Yes, they do.

Does this mean the writers are not talented? No. Does this mean they do not know their onions? Of course not. Are writers fakes for fixing their shortcomings with editing tools? Far from it!

A writer is good with or without editing tools. After all, the world’s greatest masterpieces were written long before Artificial Intelligence (AI) was introduced in writing. However, editing tools take you from a good to an efficient writer. 

What if Jane Austen had had Grammarly? What if Leo Tolstoy had ProWritingAid? Without a doubt, they would have achieved much more in less time. 

Still not convinced? Here are a few other reasons why you need an editing tool.

1. Editing tools save you time.

In place of re-reading countless times trying to spot errors that have continually eluded you, how about you run it through Proofread Bot or Slick Write? That way, you save time and guarantee quality.

2. Editing tools are lifesavers.

They hunt down split infinitives, attack poorly constructed sentences and even muck out every usage of a comma in place of a semi-colon. This way, some of the work is taken off the editor’s shoulders, affording him the chance to focus on weightier matters. 

3. You learn from them.

The first time Grammarly accused you of redundancy, you almost had a heart attack. You were aghast. ‘But I’m a great writer’, you protested. ‘And there is absolutely nothing wrong with “just” (never mind the fact it was completely unnecessary in the sentence). 

After months of strict correction and unapologetic blows to your ego, you start to pick up.

Today, you know that the word ‘just’ tends to be redundant. You learn that you are emotionally attached to ‘that’ and use it everywhere (even when you should not). You find that punctuating in a compound sentence is wrong because the editing tool drew a long red line under your favourite word ten times. 

Editing tools do not stop at alerting you to errors, they back up every correction with plausible and accurate grammatical explanations that help you brush up your writing and editing skills.

4. The editing is spot-on 

After wrapping up your three thousand word-essay, you declare yourself a pro, a master writer—the best among many. Your brain tells you there is not an error in sight. The only red marks in your work are under the names. Everything looks perfect, but is it?

It turns out the brain is very biased when it comes to the content it produces. Due to your familiarity with the content, you tend to skim instead of thoroughly examining the work. The bottom line is that you cannot trust yourself to edit your work. This is where editing tools come in. 

A no-nonsense AI editing tool is designed to take one look at your work and show you the many run-on sentences, poor word choices, and inconsistency issues. Not to mention the times you used ‘there’ instead of ‘their’. 

As you know, one rule of writing is no typos—at all. Typographical errors are one of the quickest ways to lose the reader’s interest. There are terrific editing tools out there. From Grammarly and Scrivener to ProWritingAid and Hemingway—these editing tools help take your writing to the next level.

You could also get assistance from editors and professional writers like Sabi Writers to give it that human touch.    

Is your writing the kind that makes the reader’s eyeballs bleed?

Do your family members cringe at the thought of reading something you wrote?

Have you ever heard your best friend whisper under her breath, ‘Is this content or torture?’

Do you get reviews like ‘your work is…eh…not quite there?’

Say no more.

We have compiled four practical ways by which you can make your writing more appealing and readable.

1. Write more in the active voice than in the passive voice

The eggs were eaten by the boys.

If no one has had the heart to tell you, we’ll do it: most of the time, writing in passive voice makes your readers’ get bored. Take it from professionals, there are healthier and reader-friendly ways to pass your message across.

For example, instead of that half-dead sentence, how about we say, the boys ate the eggs. This conveys a sharper image of the idea.

Passive voice isn’t bad in itself, but it fails to have as firm a grip on the reader’s mind as the active voice. If you must write in the passive voice, do it minimally.

2. Be concise and creative with words

If you’re a writer, then you must love words. However, you don’t need to remind people of your affection for words by pouring out all the contents of your logophilic brain in one blog post. It is the fastest and most guaranteed way for a reader to lose interest.

What to do?

Lose the extraneous material. If your sentence still makes sense without it, cut it out.

Just—cut!

Suddenly—cut!!

Really—cut!!!

Keep your writing as simple as possible while switching up the lengths of the sentences to ensure variety. Conciseness is one of the easiest ways to achieve a brilliant flow.

Also, choose words that compel your reader’s mind into action, words that stimulate the senses. The constant appeal to their imagination will keep them hooked to every page. Word use is an intentional process.

3. Let your work show confidence

You title a book, How to Make Five Billion in a Week and the chapters are rife with ‘maybe’, ‘might’, ‘you should’, ‘you may’, ‘it could’. That, dearest writer, is unacceptable.

You write to let your readers know what you know; you want to inform or teach them. For your message to be compelling, your writing must be devoid of every form of doubt and vacillation.

This brings us back to word choice. Replace words that suggest probability with words that carry an air of finality without sounding highhanded. Write in a way that makes the words come alive to the reader. This helps them connect to you and the content on a deeper level.

Shine through every word.  Give your readers a peek into the wonders of your mind.

4. Be an avid reader

In the words of Joseph Addison, ‘Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body’. This gives further credence to the fact that a writer should read, must read and has to read.

Writing and reading are like living and feeling—they go hand in hand. To develop a distinct voice in writing and speaking, you must read. Reading gives you diversity and weight. It enriches the quality of your work. Not to mention its profound effects on your grammar, vocabulary, and style.

If you will take no other advice, take this: Read.

Humans will always find the word ‘secret’ irresistible. To the average adult, a secret is a bridge between where they are and where they want to be. Even the greatest of companies and corporations have secrets on which they have built their success over the years.

Here’s a hard fact: beyond hard work and knowledge, dedication and passion, process and result, lie the secrets of everything: Time and Practice.

We know them, we hear about them, but we mostly ignore.

Let’s start with time.

Life is a superstructure of opportunities, outcomes, and choices balanced on eternally rooted pillars—rules and principles. Everything that is and becomes in life is life’s response to the application of rules and principles.

Time is one of those principles.

When a farmer plants a seed, he does not expect it to sprout in five minutes. He understands that regardless of his efforts, the seed needs time to grow. Unlike the farmer, many of us are impatient. We pluck infant dreams out of the soil because they did not burst into harvest soon enough. We abandon new enterprises, deeming them unworthy of our pursuit because Forbes did not recognise them in two years. A lot of people are so devastatingly impatient that they equate success to pace.

You must understand that time is the language of growth; the multinational corporations and conglomerates you admire are sitting on decades of effort, years of refurbished mistakes, countless hours of break-neck work. You cannot arrive at their results without putting in as much time, as they have.

Let time take your fragile dreams and build them into rock-solid achievements no one can take from you.

Be patient.

Now the second secret—practice.

Walter Pater says, ‘The way to perfection is through a series of disgusts’.

The frustration that comes with watching great people and being unable to achieve what they have is heart-wrenching. Sometimes, it seems as though they are beyond us by ten lifetimes. They know more; they’ve done more. The sight of them drives us crazy with hunger. When we ponder on it, we realise that successful people did not do anything out of the ordinary; instead, they gained mastery.

How did they come about it?

They practised.

Practice is an unravelling art; it strips bare the tapestry of any and every field, exposing it to you to conquer. It is an exploration to the haven of mastery. Stop moaning about how little you know; the difference between you and the people you think highly of is practice.

Put your back into it—practice like a maniac. Read, gather knowledge, attend classes, and then practice some more. In some years, you’ll be a pro. 

Finally, these two are all you need to be successful at anything. First, put in your best but give it time. Do not abort effort and resources because success did not come fast enough. Secondly, masters are not born; they are made. It doesn’t matter how much of an amateur you are; throw yourself into rigorous practise and see what happens.