Earlier this week, I published a Powerful lean-mean writing system for anyone. Based on my readers’ overwhelming response, expanding more on the free Hemingway Tool I had covered under step-3 of the guide.
We’re all writers.
Whether you write text messages, emails, presentations or business reports. You’re a writer.
Writing is not natural. We learn to write. We acquire it.
Which means, we can improve it.
We don’t need dedicated teachers, software is just fine.
One such software is Hemingwayapp.com It is free and powerful.
The Aim
Your aim is to stop using side-wheels. What I mean is, writing with software is like having side-wheels when you learn to cycle. Over time, you gain balance and that’s it!
How I use it
Once my first draft is ready, I go to hemingwayapp.com
Then I copy-paste my draft in this window.
I focus on three things:
1. Reading level: Hemingway uses an algorithm to calculate how easy it is to read the text. The lower the grade, the easier it is to read. I aim for grade-6. That’s the level of most of my articles. The grade changes as you edit your text in Hemingway. The trick is to write simple and short sentences.
2. Passive voice: I wish the school had taught us to minimize passive voice. No worries, that’s why the software. Passive voice makes our writing weak.
3. Hard-to-read sentences: There are many reasons behind difficult sentences. When you’re not a native speaker, you may jumble things in your head. And come up with a difficult sentence. Hemingway will draw your attention. Avoid using ornamental words. Replace them with simple words. No one in the history of mankind has seemed “intelligent” by using difficult words. What’s the point if the message can’t reach people.
Let’s try a sample
Look at reading-level of McKinsey’s 2021 year in review report’s intro paragraphs.
And now compare it with GrowthX’s founder Abhishek Patil’s recent LinkedIn post’s score.
Abhishek understands that his audience requires easy-to-read text. It needs to be easy to access. While McKinsey & Company has a tiny audience that appreciates jargons. They would find this difficult version just fine for them.
Context matters. Always.
That’s it for this week. Try this tool.
See you next Friday.
Reads of the week:
Two articles that I found interesting this week:
2. I want to lose every debate
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