Hemingway App Improves Your Writing
Ernest Hemingway is back? The Ken Burns documentary about Hemingway has received a great deal of publicity. When Hemingway was must reading I fell hard for his succinct writing.
Now the free Hemingway App will improve your writing. Download the App. Write your piece. Paste it in to the App. Instantly color coded helpful information appears.
The example below details what the App told me about a piece I’m writing.
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Readability Grade 3
716 words
* Five adverbs meeting the goal of nine or fewer (Colored blue)
* Six uses of passive voice meeting the goal of 16 or fewer (Colored green)
* One phrase has a simpler alternative (Colored purple)
* Three of 78 sentences are hard to read (Colored yellow)
One of 78 sentences is very hard to read (Colored brown)
What do I think of the Apps critique?
It’s okay the readability is third grade.
The three hard to read sentences will be revised. The sentence that’s very hard to read will be made simpler or deleted.
My use of adverbs and passive voice is within bounds. I’ll create a simpler alternative for the phrase colored purple.
The App has counted 716 words.My editor wants 1,000. I can get by with ten more or ten less words. I have to write 284 additional words.
I interviewed Greg Morris, one of the stars of the original television version of Mission Impossible. Greg said 5,000 words. Marcia Gillespie, editor-in-chief of Essence, wanted 4,000. The Hemingway App would have been helpful.