“Get insightful feedback on your writing with ‘Analyze My Writing – Reviews Your Text.’ This innovative Ghotit Real Writer & Reader configuration thoroughly analyzes your text, highlighting areas where you could improve your grammar, punctuation, and sentence structure. It also provides suggestions for word choice, clarity, and tone, helping you refine your message and effectively communicate your ideas. Whether you’re a student, professional writer, or just someone looking to improve their writing skills, ‘Analyze My Writing’ can provide valuable insights to help you elevate your writing to the next level.”
Clear, concise, and effective writing
Here are some tips for writing clear, concise, and effective text:
- Know your audience: Consider who you are writing for and tailor your language and content to their needs and level of understanding.
- Use active voice: Active voice makes your writing more direct and engaging. In active voice, the subject of the sentence is performing the action. For example, “The cat chased the mouse” is written in active voice, while “The mouse was chased by the cat” is written in passive voice.
- Use simple and familiar language: Avoid using jargon or complex vocabulary that your reader may not understand. Instead, use simple and familiar words to communicate your message.
- Be specific: Avoid generalizations and provide specific examples to illustrate your points. This will make your writing more concrete and easier for your reader to understand.
- Use short sentences: Keep your sentences short and to the point. This will help your writing flow more smoothly and make it easier to read.
- Use headings and bullet points: If you are writing a longer document, consider using headings and bullet points to break up the text and make it easier to scan and read.
By following these tips, you can write clear, concise, and effective text that is easy for your reader to understand and engage with.
Sentences, Keep Them Short!
Long sentences take more energy to process than shorter ones. So, why put unnecessary burden? Just like words, sentence length and rhythm are linguistic tools at the disposal of a writer.
Long and convoluted sentences affect comprehension and readability.
Period. Without careful crafting, they can be hard to understand.
Still, too short sentences produce choppy writing, flawless and simplistic . Over-shortened sentences hinder the expression of complex ideas.
A set of short sentences convey complex information much more effectively than a single, overloaded, sentence. They break the information into smaller, easier-to-process units.
Sentences overburdened with dependent clauses and exceptions confuse the audience, You can’t see the forest from the trees..
Examples:
Original text:
The highways were covered with ice therefore school was canceled.
Corrected by Ghotit:
The highways were covered with ice; therefore, school was canceled.
Original text:
It is very painful for me to be forced to speak the truth actually it is the first time in my life and I am really quite inexperienced in doing anything of the kind.
Corrected by Ghotit:
It is very painful for me to be forced to speak the truth; actually, it is the first time in my life, and I am really quite inexperienced in doing anything of the kind.
Original text:
I was in my bedroom on my computer doing my homework then suddenly my computer started doing funny things.
Corrected by Ghotit:
I was in my bedroom on my computer doing my homework; then suddenly, my computer started doing funny things.
Original text:
I fell in my room then, my sister took my candy.
Corrected by Ghotit:
I fell in my room; then, my sister took my candy.
Original text:
Being jet lagged is no fun, it can cause people to not function properly.
Corrected by Ghotit:
Being jet lagged is no fun. It can cause people to not function properly.
Original text:
It can in fact serve for educational purposes that is why it should be up to the administrators.
Corrected by Ghotit:
It can, in fact, serve for educational purposes; that is why, it should be up to the administrators.
Original text:
I can indeed confirm that the app will be downloaded on a school iPad we are really looking forward to testing your different products.
Corrected by Ghotit:
I can indeed confirm that the app will be downloaded on a school iPad. We are really looking forward to testing your different products.
Original text:
During sixth and seventh grade I went to the middle school they had an after school activity called the Club.
Corrected by Ghotit:
During sixth and seventh grade, I went to middle school. They had an after school activity called the Club.
Original text:
When I get home, i won’t have to do it i can just go outside and play and don’t have to stay.
Corrected by Ghotit:
When I get home, I won’t have to do it. I can just go outside and play and don’t have to stay.
Original text:
In conclusion working in groups is not a good idea, let the students work by themselves and get the work done much easier.
Corrected by Ghotit:
In conclusion, working in groups is not a good idea. Let the students work by themselves and get the work done much easier.
Overcome fused sentence mistakes
Many dysgraphics handle purely fused sentences.
What is a fused sentence?
In a fused sentence the author mistakenly joins two independent clauses without assigning a punctuation sign. Consequently, the reader can’t acknowledge where one idea ends and another begins.
Ghotit replaces fused sentences with a simpler and a more straightforward form.
Examples:
Original: The roads were covered with snow therefore school was canceled.
Corrected: The roads were covered with snow; therefore, school was canceled.
Original: I went to school although I was feeling bad in fact I had bronchial pneumonia.
Corrected: I went to school although I was feeling bad; in fact, I had bronchial pneumonia.
