As I have acknowledged before, writing is a daunting process, but there are many online programs available to aid in this process. In this post, I will be reviewing the Hemingway Editor to help you determine if it is the right program for you.
In my previous blog post, I discussed and reviewed Grammarly, a program available for writers to check and improve their grammar in their work. As you know, grammar is an integral part of writing, whether personal or professional. Another vital element of writing is the work’s readability. As an author, you want your reader to read your work with relative ease.
Hemingway Editor can help with that.
What Hemingway Editor Does
Hemingway Editor is a free, online program that targets sentence structure. The program’s stated goal is to make your writing bold and clear. Hemingway Editor does so by providing suggestions on how to simplify lengthy and complex sentence structures to strengthen your writing style.
The program operates off a color-coded highlight system. For example, lengthy sentences are highlighted in yellow, while dense sentences are highlighted in red. It provides an overall readability score to help the user gauge how simple or complex their writing is.
Hemingway Editor gives you an option to omit suggestions if some of the selected recommendations go against the style or tone you are going for. I will caution that Hemingway Editor does not check for grammatical errors, so it would best be used in conjunction with a program that checks grammar, such as Grammarly, if that is something you feel you need.
Additionally, I do not advise that Hemingway Editor or any other program replace the advice of a professional editor. Instead, they can help you polish your manuscript before an editorial submission.
The Two Options: Hemingway Editor Free and Paid
Hemingway Editor offers both a free and paid option for its users. The free option is built into the website. To use, simply begin typing or copy and paste your work on the site. The website allows users to switch between the write and edit functions, giving you the option to either write and edit in real-time or write first and edit after.
Alternatively, a desktop app version of Hemingway Editor is available for $20. It is available on either Mac OS or Windows and provides all the features of the website edition of the program and a little more. With the desktop app, users can utilize Hemingway Editor with or without an internet connection and directly export their work to programs such as Microsoft Word.
Writers can also directly publish to WordPress and Medium from the desktop app. If the piece of writing is for a webpage, the Hemingway Editor app provides the proper HTML and Markdown formats. For those who want to send edits to someone else, the desktop app allows a piece of writing to be saved with the Hemingway edits intact.
The Final Verdict on Hemingway Editor
For writers interested in improving their sentence structures and readability, I find that Hemingway Editor is a great option. The program’s streamlined format and suggestions make it easy to use and edit as you see fit. The website version is sufficient, especially for writers who copy and paste their work into the program to edit.
If you are looking for a program to write directly in – especially offline – you may find the $20 price tag of the desktop app worth it for the ability to save and export your work within the program. It’s a small investment for a lot of nice additional features.
Now that you know about Hemingway Editor and how it can aid you in streamlining your manuscript, are you ready to begin the editing and publishing process? If so, look no further than MindStir Media. With various available self-publishing packages, MindStir Media has everything you need to begin your publishing journey.
Hemingway Editor Review
Summary
For writers interested in improving their sentence structures and readability, I find that Hemingway Editor is a great option. The program’s streamlined format and suggestions make it easy to use and edit as you see fit. If you are looking for a program to write directly in – especially offline – you may find the $20 price tag of the desktop app worth it for the ability to save and export your work within the program.