In this ProWritingAid review, I’ll share how the software can help you solve several issues:
- Decrease reader frustrations by correcting spelling, grammar and punctuation errors.
- Reduce critical reviews caused by those embarrassing errors.
- Improve the consistency of sentences.
- Edit Scrivener documents without the need for copy and paste.
Table of Contents
- Introduction to ProWritingAid
- The ProWritingAid Solution
- ProWritingReview Recommendation
- ProWritingAid Advantages
- Edit Scrivener Projects
- Personalize Your Reports
- Learn and Enhance Writing Skills
- Get ProWritingAid
Introduction to ProWritingAid
➨How can ProWritingAid help your writing?
Readers lost because of poor editing seldom return. Book reviews point out a variety of problems. For example:
- Misused terms like “they’re” instead of “their.”
- Slow pace because of passive verbs and overused adverbs.
- Overly complex terms that confuse readers.
To sum up, ProWritingAid can help you decrease errors and increase your creativity.
➨Why not use a human editor to catch errors?
Professional editors earn their money by fixing whatever is wrong with your story. So it’s not a question of whether human editors provide value. Above all, ask what edits do I need and what do I fix first?
- Editors: The editor you choose depends on the writing challenge:
- Developmental: Do you need a big-picture critique and suggestions?
- Structural: Will feedback help you order the story events?
- Copy: Do spelling, grammar, and punctuation need correction?
- Line: Do the words flow and are the tenses consistent throughout the entire novel?
- Proofread: Do the many edits require another review before publishing?
- Expense: Human editors often base fees on volume and quality. Therefore, before you send a sample of work for a cost estimate, consider:
- A structural edit hindered by poor grammar, spelling, and punctuation will probably cost more.
- A copy edit prior to a structural edit might save money, but adjusting and moving text can cause new errors.
The ProWritingAid Solution
Writers can use technology to improve content and lower expense, but editing apps vary in cost and effectiveness. ProWritingAid is much more than a spelling and grammar checker.
➨Enhance quality and lower cost
ProWritingAid includes twenty-plus reports.
These reports can help you:
- Fix writing and grammar issues in Scrivener documents using the desktop app.
- Edit online with the browser extensions for Chrome, Firefox, and Safari.
- Pick the right words based on popular writing styles.
- Personalize your editing workspace and increase your productivity.
ProWritingAid Review Recommendation
I encourage you to read the rest of this ProWritingAid review before you buy. You’ll learn how the Artificial-Intelligence editor works with Scrivener, and if you sign up through my website, you can get a 20% discount.
ProWritingAid Advantages
➨Which grammar checker is best?
Years ago, I used the paid version of Grammarly. Even though I had to copy the text from Scrivener and paste into Grammarly, the app saved me from 80% of my most embarrassing slip ups.
I exchanged drafts with other writers and read their works in progress. Whenever I found spelling and grammar issues, I suggested they use Grammarly.
But then Grammarly raised the price. The increased cost forced me to consider alternatives. So I read several reviews and one emphasized how ProWritingAid worked with Scrivener.
I tested ProWritingAid and found it could load Scrivener files and save me money. I switched to ProWritingAid and haven’t missed Grammarly.
As an unexpected bonus, ProWritingAid improved my writing style and creativity.
➨Can ProWritingAid replace a human editor?
Think of ProWritingAid as a tool that helps you:
- Improve your writing while reducing errors, time, and expense.
- Make continuous improvement in your writing.
- Learn how to take your grammar and sentence structure to the next level.
Whoever reads your work after editing with ProWritingAid will appreciate that you’ve minimized distractions caused by spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors.
While ProWritingAid can’t eliminate critical reviews, it can help you decrease errors in published books that cause complaints and lost sales.
And keep in mind lost readers seldom return.
➨What can ProWritingAid do for your writing?
Check out the list of reports available on the menu toolbar.
After selecting one of the twenty-plus reports, if you click on the “More about this report” link, ProWritingAid gives a brief but powerful writing lesson.
So with ProWritingAid, you edit and learn, reinforcing your take-away!
➨How can ProWritingAid’s reports help your writing?
ProWritingAid suggests the use of stronger verbs.
The app encourages you to say what you want, but with fewer words.
ProWritingAid flags potential errors to keep you from using the wrong word.
It helps you pick the right word within the context of a sentence.
ProWritingAid maintains consistency of characters and settings by allowing you to customize your naming conventions.
The software shows where you can make paragraphs more readable.
ProWritingAid displays where the right sentence length can enhance your writing.