Original: You will receive from a good friend of mine credentials to his account please use the info confidently.
Corrected: You will receive from a good friend of mine credentials to his account. Please use the info confidently.
Original: You are right it does get very hot.
Corrected: You are right. It does get very hot.
How come fluent speakers write poorly?
Quite frequently you meet impressive people, ideal partners for discussions, who manage to expressive their views using rich vocabulary, who know how to fit the exact terms to their views, best partners for exchanging views. You send them an email and, and, surprise, surprise, their response exhibits poor choice of words, misspelled terms, awkward syntax. You ask yourself, how come? Was I misled by his or her discourse? Well, the answer is no, your first impression was right. He or she is not dumb. He or she suffer from a common disability, dyslexia and/or dysgraphia.
Quite frequently dyslexics show a blunt mismatch between written and verbal abilities.
What explains this mismatch? This selective retrieval? The main reason for this phenomenon is quite trivial, this person uses a subset of his vocabulary, those words he or she spells correctly.
By offering a set of alternative terms Ghotit assists you, the dyslexic or dysgraphic, to expand your writing vocabulary and thereby demonstrate your real capabilities.
In the above example the writer is using the word problem 3 times. Ghotit offers five terms to the term “problem” helping you replace it in fit with text context.
Dyslexics Hell Words
Written word that contains many letters can be hell for dyslexics.
You welcome to try to write the following words (each word has 25 letters or more).
Dyslexics Hell Words List:
Amygdalohippocampectomies
Antidisestablishmentarian
Antiestablishmentarianism
Cholinephosphotransferase
Electroencephalographical
Microspectrophotometrical
Octillionduotrigintillion
Pancreaticoduodenectomies
Quinquagintacentilliardth
Quinquagintacentillionths
Quinquagintaducentilliard
Quinquagintaducentillions
Quinquagintatrecentillion
Quinquanonagintilliardths
Quinquaoctogintilliardths
Quinquaquadragintilliards
Quinquaquadragintillionth
Quinquaquinquagintilliard
Quinquaquinquagintillions
Quinquaseptuagintilliards
Quinquaseptuagintillionth
Quinquasexagintilliardths
Scaphotrapeziotrapezoidal
Undecillionsedecilliardth
Uvulopalatopharyngoplasty
The longest dyslexics hell word I found has 52 letters:
Aequeosalinocalcalinoceraceoaluminosocupreovitriolic describing the spa waters at Bath, England, is attributed to Dr. Edward Strother (1675–1737). The word is composed of the following elements:
- Aequeo: equal (Latin, aequo)
- Salino: containing salt (Latin, salinus)
- Calcalino: calcium (Latin, calx)
- Ceraceo: waxy (Latin, cera)
- Aluminoso: alumina (Latin)
- Cupreo: from “copper”
- Vitriolic: resembling vitriol
Phonological Memory
The ability to hold on to speech-based information in short-term memory is called phonological memory. We rely heavily on our phonological memory when reading and spelling. This skill is assessed by asking students to remember strings of numbers or to repeat nonsense words of increasing length and complexity. Students with poor phonological memory are unable to hold as much phonological information in mind as their age-matched peers. When recalling nonsense words, they tend to forget parts of the word and/or confuse the sounds and sequence of sounds in the word. Students with dyslexia and/or dysgraphia often have weaknesses in phonological memory.
How to Review Dyslexia Writing Software?
What are the criteria for selecting dyslexia writing software or app for those with dyslexia?
What should be the review process?
Which features/capabilities are the most important?
How do I review and grade different writing apps/software packages?
Dr. Robert Iakobashvili, Ghotit CTO: I have been asked this question numerous times. Here is the list of my recommendations for reviewing writing dyslexia software or apps and finding the solution that fits you best.
1. Choose your own text samples.
Test the dyslexia software with your own text samples. The solution needs to assist your writing, so collect samples of typical text written by you or your targeted user group, and test these text samples.
2. Use text samples from multiple sources.
It is recommended to use numerous samples from diversified sources written on different subjects. Using a large enough and diversified corpus takes more time, but it has a real value in understanding what each solution can deliver to you or your institution.
3. Don’t use any published text samples in your reviewing.
Why? Many software companies collect published samples. These companies then optimize their algorithms to make sure that the published text samples produce good scores. You don’t want to be fooled by such targeted optimizations.
4. Make sure the solution is self-learning.
Don’t you want a solution that with time will understand you better? Make sure that the solution supports intelligent algorithms that learn your writing and offer improved suggestions the more you use the solution.
