{"id":282,"date":"2016-09-04T13:26:55","date_gmt":"2016-09-04T17:26:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/techrhet.com\/3213\/?page_id=282"},"modified":"2016-09-04T13:26:55","modified_gmt":"2016-09-04T17:26:55","slug":"writing-resources","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/techrhet.com\/3213\/writing-resources\/","title":{"rendered":"Writing Resources"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>Writing Resources? (Cool Tools?)<\/h3>\n<p>There&#8217;s no formula or algorithm for effective professional writing, nor any app, tool, or resource that will turn poor writing into great writing. However, tools can help us identify problem areas, tighten and clarify language, and even check our tone.<\/p>\n<p>None of the links below will guarantee great writing, but they might be helpful if you&#8217;re looking to improve your clarity, conciseness, or tone. Sans Bullshit Sans and BlaBlaMeter aim to help writers eliminate &#8220;bullshit&#8221; from their writing (in professional writing, we often call them &#8220;canned&#8221; or &#8220;boilerplate&#8221; phrases, &#8220;business-ese,&#8221; or jargon). The Tone Analyzer and FoxType Politeness claim to help writers check for impoliteness, aggression, and unnecessary formalism and offer suggestions for revision. UpGoer Five checks writers&#8217; texts against the 1,000 most common words (and UpGoer Six color codes text according to commonality).<\/p>\n<p>While I haven&#8217;t tested any of the five apps above extensively, I do occasionally use the Hemingway Editor. While it&#8217;s available as a free in-browser tool, I like it so much I paid for the app. It can help writers identify long, complex sentences, common grammatical errors, and instances of passive voice (remember, passive voice isn&#8217;t &#8220;wrong&#8221; as long as it&#8217;s used strategically).<\/p>\n<p>Nothing is perfect, so try these at your own risk. Happy Apping. :)<\/p>\n<div class=\"noborder\">\n<table class=\" aligncenter\" style=\"width: 90%;\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"width: 225px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top; padding: 15px 10px;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.sansbullshitsans.com\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/techrhet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/bullshitsans-2.png\" alt=\"Sans Bullshit Sans\" width=\"275\" height=\"183\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<td style=\"vertical-align: top; padding: 15px 10px;\">\n<div style=\"font-size: 150%; font-family: 'Roboto Slab';\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.sansbullshitsans.com\/ \" target=\"_blank\">Sans Bullshit Sans<\/a><\/div>\n<div style=\"padding-top: 10px; padding-bottom: 5px;\">Is your friend a rockstar brogrammer? Are you being asked to cause a paradigm shift? Does your co-worker have the job title \u201csocial media guru\u201d? There is a solution. Sans Bullshit Sans. The font that replaces every buzzword by a Comic Sans-styled censorship bar.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 80%; font-family: 'Roboto Slab'; font-weight: 300; text-align: right;\">[text via <a href=\"http:\/\/pixelambacht.nl\/\" target=\"_blank\">PixelAmbacht<\/a>]<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"width: 225px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top; padding: 15px 10px;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/tone-analyzer-demo.mybluemix.net\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/techrhet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/tone-analyzer-3.png\" alt=\"IBM Watson's Tone Analyzer\" width=\"275\" height=\"183\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<td style=\"vertical-align: top; padding: 15px 10px;\">\n<div style=\"font-size: 150%; font-family: 'Roboto Slab';\"><a href=\"https:\/\/tone-analyzer-demo.mybluemix.net\/\" target=\"_blank\">Tone Analyzer<\/a><\/div>\n<div style=\"padding-top: 20px; padding-bottom: 5px;\">Perhaps a bit too aggressive in your emails? Are your blog posts a little too friendly? Tone Analyzer might be able to help. The service uses linguistic analysis to detect and interpret emotional, social, and writing cues found in text. Then, it also offers rhetorical suggestions for an author to improve the intended tone of their message.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 80%; font-family: 'Roboto Slab'; font-weight: 300; text-align: right;\">[text via <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ibm.com\/smarterplanet\/us\/en\/ibmwatson\/developercloud\/\" target=\"_blank\">IBM Watson Developer Cloud<\/a>]<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"width: 225px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top; padding: 15px 10px;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.hemingwayapp.com\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/techrhet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/hemingway-2.png\" alt=\"Hemingway Editor\" width=\"275\" height=\"183\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<td style=\"vertical-align: top; padding: 15px 10px;\">\n<div style=\"font-size: 150%; font-family: 'Roboto Slab';\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.hemingwayapp.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Hemingway Editor<\/a><\/div>\n<div style=\"padding-top: 20px; padding-bottom: 5px;\">Hemingway App makes your writing bold and clear. The app highlights long, complex sentences and common errors; if you see a yellow sentence, shorten or split it. If you see a red highlight, your sentence is so dense and complicated that your readers will get lost trying to follow its meandering, splitting logic \u2014 try editing this sentence to remove the red.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 80%; font-family: 'Roboto Slab'; font-weight: 300; text-align: right;\">[text via <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hemingwayapp.