9 Tools for Writers and Editors To Do Your Job Easier

The rise of content in today’s world is vast, and without it, no brand or business would be successful. Everywhere we go, and everything we do is surrounded by content. It’s the frequent interaction we have with content that has made it important to the marketing world.

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In fact, 90 percent of what people interact with daily isn’t a person but a piece of content marketed towards them. Brands and marketers are using content like never before.

Every time a writer or an editor sits down to write, they need an arsenal of tools that will help them in producing original content. These tools can make the entire process of creating content online much easier. But often, the pressure to create something unique, interesting, and valuable can steer you away from the basics. They can also sharpen your skills in writing, so you come up with better pieces. 

Ranging from spell checkers to content analysis, these tools help you ensure your work is ready for publishing before your customers see it. Get all the details on how these 12 editing tools can help you in this blog post.

1. Google Doc

Creating a document with collaborators can be challenging. Having to send out email notifications to let them know that everyone should have the latest version of the file is a challenge when it is not automatic. With Google Docs, collaborators can easily track changes in documents in real time.

Google Docs is so beneficial for editors to work with authors and proofreaders. It makes it so easy to work on a document together and see everyone’s suggestions and notes. Google Docs allows you to collaborate with your editor, proofreaders, or other people easily for self-published authors.

When using Google Docs, you don’t have to worry about conflicts when two users are editing the same document simultaneously. When two or more people make changes to a Word doc, it is easy to lose track of changes and get “out of sync.” Changes to a Word doc may be overwritten by subsequent changes due to a simple conflict in merging. Google Docs avoids this mess and keeps everything organized and in order.

Comments on Google Docs also allow you to clarify users’ concerns and ask for clarification if needed. Because of the ability to comment, you don’t have to worry about losing any specific instructions for writing a document or confusing writers with different commands.

The primary reason for the popularity of Google Docs is that it is free and the most convenient tool for an Internet writer. Google Docs is undoubtedly the easiest tool one can use.

2. Grammarly

Grammarly is an essential tool because it saves you from embarrassing typos and spelling errors. With spell checkers becoming all but commonplace, it seems people have started to take them for granted. How many times have you received a tweet with 120 characters or less that has a word missing? Grammarly fixes those inevitable mistakes where even spell checkers fail.

Grammarly’s web app will check your documents for grammar and punctuation errors with only a few clicks. Premium users can even match their writing style and compare the piece to similar examples in their genre!

Grammarly will save you time, stress, and embarrassment by checking your email, social media posts, personal statements, and other documents for common mistakes in grammar and punctuation. It’s like having a best friend who is always ready to help and won’t judge.

3. Canva

If you’re a book blogger or you know one, you’ve probably heard of Canva. It’s often mentioned as the go-to design app for authors and book bloggers alike, but what makes it so unique? What is Canva, and why do authors use it more than any other design app?

Canva is a free online design tool that allows you to create graphics quickly and easily. Suppose you have little time and patience for complicated design programs; you don’t want to pay someone else hundreds to create something, only to find out it doesn’t fit your brand or message. Canva makes designing easy, even for someone who was never meant to be creative.

Canva is cloud-based so you can edit images on any device. It’s great to use with its incredibly simple interface. However, the most exciting feature of Canva is its available in 9 different languages: English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Italian, Dutch, Russian, and Romanian. This is a big plus for some authors who work worldwide and don’t speak English as their first language.

Canva is a fun, easy tool anybody can use to make beautiful designs.

4. Copyscape

Plagiarism is a significant concern when you publish content online and an extremely important issue if you want to build your reputation as a serious writer. Copyscape is an essential tool for every writer who wants to produce high-quality work free from plagiarism. Using this tool, you can ensure your writing conforms to industry standards and other potential publishers’ expectations.

Stealing someone else’s written material may seem like an easy way to get good grades or success, but doing so can lead to some serious consequences – even legal action. If you are working on your blog or other online magazines, this free online plagiarism checker can quickly tell you if you accidentally use another person’s work without credit.

Copyscape checks for plagiarized content on your website. Many people use Google to check for duplicate content, but this alone can’t be 100% relied upon. In reality, there are a lot of cases where Google won’t be able to pinpoint if two pieces of content are indeed the same or not. This is the precise reason why Copyscape was developed in the first place.

It can also be used to make sure that you avoid repeating yourself.

Copyscape’s main page displays how many times your article has been copied and by whom. Each copy comes with the byline of the website that published it, as well as the date and time it was published. Copyscape also provides a report that summarizes all the articles that have been copied from yours.

5. WebFX Flesch-Kincaid Readability Test Tool

Whether you’re writing for your company’s blog, creating an article for a publication, or drafting up a term paper for school, you want to make sure that most readers understand your writing.

After all, if people don’t understand what you’re writing about, they won’t be able to take in the entire message you’re trying to put across. This means that it’s important to understand who your audience is and what their reading level is as a writer.

