Texting has become the new method of rapid communication. And with it has come what some would describe as a new “normal” language, full of abbreviations, emoticons, and acronyms. Indeed, there are now entire ‘dictionaries,’ so that newcomers to texting can understand and use this new language. 

Not So Fast

So, what will become of our traditional English? Will it slowly give way to this new language as we continue to look for ‘shortcuts?’ Unfortunately for those hoping so, the answer is no. Traditional written communication, in the workplace at least, will still be in demand, for almost any career professional – manager, teacher, architect, marketer, engineer, and even techies. And, in many professions, the ability to write well is a pre-requisite to employment.

Technology has also brought with it help for the writing-challenged. There are now tools that will correct grammar and spelling, that will automatically put in the correct punctuation, and that will perform lots of other editing tasks too. So, for those who are not currently mastering or did not master the art and science of writing in their academic careers, there is a newfound help. Here are eight tools that will clean up your writing.

1.    Hemingway Editor: Remember Ernest Hemingway? The master of writing simplicity? If you have a tendency to be verbose and to complicate your writing with “fluff” and unnecessary verbiage, this tool will bring you back to the basics. You simply upload your finished piece and let the tool do its work. It will point out awkward sentences, make suggestions for removing superfluous wording, and generally clean up the piece.

2.    Grammarly.com: There is both a free and premium version of this neat little tool. You copy and paste your written piece, and any grammar, spelling, punctuation, and phrasing errors will be pointed out, along with an explanation of why they are wrong and how to fix them.

3.    Writing companies reviews will help you to find the right writing agency with a huge cadre of professional writers for academic and business needs. Whether you need a basic essay for English class, a research paper in biology, or copywriting for business needs (and anything in between or beyond), you will be able to get exceptional pieces of writing, editing etc.

4.    Read-able.com: People who write have a variety of reading audiences. College students write essays and papers for their professors to evaluate. Formal, scholarly structure and language are necessary. A manager sending out a memo to his team members will use a less formal language style. And a content marketer will need to reach an audience with a casual, simple style. This tool will give you a reading level of what you have written – by age or grade level of reading the audience. You can then tweak and revise accordingly.5.    Thesis Builder: For students, this is a valuable tool. Every essay or paper must have a thesis statement, and sometimes it’s hard to form one. This tool will help a student create one, by entering the key elements and then letting the tool generate options.

6.    Title Generators: Sometimes, students and other writers are stuck trying to come up with a catchy, engaging title for their writing pieces. Fortunately, there are tools for this too. Here is a blog post that summarizes the best title generator tools for 2017. In most cases, you simply type in related keywords, and you will get dozens of possible titles.

So, here you have eight tools to get you started on a better writing process than you may have been using. There are many more, of course, but these eight will cover the most common challenges that most writers face – students, business professionals, or digital copywriters.