Introduction
WordStyler® Lite Online (Beta) is a free, simple tool that can help you write plain English.
Take care
Make sure you exercise your own careful judgement when using the tool. The tool does not provide definitive results. Take particular care when using the tool on legal documents. (Some words and phrases have important legal meanings. Before changing legal words, phrases, clauses, or documents, you should get professional legal advice; we are NOT lawyers).
How it works
WordStyler® looks for 10 traits of "good" writing
WordStyler® checks your text against 10 broad traits of clear, persuasive writing. Specifically, we've coded the tool to:
- turn negative words into positive words
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turn nouns into verbs where possible
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prefer short words to long words
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prefer understatement to overstatement
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find alternatives to clichés
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remove or shorten "throat-clearing" phrases (such as "It is important to note")
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prefer specific words to vague words
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use modern language rather than archaic language
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identify and edit tautologies (two or more words that mean the same thing)
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identify and correct "eggcorns" (malapropisms, or commonly misused words and phrases)
WordStyler® then processes 15,000 "rules" under each of these categories
Under each of these categories, we have coded more than 15,000 "rules". These rules check for not only simple text matches but also complex patterns. An example of a simple text rule is:
- Find: "However"; Replace with: "But".
An example of a more complex rule is the rule that looks for "nominalizations" (phrases that turn verbs into nouns). The tool finds possible nominalizations by looking for patterns that nominalizations typically use. For example, we have programmed the tool to look for words that end in "-ment", "-tion", and other endings that nominalizations often use; look for weak verbs nearby (eg, "make", "conduct") and prepositions (eg, "of"), and suggest more active verb alternatives based on the structure of the suspect nominalization (eg, "examine" rather than "conduct an examination of").
Limitations
Right now, WordStyler® has lots of limitations. For example:
Measures you can take
To get the most out of the tool:
- check your spelling. If you have misspelt a word, WordStyler® might not find it.
- write a good first draft. WordStyler® works best when you have already got a good draft for WordStyler® to work on. So, try using WordStyler® only when you are confident about what you have written and you know what you are trying to say.
- think about WordStyler®'s suggestions. One of WordStyler®’s best benefits is the way it makes you think about your writing. When WordStyler® queries a word or phrase, think about why WordStyler® is suggesting alternatives. Think carefully about the different options and their potentially different meanings.
- improve your vocabulary. As Edwin Abbott wrote in How to Write Clearly (1883), "Verbosity is cured not by a small, but by a large vocabulary". Likewise, to get the most from WordStyler®, you need a good vocabulary so that you know whether simpler alternatives have the same meaning as the word you want to replace. To improve your vocabulary, use tools like Ultimate Vocabulary.
How you can help
We need your help to improve the tool. Specifically, we want you to email us your suggestions for words and phrases to find and replace (or, even better, patterns of words and phrases). For example, perhaps there is a particular piece of jargon that irritates you and you want to suggest a suitable plain English alternative. Contact us with your suggestion and, if we like it, we will code the software to implement your suggestion so that everyone can benefit. Also, please tell us about any strange results you notice when using the tool!