5. Make sure the vendor provides additional value compared to MS-Office, Pages, Windows, Mac or iOS platform tools.
For most people (those without dyslexia), the standard Windows, Mac or iOS spell checker and word-prediction are good enough. Why spend money on a writing dyslexia software if you already have a good one? Take your text samples and compare the results between the Windows spell checker and the selected dyslexia app/software. Write your phrases with word-prediction and see if you get the right predictions faster with less typing using a software tested than using the standard tools and if it’s easier to comprehend and select the right prediction.
See also if there are specific features offered by the writing assistant software vendor (word-banks, topics, dictionary with definitions, read-out-loud, etc.) that provide you even additional value.
6. The more users are testing the solution, the better.
If you are reviewing a software for an organization or a group of users, try to engage in the evaluation process as many potential users as possible. The different users should be asked to provide their inputs in different areas: correctness of the algorithms, user experience, features, etc.
7. Be precise in defining the reviewing goals and criteria of success.
The success criteria can include:
– Correctness of the suggested words upon text correction
– Improved grammar and punctuation
– Increased speed in typing due to an effective word-prediction technology
– Ability of prediction to cope with spelling/typing errors
– Feature completeness – e.g. integrated dictionary, read-out-loud.
8. Make sure that the solution inter-operates with your targeted environments.
Does your customer base use Windows? Macs? iPhones? Android devices?
Make sure, the solution supports all of the different devices that you need.
9. Confirm that the vendor is a credible supplier.
Many basic spell checking algorithms are published and can be easily programmed. Verify that the vendor is a credible vendor with a real business that offers support when needed.
10. Make sure that your vendor is dedicated to the dyslexic community
There are many writing apps for dyslexics out there. Some of them are generic spell checkers that are positioned as solutions for the people with dyslexia. But children and adults with dyslexia require more sophisticated writing adaptive solutions. Make sure that your vendor is familiar with the specific challenges that those with dyslexia face reading and writing text, and that the company is dedicated to the learning disabilities market.
This article doesn’t cover reviewing of complex all-in-one dyslexia solutions, like our recent Ghotit Real Writer & Reader 6, containing several types of assistance:
– Writing Assistance with Quick-Spell Word Prediction;
– Reading Assistance by Text-to-Speech Reader with dual highlighting, Integrated Talking Dictionary and Screenshot Reader;
– Text Correction including misspelled words, confused words/homophones, grammar and punctuation.
You can find links to the known independent reviewing of Ghotit software here: Ghotit Software Review. Note, that the views presented and recommendations are those of the reviewers and do not necessarily reflect Ghotit-recommended Best Practices.
Development of Dyslexia Adaptive Solutions is a Real Challenge!
This blog is the first one in the two blogs series: the first explaining the difficulties facing a spell checker designed for the people with dyslexia and the second blog discussing developing of a word prediction writing system for those people.
Generally speaking, developing a spell checker is a relatively simple task. All you need to do is to figure out whether a word is in dictionary and if not to suggest valid words with similar spelling. This problem sounds simple, and it is indeed simple if the following conditions are met:
The correct word you are looking for has the same number of letters as the misspelled word, or the user made only one spelling mistake.
Thus, all you need to do is to find words that have one letter difference from the word the user misspelled (edit distance is equal to 1) and present them in a way easy for the user to choose from. That could be accomplished, for example, by sorting the suggested words by their frequencies of language usage.
Unfortunately, the above pattern, equal size words and a single error, does not fit the needs of dyslexics (samples of “dyslexic” writing) since in many cases people with dyslexia misspell a word with non-equal length word, and in most cases their spelling is a phonetic spelling with multiple errors.
The challenging task is to correct a misspelled word when you don’t know neither the number of letters in the real word nor the number of errors. It is clear, however, that in order to cope with this more complex task, dyslexia spelling software shall simulate human way of thinking.
To correct a badly spelled text, we read the entire text, comprehend it, mark the words that are spelled incorrectly, and suggest corrections based on the entire text context and the grammar rules. This is a very complicated path to follow for just a piece of software!
Try Ghotit and see how it works!
So, You Are Dyslexic: a Slow Reader and an Out-of-the-Box Thinker.
So you are dyslexic. A slow reader and an Out-of-the-Box Thinker.
(Slogan taken from Yale University)
I know the feeling. I am too one of those guys.
I was diagnosed as a Dyslexic as a young child.
I struggled in school – probably would not have graduated without the support of my parents.
I struggled in college – usually by sitting in class and listening to the lectures without writing any notes. (I did marry the girl next to me who wrote the notes).
I had difficulties maintaining a 9-to-5 job – that is why I started Ghotit, my own business with a great partner called Robert, to provide dyslexics just like me with an awesome assistive writing solution…
I am still a slow reader- though I love and slowly read any non-fiction book I can get my hands on… And I like to think of myself as an Out-of-the-Box Thinker…
So are you dyslexic and an out-of-the-box thinker and slow-reader?