Wouldn’t it be great if you could have a writing coach who is always by your side?
Need to find the exact word? Just ask your coach. Need someone to take a quick look at your report, letter or email message? Your coach will be right on the case.
Did you know that there are online tools that could do just that? These websites and apps are there anytime we need them. With just a few keystrokes, they can help improve your writing. They’re the next best thing to having a language teacher beside you. What’s more, most of them are free!
Here are some of the tools and resources you can try:
1. Resources of the Language Portal of Canada
Where do I start? This portal has writing tools, quizzes, resources, and links to other resources to help improve your English (and French and other languages). It is a one-stop-shop for improving your language skills.
Have a language question? Use the Language Navigator. It is a search engine that looks up various online resources that could answer whatever linguistic mystery that’s bothering you. Termium Plus® is a linguistic data bank that helps you find the right words or terminology in English, French, Spanish or Portuguese. You can also explore a collection of writing tools, answer quizzes, read Canadian language news and The Our Languages blog. The portal also has glossaries and dictionaries, links to blogs, links to courses, and so many others.
The amount of materials can be overwhelming. A virtual tour is recommended to help you navigate the site.
2. Tools to improve your reading habits
Reading is the best way to improve your vocabulary and grammar. It also helps you learn proper sentence structure, tone and style. The following tools can help you build good reading habits. They provide reading lists that fit your interests. Meanwhile, Novelguide summarizes books by chapter and provides literary analysis to give you a better understanding of classical and contemporary literature.
3. Vocabulary & grammar builders
Get tips, quizzes, exercises, articles and other resources you need to boost your vocabulary and improve your grammar. Don’t know the precise word to use? Search it up! Having problems with tenses, plural forms, punctuation or idioms? These resources will help you understand them and evaluate what you learned through quizzes and other activities. They’re easy and fun to use.
Merriam-Webster
Daily writing tips
Grammar girl
Thesaurus.com
Grammarbook
Reverse dictionary
Usingenglish
4. Editing tools
Need someone to check what you wrote? These tools check your spelling, grammar and word choice as well as provide suggestions to improve your manuscript. For Grammarly and Ginger, you’ll have to download and add them to Chrome. For Grammarcheck, just paste your text onto their page and you’ll get an analysis. However, you will need to sign-up for the deep check which can detect more mistakes that may be difficult to spot.
Grammarly
Ginger app
Grammar check
5. Readability tools
After the editing tools on number 4, you may want to run your text through these readability tools. These count your words, evaluate sentence structures and the types of words you used to gauge whether your writing is easy to understand, precise, and engaging. Aztekera even makes sure that you use the active voice. These resources will also provide suggestions on how you could improve your manuscript.
Gunning Fog index
Readable.io
Word Counter
Expresso
Hemingway
Aztekera
A bonus: Do you want to optimize your resume keywords and compare them with the job description of a job you’re applying to? Use Jobscan. It provides detailed pointers on how you can improve your resume to boost your chances of getting an interview. The free account option allows up to five scans per month.
Article updated October 26, 2021.
Sources:10 tools to help you improve your writing skills, Sam Berkhead; and 11 best websites to improve writing skills in English, Srikanth AN, Shout Me Loud. All accessed March 5, 2018.
Community Resources
Want to have a productive lunch break? Learn our language tip of the week by joining Lunch & Learn every Mondays and Wednesdays at 12:00 noon over Skype. Check out the topics via the link.