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Adam Long &amp; Ben Long<\/a> \/ <a href=\"https:\/\/medium.com\/@HemingwayApp\/announcing-hemingway-2-0-4046eaa118f\" target=\"_blank\">Medium<\/a>]<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"width: 225px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top; padding: 15px 10px;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.blablameter.com\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/techrhet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/bullshit-2.png\" alt=\"BlaBla Meter\" width=\"275\" height=\"183\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<td style=\"vertical-align: top; padding: 15px 10px;\">\n<div style=\"font-size: 150%; font-family: 'Roboto Slab';\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.blablameter.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">BlaBlaMeter<\/a><\/div>\n<div style=\"padding-top: 20px; padding-bottom: 5px;\">How much bullshit hides in your text? PR-Experts, politicians, ad writers or scientists need to be strong here! BlaBlaMeter unmasks without mercy how much bullshit hides in any text. A useful tool for everyone involved in writing!<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 80%; font-family: 'Roboto Slab'; font-weight: 300; text-align: right;\">[text via <a href=\"http:\/\/www.blablameter.com\/impressum.php\" target=\"_blank\">Ilse Burisch<\/a>]<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"width: 225px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top; padding: 15px 10px;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/splasho.com\/upgoer5\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/techrhet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/upgoer5-2.png\" alt=\"Up-Goer Five Text Editor\" width=\"275\" height=\"183\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<td style=\"vertical-align: top; padding: 15px 10px;\">\n<div style=\"font-size: 150%; font-family: 'Roboto Slab';\"><a href=\"http:\/\/splasho.com\/upgoer5\/ \" target=\"_blank\">Up-Goer Five<\/a><\/div>\n<div style=\"padding-top: 10px; padding-bottom: 5px;\">Can you explain a hard idea using only the ten hundred [1,000] most used words? (Or try the <a href=\"http:\/\/splasho.com\/upgoer6\/\" target=\"_blank\">Up-Goer Six Prototype<\/a> &#8212; it color codes words depending on how common they are).<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 80%; font-family: 'Roboto Slab'; font-weight: 300; text-align: right;\">[text via <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TheoSanderson\" target=\"_blank\">Theo Sanderson<\/a> \/ <a href=\"http:\/\/xkcd.com\/1133\/\" target=\"_blank\">XKCD<\/a>]<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"width: 225px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top; padding: 15px 10px;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/labs.foxtype.com\/politeness\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/techrhet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/foxlabs-politeness-2.png\" alt=\"Fox Labs FoxType Politeness\" width=\"275\" height=\"183\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<td style=\"vertical-align: top; padding: 15px 10px;\">\n<div style=\"font-size: 150%; font-family: 'Roboto Slab';\"><a href=\"https:\/\/labs.foxtype.com\/politeness\" target=\"_blank\">FoxType Politeness<\/a><\/div>\n<div style=\"padding-top: 20px; padding-bottom: 5px;\">Foxtype helps you write in a more polite, friendly tone. We rate the politeness of your sentences. We also help re-write your sentences to sound more polite.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 80%; font-family: 'Roboto Slab'; font-weight: 300; text-align: right;\">[text via <a href=\"https:\/\/labs.foxtype.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">FoxType<\/a>]<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"width: 225px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top; padding: 15px 10px;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/mortenjust\/cleartext-mac\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/techrhet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/cleartext-5.png\" alt=\"ClearText for Mac\" width=\"275\" height=\"182\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<td style=\"vertical-align: top; padding: 15px 10px;\">\n<div style=\"font-size: 150%; font-family: 'Roboto Slab';\"><a href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/mortenjust\/cleartext-mac\" target=\"_blank\">Cleartext (for Mac)<\/a><\/div>\n<div style=\"padding-top: 20px; padding-bottom: 5px;\">A text editor that only allows the 1,000 most common words in English. I just got Randall Monroe&#8217;s new book <a href=\"https:\/\/xkcd.com\/thing-explainer\/\">Thing Explainer<\/a>. Only using the top 1,000 words makes the text really easy to read. I thought I would make it easy for people to write like this, so I made this application. It&#8217;s cool to be clear.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 80%; font-family: 'Roboto Slab'; font-weight: 300; text-align: right;\">[text via <a href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/mortenjust\">Morten Just<\/a> on GitHub]<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"width: 225px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top; padding: 15px 10px;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/expresso-app.org\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/techrhet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/expresso.png\" alt=\"Expresso\" width=\"275\" height=\"182\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<td style=\"vertical-align: top; padding: 15px 10px;\">\n<div style=\"font-size: 150%; font-family: 'Roboto Slab';\"><a href=\"http:\/\/expresso-app.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">Expresso<\/a><\/div>\n<div style=\"padding-top: 20px; padding-bottom: 5px;\">Expresso is a little tool to edit texts and improve your writing style. It will teach you to express yourself through writing more efficiently and help make your texts more readable, precise, and engaging.