if you want to improve your writing you
might be thinking about using some free
spelling or grammar apps plug-in
websites the thing is are those any good
in today's episode I'm gonna show you
the capabilities of some of the free
products on there to help you polish
your work here we go
some might think that using a spelling
or grammar app as a writer is akin to
using autotune as a singer in a way you
are bypassing the skills and discipline
of writing and that is having a good
handle of the tools which are the
vocabulary and the structure which is a
grammar of the written language yet in
this day and age to not use a tool that
is available it feels like a stupid
thing to do it can be debated that what
is important are the ideas being
communicated so anything that can help
you communicate your ideas better should
definitely be taken advantage of and
spelling and grammar apps plugins and
websites are definitely there to help
you do that personally I'm a proponent
of spelling and grammar apps because
writing is not editing as a writer you
always want another set of eyes to check
your work just to catch mistakes that
you've made typos little grammatical
errors before you send it off to your
company to read not every writer has the
luxury of time and community to review
the work and that is why I think
spelling and grammar apps are helpful
that way also the writers who choose not
to use spelling and grammar apps still
have access to them it's like choosing
to walk but the bus is still there it's
still an option you can still use it
with all that off my chest today I want
to share with you for spelling and
grammar tools that are free available to
you right now but I want to review them
to show you what they're capable of
what they will miss and what they will
catch that way you can use them
strategically in your next project all
right
we go let's get started so in order for
me to review these tools I had to write
a paragraph full of spelling and
grammatical errors to see if these tools
can actually catch them so I wrote one
of the worst paragraphs I have ever
written thinking about trying to write a
paragraph full of mistakes it's actually
really hard give it a try so I wrote
this really bad paragraph above the city
I live in Vancouver it includes spelling
mistakes passive voice run-on sentences
comma splice stuff like that
so now that I have this paragraph I'm
gonna drop it into one of these tools
and to see what they actually catch all
right so the first tool I want to review
is called polished my writing calm so
here's how it works
I copy my paragraph my really bad
paragraph and I paste it into the text
box and I click check writing suddenly
all these different color squiggly lines
will pop up so right away I see that
polish my writing com missed out on a
lot of spelling errors and run-on
sentences but what it did pick up are
the complex phrases and words these are
words and phrases I could omit from my
story kinda I take a look at the
paragraph and what has been underlined
and I still I don't know if it's super
helpful I think this tool may be useful
as a final touch sort of scenario maybe
after you do a more thorough edit it
definitely missed a lot of spelling
mistakes and probably won't save you
from any embarrassment if you're relying
on it solely so the next app I want to
talk about is the Hemingway app which is
modeled after Ernest Hemingway who is
known for his brevity once again I'll
grab my paragraph and I will throw it
into the Hemingway app
what is great about this app is that it
shows you the readability of your work
so if you're using a really complex word
it'll let you know if you're using too
many words to describe a concept it'll
let you know if you're using run-on
sentences I'll let you know what it
doesn't do is pick up on spelling
mistakes what it won't do is pick up on
grammatical errors this app is
definitely not a spell checker and
should not be used that way but if
you're writing content for a really wide
audience this is actually a really good
app because it helps you write in plain
English it shows you where you're being
too complicated and how you could
simplify it the next app I want to talk
about but you've probably heard about is
grammerly now I'm not reviewing the any
of the paid version I'm just reviewing
the free version here these are all free
keep that in mind I'm gonna open up the
grammar early browser which link to all
these products are in the description
and i'ma see what it comes up with there
you go a bunch of red lines this looks
familiar so grandma Lee actually did a
really good job catching most of the
spelling errors and punctuation mistakes
but it was not too helpful in catching
passive voice run-on sentences and vague
descriptions so there you go grandma Lee
is probably the best choice so far if
what you want is to make sure everything
is spelled correctly so the last app I
want to talk about today is expresso so
while all the other apps today that I
reviewed focused on catching mistakes
here and there this one is more of an
analyzer so I'm gonna work the same way
I'm gonna copy and paste that bad
paragraph I have into expresso app and I
get something called metrics for editing
now this app has a lot of details and
suggestions and in doing so it could be
a little confusing especially when all
you want is to help check to see if
there's any mistakes this is not really
the app for that
if you're not confident in your spelling
and grammar' in the first place to be
able to correct mistakes that have been
identified I don't know if this is the
best place to go paste your writing in
and then click into each category and
try to understand why this word or
phrase was highlighted not every
highlight is a suggestion to change it's
more or less just noted for you to
consider whether you choose to replace
it or not that is up to you it's just
telling you that that is that so those
are for free spelling and grammar apps
and tools for you to consider using my
favorite app in this review is grammarly
I think it's the most useful one it has
a plug in it catches little spelling
grammar mistakes just when you're moving
quickly it's a good tool to have just to
clean up your writing really fast
my runner-up is definitely the Hemingway
app if what I'm writing needs to be
clear and concise I hope you found this
video helpful if you did don't forget to
hit that like button and if you want to
see more writing tips tricks ideas
inspirations please subscribe I'll see
you in the next video bye
