#Writers. A Review of ProWritingAid

In September of 2018 I bought a 2-year license for ProWritingAid PREMIUM. My cost at the time was less than 50¢ per week for the PREMIUM package. I've used it extensively since then. That's better stated as I've used parts of it extensively since then. I use the program an average of three days each week.

   I used the free version of Grammarly religiously until they cut back what the program did for free. I still use Grammarly's Chrome Extension for online writing. This post i being checked by tha eXtension asI write. Below is a screenshot of what that extension caaught in these paragraph. I like the extension and will continue to use it.

Clicking on the red circle with "5" in the middle opens the text allowing you to scroll down to each marked error. Alternately, you can hover your mouse over each red underline to open a drop-down menu of options.

ProWritingAid PREMIUM offers more options for checking your writing than Grammarly PREMIUM offers.

The Review
The options for evaluating your writing is impressive. As you can see in the screenshot below, I don't use many of the features. My goal of this software is to point out issues I know I have problems with. Before going to press, I send all my “chapter books” as my granddaughter calls them to a professional copy editor.

   Tied for my biggest complaint is the pitiful highlighting used by ProWritingAid. The top screenshot below is from Hemingway. The second is the same text in ProWritingAid. These two programs are apples and oranges, I'm comparing only the highlight feature.

Hemingway.

ProWritingAid

   Hemingway's highlighting is better than ProWritingAid's. I miss items underlined in yellow every time I use ProWritingAid.
UPDATE!
I emailed my complaint about their highlighting to ProWritingAid on March 9. I got the following on March 11. I'm impressed with the speed and content of their response.

Reading level is important. I try to keep my writing below the 6th-grade level in Hemingway. The Hemingway sample above rates the text at Grade 5. Below is the report I can generate in ProWritingAid for reading level.

This report provides an explanation of how the reading level is calculated and gives the scores from several sources available on the Internet. Flesch-Kincaid is a common report used by schools. The score is the same as Hemingway's since Hemingway rounds their score to a whole number.

   While I don't need all the information, providing multiple views of readability is a plus.

Speaking of reports, ProWritingAid offers a plethora!

Each icon across the top is a link to a report. I apologize for difficulty in reading the names under the icons.

   I don't use most of the reports. They serve no useful purpose for me although I can see the value of each. Below is a screenshot of the grammar report. It is concise and clear. I'm not sure why spelling and grammar are linked in this report.

   PREMIUM ProWritingAid includes a downloadable desktop version. I don't like it as much as the online version. Neither version maintains the formatting of the uploaded text.  Neither do Grammarly and Hemingway. 

Losing formatting while using the program ties poor highlighting for my biggest complaint.

   I sometimes upload unformatted text. More often, I copy/paste the corrections back into the original file or make the correction there instead of in whichever writing tool I'm using.

The Bottom Line

I upload every piece of writing to ProWritingAid before it goes public. 

(I made 15 changes based on the review of this post. I did one copy/past of my online fix and had to resize the text. Other changes were made here, not copied from ProWritingAid.)

One more thing...

There's a good chance that some grammar will be marked wrong in Grammarly or ProWritingAid and not be marked wrong in Word. Decide which grammar standard you prefer and stick with it. If possible, add your choice for a grammar rule to the program you choose to use if their version of the rule is out of alignment with your choice.

I like the program because

1. It points out habitually used style and wording that often should be another style or wording.
2. It causes me to look at wording around highlighted regions.
3. It's fast.
4. It gives alternative style and wording options.

I don't like

1. That it removes most formatting from the text.
2. The miniscule highlighting coloring.

So
I recommend this program. I don't consider it essential, but I use it all the time. I'm getting my money's worth. You can too if you look for a sale price.

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