Flesch-Kincaid can help you determine how readable your text is.

Flesch-Kincaid is an excellent tool for understanding the readability of your content if you’re trying to determine whether the document you’re writing or editing needs further improvement.

It tests the readability of any text. Whether it’s a paragraph, a website, or a newsletter, this simple tool will help you determine what parts of your writing might be challenging to understand.

Regardless of your audience or the subject matter, understanding how readable your content is vital to success. Rather than make educated guesses, let WebFX measure your content and help you know how readable it is.

6. Hemingway Editor

Have you ever read a piece of writing that makes your eyes glaze over from boredom? If so, then the piece of writing needs work. Hemingway Editor is an online tool that takes a sample of your writing and evaluates it for readability.

This is an excellent tool for beginning or experienced writers looking to get some professional editing tips from Hemingway. Based on your writing score, it provides suggestions for how to improve your quality and readability. Let’s take a look at what makes this tool so useful.

Hemingway is the must-use tool for all authors. This helps you write in a clear fashion that will not leave your readers confused as to what you are trying to say. The app will help you catch mistakes that you might have overlooked, such as the use of adverbs. The app will inform you how well the tool found the errors and suggest alternatives to change these errors.

It also corrects grammar and spelling, lessens sentences, resolves bloated text, and makes your writing bold and straightforward. Unlike other editing tools that slow you down, Hemingway App works in the background as you write.

Hemingway Editor focuses on readability. It helps you write clear, concise, and simple sentences and clarifies wordy phrases. It underlines excessively complicated language so you can easily understand what your audience will experience. Hemingway Editor highlights complex sentences and phrases, excessive passive voice, long words, phrases that qualify other phrases (adverbs), and more.

7. Thesaurus.com

Thesaurus is indeed a very powerful and incredible online dictionary tool that enhances the efficiency of your writing. Writers have to be extremely careful with the language they use because choosing the right word creates an impression on the reader about the article itself and the author. 

While you are writing an article for your blog or website, it can happen that a word you use is not conveying the exact meaning in words. In such scenarios, a Thesaurus can help by offering different options for your word selection. However, selecting a synonym should be done carefully and related to the context of your sentence or a whole paragraph.

Thesaurus.com completely transforms the way you view words. It gives immense vocabulary power and helps you to become a master of your language. It is the extension of dictionary.com, which is one of the most authoritative dictionaries available online.

Once you use the Thesaurus site, you will see how useful and helpful the word-by-word translation is.Thesaurus.com makes a very simple task of improving your vocabulary and fine-tuning your writing skills.

They also provide an educational reference to words that are often misused, as well as hundreds of literary quotations that accompany the Synonyms and Antonyms for the word you’re looking up. This free online tool is used by students, professionals, and authors worldwide who want to improve their writing skills.

8. AnswerThePublic

There are times when a writer is at a loss for topics to write about. Maybe it’s because they’ve written about everything in their niche, or there isn’t anything specific that comes to mind. There are several ways to find new topic ideas. You could use a brainstorming technique, such as mind mapping or freewriting. Or you could try using a keyword research tool like Answer The Public.

AnswerthePublic is a tool that uses Google autocomplete suggestions to help you bring traffic to your site. It’s beneficial if you’re stuck on ideas and need some fresh fodder!

It is a quick and easy way of conducting mass surveys by letting Google do all the legwork for you with their auto-suggest tool. Why send out surveys when Google will do it for you?

9. Cliche Finder

Do you overuse cliches in your writing? This happens to writers all the time. You might need to go back and reread something you have just written, only to discover a place where a phrase needs to be rewarded for originality or clarity.

Cliche Finder is a web application that helps you sniff out any “overused” phrases in your writing so that you can use less-clichéd language and use phrases that are more in line with your target audience’s expectations.

It doesn’t check for grammar or spelling (sorry); it just scours your text for overused phrases and ranks them based on how many times they appear.

It’s a great Word Processor Add-in that’s easy to use. Users are given three options for submitting text: by email, by copying and pasting into the form, or by uploading a document from their computer (when you input by email or copy/paste your writing, Cliche Finder gives you an embed code to paste into your blog or website so readers can search on cliche phrases).

The search results aren’t filtered by word count or character limit and are immediately available when submitted. When you view the results, you’re shown precisely which words (and phrases) were found – no judgment.

Conclusion

As a writer, there are tools you can’t live without. They make it easier to get work done, cut down on the effort required, and free up extra time for other essential tasks. There are nearly as many writing tools out there as writers writing with them, but don’t let that overwhelm you – the nine tools mentioned above are what we consider essential.

Creating content regularly takes a lot of hard work, but if you are passionate about your topic and know your target market, the rewards can be significant. While you will likely never become a full-time blogger, the focus that writing allows can open doors to other opportunities within your organization, such as training or coaching.

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