Laura’s Winning Ideas

Proposal Expert, Laura Ricci, Muses on How She Reached Her 85% Hit Rate, Creating and Managing Dynamic Teams and Living Through Turnarounds Supporting Good People Doing Great Things

Software Improves Your Writing

— LRicci at 1:25 pm on Thursday, May 18, 2006

Some of the technical writers of STC recommended this software and it is quite good.

One feature I especially like is that you can specify the type of document on which you are working. It allows different rules for legal documents and technical docs than instructions or marketing prose. You can also get help editing for the King’s English if you are shipping to the UK or Australia, or US English if the reverse is true.

The software adds a button to your wordprocessing software, so it is easy to launch. You review the recommendations and then make your changes before touching your document file.

Editor Software offers a 30 day trial for $30. The software is $160 US, with your $30 trial price applied to the full license if purchased within the 30 day trial. You can also purchase the software for $150 from the US site, I don’t think you can try it out for $30 first, but you have a 90-day money back guarantee.

The firm offers a full writing course as well, if you have some folks who are determined to improve their writing.

After I tried this out on a proposal, I changed settings and ran it on a legal contract. The plain english recommended was an improvement, and the software stayed away from changing some key legal phrases.

Now if I could just figure out how to get it on the toolbar of my blogging software….

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Comment by Janet S.

May 25, 2006 @ 10:04 pm

Do you know about Bullfighter? It’s an Office add-in, originally developed at Deloitte Consulting, now independent: http://www.fightthebull.com

And it’s free.

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Comment by LRicci

May 25, 2006 @ 11:45 pm

Thanks for the suggestion! I downloaded this tool, which focuses on vocabulary puffery and explains why it should be removed. Unfortunately it doesn’t do more to improve the writing. As a free tool, it is worth trying out, though it is limited in it’s application.

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