The desktop app for MacOS loads and saves Scrivener files, allowing you to edit and correct without copying and pasting.
Edit Scrivener Projects
➨How do you use ProWritingAid?
At this point you probably wonder, How do I put these reports to work?
Check out these before-and-after reports to see the benefits of using ProWritingAid.
☞Before Using ProWritingAid
☞After Using ProWritingAid
ProWritingAid helped improve content and trim 700-plus words!
After loading the Scrivener file into ProWritingAid, edit in three steps:
- Consider ProWritingAid’s suggestions.
- Accept or reject the suggested changes.
- Save the file.
Then load the edited file into Scrivener and you’ll see the updates!
➨How do I load a Scrivener File into ProWritingAid?
First, exit out of the Scrivener project you want to edit. Then use ProWritingAid’s menu to load your Scrivener file.
ProWritingAid shows the binder on the left, and from the list you select a document to edit.
➨What do I edit First?
I like to focus my editing priorities by starting with the Summary Report because it sets a benchmark for improvement. To record your progress, you can email or print the report.
➨What are your next steps?
Although you can edit your document in any order, this example began with the Style report. You then work through the issues flagged in the sidebar and underscored in the window.
Continue working through the issues, such as balancing the right mix of long and short sentences using the Readability report.
For longer documents, I methodically study each ProWritingAid report and determine which suggestions to accept.
Once you work through the typos, grammar, and punctuation, it’s worthwhile to look at the creative suggestions.
Minimizing distractions and enhancing content provides a genuine sense of satisfaction.
Personalize Your Reports
➨Why use the Combo Report?
ProWritingAid makes you aware of how each report can improve your writing and increase your productivity.
The Combo report allows you to include the reports that help you the most. ProWritingAid highlights the problems based on your top writing challenges.
That’s important because the possibilities range from a light analysis (i.e., include two or three essential reports) to a more thorough evaluation (i.e., select many reports).
You check the boxes to set the Combo report, but keep in mind the complexity increases with more selections.
➨How else can ProWritingAid help you improve your writing and productivity?
ProWritingAid allows you to define overused words, create your own style guides, and tweak dialog settings to reduce unwanted suggestions.
You can even get ProWritingAid to compare your writing to a favorite author.
Learn and Enhance Writing Skills
➨What else can ProWritingAid Do?
ProWritingAid offers useful articles and tutorials:
- Newsletter updates and videos on The Writing Process.
- Free ebooks with content equal to what you’d expect to find in paid books.
- How-to guides on grammar, punctuation, mechanics, techniques, and style.
- Reports linked to specific lessons to eliminate errors in your writing.
Examples of writing guides that come with ProWritingAid Premium:
Get ProWritingAid
➨How much is ProWritingAid?
Click the “Get ProWritingAid” button below to see the current price and get the 20% discount!
➨Is ProWritingAid safe to use?
The folks at ProWritingAid do not store your work on their servers. Therefore, no need to worry because they don’t keep any of your work after you finish an analysis.
➨What’s not to like about the app?
No software application qualifies as perfect, and ProWritingAid is no exception:
- Even though I received fewer false error flags as compared to my use of Grammarly, I still had to work through ProWritingAid’s suggested corrections.
- You must choose to “ignore” some recommendations.
- But even the few false errors often turn into opportunities, encouraging you to improve what you want to say.
- Artificial-Intelligence apps like ProWritingAid continue to improve, but still you must work through the reports.
- It takes time and effort to review each report and the suggestions.
- But as you apply corrections, you learn how to reduce errors.
➨Why buy ProWritingAid?
Take your writing to the next level with ProWritingAid’s reports.
➨Is there a free version of ProWritingAid?
The “free” version limits editing to 500 words at a time, it only operates online, and includes fewer reports.
Full-length novels benefit from editing all the words within the context of entire scenes. So instead of limiting your edits to 500 words, take ProWritingAid “Premium” for a test drive. The seven-day free trial includes all the paid features.
➨Do you subscribe or buy onetime?
If you buy through my affiliate link, you’ll be eligible for a 20% discount on the Yearly (annual) subscription or Lifetime (onetime) payment.
➨Where do I get ProWritingAid?
Affiliate Disclosure (click here to learn more): I based this review on my ongoing use of ProWritingAid Premium with Scrivener 3 for MacOS. This site is reader-supported, and if you buy through my website’s affiliate link, I may earn a (small) commission.
To get the 20% discount for the Grant Ferguson Community, click the button below. Then press the Buy Now button on the ProWritingAid site and scroll down to see the discount applied to the Yearly and Lifetime options. Select the option that’s best for you.