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 80%; font-family: 'Roboto Slab'; font-weight: 300; text-align: right;\">[text via <a href=\"http:\/\/expresso-app.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">Expresso<\/a> by Mikhail Panko]<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"width: 225px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top; padding: 15px 10px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/techrhet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/browser-tools.png\" alt=\"In Browser and Other Writing Tools\" width=\"274\" height=\"183\" \/><\/td>\n<td style=\"vertical-align: top; padding: 15px 10px;\">\n<div style=\"line-height: 1.35;\">\n<div style=\"padding-bottom: 10px;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/cliche.theinfo.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">Cliche Finder<\/a>: Find cliches based on <em>Associated Press Guide to News Writing.<\/em><\/div>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom: 10px;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.onelook.com\/reverse-dictionary.shtml\" target=\"_blank\">OneLook Reverse Dictionary<\/a>: Describe a concept for related words &amp; phrases.<\/div>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom: 10px;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.onlinecorrection.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Online Correction<\/a>: Find spelling, grammar, and stylistic errors.<\/div>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom: 10px;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ftrain.com\/ThePassivator.html\" target=\"_blank\">The Passivator<\/a>: Browser bookmarklet to flag passive verbs and adverbs.<\/div>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom: 10px;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.spamanalyse.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Spam Analyse<\/a>: Check if your email newsletter is spam filter friendly.<\/div>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom: 10px;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/readability-score.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Readability Score<\/a>: Determine Flesch-Kincaid and other readability formula scores.<\/div>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom: 10px;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/english.edward.io\/\" target=\"_blank\">Syntax Highlighter<\/a>: Determines and highlights parts of speech in pasted text.<\/div>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom: 10px;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/parts-of-speech.info\/\" target=\"_blank\">Parts of Speech Tagger<\/a>: Tags parts of speech in text.<\/div>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom: 10px;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/nlp.stanford.edu\/software\/tagger.shtml\" target=\"_blank\"> Stanford Log-linear Part-Of-Speech Tagger<\/a>:<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"boxemail\" style=\"width: 75%; margin: 50px auto 20px; line-height: 1.3em;\">\n<div style=\"font-size: 180%; font-family: 'Roboto Slab'; padding-bottom: 10px; margin-bottom: 15px; text-align: center; font-weight: 300; border-bottom: 1px solid #aaaaaa; padding-top: 10px;\">The Fine Print<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 90%; font-weight: 300; padding-bottom: 13px;\">Neither Professor Julia Mason [hereafter, &#8220;Professor&#8221;], Department of English, Florida Atlantic University, nor any of their associates, make any warranty, explicit or implied, including warranties of grammatical correctness, readability, conciseness, or appropriateness for any particular audience, purpose, or assignment.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 90%; font-weight: 300; padding-bottom: 10px;\">Inclusion in the list above does not imply endorsement. The Professor is not responsible for suggestions received from linked websites, tools, or apps, nor does she assume any legal, academic, or pedagogical liability for the accuracy, usefulness, completeness, or helpfulness of any information from this page, linked pages, or any other pages.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 90%; font-weight: 300; padding-bottom: 10px;\">As always, use good judgement, effective process (including, but not limited to, careful planning, thoughtful revision, and meticulous editing), and knowledge of strategies for effective professional communication.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 90%; font-weight: 300; padding-bottom: 10px;\">Do not attempt without first consulting a comprehensive rhetorical approach.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Writing Resources? (Cool Tools?) There&#8217;s no formula or algorithm for effective professional writing, nor any app, tool, or resource that will turn poor writing into great writing. However, tools can help us identify problem areas, tighten and clarify language, and even check our tone. None of the links below will guarantee great writing, but they <a href='https:\/\/techrhet.com\/3213\/writing-resources\/' class='excerpt-more'>[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/techrhet.com\/3213\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/282"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/techrhet.com\/3213\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/techrhet.com\/3213\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techrhet.com\/3213\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techrhet.com\/3213\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=282"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/techrhet.com\/3213\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/282\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/techrhet.com\/3213\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}