Are you your own blog editor? It can take us as long to edit a blog post as it does to write them. Although it takes time it is well worth putting in the effort. If your blog is easier to read people are more likely to remember your key points, read your blog posts through to the end and come back for more.
This weeks cool tool, Hemingway assists you in the editing process. It points out common errors, tells you when your text is too complicated and gives you a readability score.
Here’s how it works
- Visit the Hemingway website. Highlight the sample text and delete it.
- You can either copy the text that you want to edit and paste it in to the text box or write directly in to it. In the example I’ve pasted the text from my last blog post.
- Hemingway highlights text that requires your attention. On the right hand side of the screen is your readability score, I got 9 for this sample but it plummeted to 5 when I pasted in the text for this post. The ‘Grade’ refers to the lowest education level required to understand your writing.
- Also on the right there is a key to the highlights and what they mean.
- Now you can edit your post to get rid of the highlights.
I found it quite challenging to edit my long sentences but the resulting post was seems more concise and to the point. Using this on a regular basis should help me to focus my mind on creating better sentences in future.
I like the gameification element. I enjoyed making the highlights go away as I improved my writing and felt a great sense of achievement when I had finished. On my second attempt, although my score was lower there were no highlights, this made editing harder.
This isn’t a perfect tool, I found that it missed some errors in my writing that would be obvious to a human reader. It will make bloggers and writers think more about what they write and avoid common errors.
This could be an invaluable tool for those who want to take their blog to the next level or who are struggling with their writing. It will make you a better blog editor and it’s one I know I will be using again.
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