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| StyleWriter
Reviews |
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The
Daily Telegraph
by Richard Jones
- Editor of the Good Software Guide |
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StyleWriter
teaches the art of editing; how to run the editor's
pen through inadequate writing; how to cut the
waffle, how to turn a draft into clear and concise
plain English. It persuades users to change
their ingrained style. It persuades writers
to produce prose that helps readers - effectively
and briefly. And it is really very good.
The program works by analyzing writing for 35,000
known style and usage faults. To take two simple
examples, it suggests altering "It was
decided by the committee..." to "The
committee decided..."; and "This pamphlet
is intended to show..." to "This pamphlet
shows...."
Blindingly obvious when you think about it.
And it is what plain English is all about -
clear, concise and effective writing. It also
highlights complex words and suggest simpler
alternatives, draws attention to abstract words,
over-complex phrases, confused and misused words
(a far more common problem than poor grammar)
and the bare minimum of self-evident grammatical
errors.
The results of using plain English are stunning.
The UK Employment Department saved £250,000
a year in paper alone, merely by reducing the
number of words used. StyleWriter may well be
a surprise when you start to use it, mainly
because its advice is so devastatingly sensible.
Poor writing is often the result of slipshod
thinking or the muddled memory of unnecessary
rules.
StyleWriter has the chance to break habits most
writers are not aware they had. Anyone smug
enough to think they have no writing problems
should remember the old saying "Most writers
only have two writing problems: first they don't
know how to write; second they think they do!"
It is time to break these habits, either by
joining the Plain English Campaign, or, on computers,
using StyleWriter. It had a significant effect
on me, and I know I knew it all. These people
are talking my language, or indeed our language
- English - clearly. |
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The
Manual
Anne
Bradbeer reviews a software package that should
bring a touch of style to your work. |
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I
first encountered StyleWriter tucked away unpretentiously
at the back of a computer exhibition. It was
competing for attention with a virtual reality
game, free teddy bears, and a reconstruction
of a Parisian cafe. At least you could tell
what the StyleWriter stand was promoting. I
liked it already.
The package comes from the UK-based company
Editor Software. "StyleWriter is designed
for people who do a lot of writing, but wouldn't
necessarily consider themselves writers",
according to the program designers. I'm sure
it could benefit many people who do consider
themselves writers!
As a manual writer myself, I believe that good
software needs a good manual. When a product
claims to help with writing style, its manual
is doubly important. The StyleWriter (CD) manual
is excellent. It is clear, to the point, and
gives you every confidence in the claims of
the software.
The
Software
The
package is easy to use; you certainly don't
have to be a computer genius. It accepts text
directly from the most popular word processing
packages or through the clipboard. If you
have a little computer experience its use
is pretty intuitive, but the computerised
manual and tutorial provide thorough backup.
StyleWriter has two kinds of online help.
Predictably, one is about using the program.
The other is like having the Chicago Manual
of Style at your fingertips. For example,
if you forget how to use the exclamation mark
correctly, advice is available at the press
of a key.
As it checks your text, StyleWriter looks
for stylistic horrors such as long sentences
and passive constructions. It also watches
for sexist language, jargon and foreign terms
amongst a host of other problems. It checks
for up to 26 different categories of stylistic
and proofreading pitfalls. The house style
category lets you include your own organization's
style rules for checking.
The Verdict
StyleWriter is undoubtedly useful for anyone
who writes, not just technical authors. It
takes the hard slog out of editing, and draws
your attention to stylistic faults you probably
didn't know you had. In an ideal world, every
technical author would have a copy of it.
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 10
FREE gifts included
with StyleWriter
- Electronic
Writing Course Trial
- Dictionary
and Thesaurus
- Writers
Outliner
- Typing
Tutor
- Demonstrations
- Tutorials
- Writing
Guides and
more!
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are so convinced that StyleWriter Style Checker
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