1. Grammarly; 2. Hemmingway; 3. Cliche Finder; 4. Headline Analyzer; and 5. Email Subject Line Analyzer.
Grammarly is a browser extension you can download on Google Chrome that will automatically check all of your online writing for basic spelling and grammar mistakes.
When the program finds errors, it will underline them in red and provide a suggested replacement.
If you want to invest a little more in your writing, there is a paid version with even more features that professional writers love.
Ernest Hemmingway, the author that the app is named after, is known for writing with short, direct sentences that are very easy to read.
Thus, the program will score the readability of your writing based on a number of factors, including how complicated your sentences are.
Three helpful features are its “hard to read,” “simpler word,” and “passive voice” features.
Hard to read looks at how long and winding your sentences are.
Simpler word finds places where you are using a word or phrase that can be replaced with something more concise.
The passive voice feature identifies the use of passive voice. Passive voice means that your sentence subject is a recipient of a verb’s action. When writing copy, you almost always want to use active voice, where your subject acts on its verb. Active voice almost always packs a way bigger punch. You can learn a little more about passive and active voice here.
Like Grammarly, Hemmingway has a paid version– their desktop app costs $20. However, the online version is free and works perfectly well.
Cliche Finder does exactly what it sounds like— it finds cliches in your writing.
Cliches are phrases whose meanings aren’t literal. Some examples include “I lost track of time,” “don’t put all of your eggs in one basket,” “time heals all wounds,” “gut-wrenching pain,” and “scared to death.”
In the writing world, they are usually considered to be a huge no-no.
While there is some room for cliches in casual copywriting, it is usually best to avoid using them excessively because they can make your writing more difficult to read.
Headliner Analyzer works like this:
You feed the program your headline. Then, they rank it out of 100. Their algorithm looks at the following (plus more):
Words that make people more likely to interact with your headline.
Words that make people less likely to interact with your headline.
Number of words in your headline.
Number of characters in your headline.
The style of your headline.
Reading grade level.
They will also give you suggestions for improving your headline.
Headline Analyzer and the next tool, Email Subject Line Analyzer, make it quite difficult to get a perfect score. I wrote a novel and the Analyzer and the SEO score was 79 so I went with it. Personally, try to aim for a score in the 60-80 range.
I find that the tool is best used if you are stuck between a few different ideas and want to know which is best. It can also be fun to see the difference that small tweaks can make.
Also by Coschedule, like the tool above, Email Subject Line Analyzer reviews email subject lines. It uses an algorithm similar to the Headline Analyzer, except the elements are optimized to get you the most email opens.
A particularly helpful feature is that it will show you how your subject line will appear in people’s inboxes.
Mick Smith, Consultant M: (619) 227.3118
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