after but, more importantly, contextual errors that create semantic confusion and impair the comprehensibility of our message (e.g., confused words, punctuation errors, dangling modifiers, incorrect tense, redundancies, and more). These forms of errors are best captured using the AI-powered tools below.
Most of these grammar and spell checkers are also available as Chrome extensions. I invite you to check them out and share with us (on our social media platforms) if you have other suggestions to add to this list.
1. QuillBot
2. Wordtune
3. Grammarly
4. ProWritingAid
5. Grammar Check, by Writer
Writer offers a powerful AI-powered grammar check that enables you to detect all forms of grammar errors in your text from ‘silly punctuation errors to nuanced grammatical mistakes, irregular verb conjugations, misspelled words, and more’. Some of the features provided by Writer’s editor include plagiarism checker, style guide builder, tone detector, a spell checker, among others.
6- OutWrite for Chrome
7. Grammar Checker and Rephraser, by Reverso
Reverso offers this amazing editor that enables you to easily check for spelling, grammar and style errors. It also includes an AI-rephrasing functionality to use to reword your sentences. The way Reverso works is simple: type in your text or copy and paste it in the editor and hit either ‘Check’ to check for grammar and spelling errors or ‘Rephrase’ to generate reworded phrases.
