5 Must-Have Proofreading Tools For Academic Writers

As an academic freelance writer, you are required to provide high-quality papers free from errors and mistakes. If the client is not satisfied with your work, you will have to waste time on revision. Moreover, a single negative review can harm your reputation and lower your chances of getting good orders again. However, proofreading and editing your own writing can be exhausting and time-consuming. You cant rely on automatic spell-checks within your word processor or text editor. Instead, try using professional writing tools. Here is our list of free online proofreading tools. You can choose those that fit your budget and needs.

Readable.io 

Writing papers for different academic levels can be difficult. You have to alter your writing style, language, and tone to fit your clients requirements so that the paper you create is not overly complicated or simplified. This useful tool will tell you everything you need to know about the texts you write. Paste your writing into the box and wait for the web app to analyze it. You will get a full report on the readability, including an overall score with useful tips to improve it. There are several readability grade levels and readability scores. An overall text quality analysis shows how often you use long words and sentences, passive voice and even cliches. The report also includes statistics and balance analysis. They show your texts gender, tone (formal or conversational), and sentiment (positive or negative). With all this data, you can quickly improve the papers you write to fit the clients requirements.

Language Tool 

This is a relatively new project, but it is evolving fast. Its key difference from similar tools is the ability to check texts in multiple languages. If you need to check your French, German or Spanish, Language Tool is the right choice. The software can find mistakes in almost 30 languages. Moreover, there are six versions of English: Canadian, Australian, British, American, South African and New Zealands. There are extensions for LibreOffice, Chrome, Firefox and Google Docs, as well as a desktop application.

Slick Write

This an ultimate free online tool for proofreading. You can type the text into the box or paste it and instantly get the results. The software will highlight misspellings and typos, as well as other types of mistakes. You can alter the proofreading settings to include different types of mistakes according to your writing style and the clients preferences. Extra features include flow analysis and text statistics. You will get a better understanding of the frequently used words and phrases and get the suggestions to improve readability and overall text quality.

Grammarly 

Another online proofreading tool that can come in handy for freelance academic writers. Unlike other services, Grammarly searches for different types of errors, including spelling, grammar, style, sentence structure, and punctuation. After pasting or typing your text, you will see an overall number of mistakes and suggestions for improvement. There is a premium version available, that includes extra enhancement suggestions and specialty checks for specific types of writing. Plagiarism check is another premium feature. Using a free web app, you can get an idea of how many extra errors you can correct. The yellow counter at the bottom of the screen will show you the dreaded number.

Proofread Bot 

This is a minimalist online proofreading tool capable of finding grammar, punctuation mistakes and errors of style and providing suggestions for correcting them. The web app is free and easy to use, however, you can upgrade to a premium version. Unlike other tools, Proofread Bot charges by the word count. Pro Checks start at 0.01 cent per word. You can gain free Pro Checks by teaching the Bot new types of grammar mistakes. Submit the sentence with a grammar mistake, its correct version and provide an explanation. After your submission is approved, you will get 25,000 words of Pro Checks.

This list could be much longer. There are dozens of similar online services and desktop applications that professional writers love. We tried to include only the most useful proofreading tools that are free and easy to use. There are no downloads or installations required. Every tool can be used online and provide actionable information within seconds.