Top 5 Online Writing Tools

If you are serious about your writing, you will want to be serious about not plagiarizing, citing sources, and spelling. There are tools online that can help with these things and more. Why not use these tools to your advantage?

Paper Rater

Paper Rater is free, which makes it a great online writing tool. In order to use Paper Rater, you have to click the button that says "Home," but there's nothing difficult about that. All you have to do is type in your title (or any title), paste your document, select your education level, select the type of paper, and agree to the terms of service. It sounds like a lot of work, but it is fast. Click the button that says "Get Report." You'll then be given a report of your document. It will tell you if it found a problem with your title, if it thinks the paper is plagiarized as long as you tell it to include originality detection from the drop down menu (and give you the URLs from where it is getting the content), check grammar, check spelling, and check word use. It will also give other statistics about the paper. If they don't apply to the paper, you can ignore them. It is up to you to if you want to pay attention to things it says. There are some things that are confusing or incorrect. However, human understanding always beats a machine. It is only a tool to help you check your paper.

Textalyser

Textalyser is a word density analysis tool. Some papers do not need any type of word density. However, many pieces of writing that go online need a certain keyword density. It is said that keywords should be between 2% and just under 5% in order for good Search Engine Optimization practices. Textalyser can help determine keyword density as it will analyzed the words pasted from a document. The amount of words to be analyzed and the amount of letters in each word to be analyzed can be changed at the site.

Merriam-Webster

Many word processors and web browsers have a spell checker installed. However, that does not mean they will have all the words you will use in your writing. Merriam-Webster is one of the best online dictionaries. It not only has English, but it also has Spanish to English. Then, it also has a medical dictionary, a thesaurus, and an encyclopedia. This online writing tool is free, but a subscription can be bought so the unabridged dictionary can be accessed.

BibMe

BibMe is not a site to create baby bibs. "Bib" in BibMe is short for bibliography. This site is one of the best online writing tools. Sources should be properly cited. BibMe allows for writers to input a URL or data and it will try to gather the information. However, if it can't be found, the writer can insert the information into the text fields. Each source is added one at a time by clicking the button "Add to My Bibliography." The result can then be copied and pasted into a document. The only part is being careful about URLs. Make sure the entire URL is posted if it is needed. BibMe can make APA, MLA, Turbian, and Chicago bibliographies. The choices are located in a drop down menu. Registering and logging into the site allows you to save bibliographies.

Google Docs

Google Docs allows writers to write online and save their progress. However, not only can writers write online, they can also write using word processors. Google Docs allows a variety of document types to be uploaded and converted to the Google Doc format or to stay in the format of the original document. If converted to the Google Doc format, as long as a writer can access the Internet, the document can be accessed. This way, important documents can always be accessed, no matter how far away from home a writer may be.