# Pro Writing Aid (thumbs down)



## VRanger

I just spent last evening and most of today evaluating "Pro Writing Aid". Its list of features, and its promises, looked attractive. I even found a coupon for 40% off, so I could have bought the "lifetime license" for $180 instead of $300.

I signed up for the seven day trial, and ran my WJC (work just completed) through it. Unfortunately, what I got out was a lot of absolute nonsense.

Some examples:

I named a business in the story "Consolidated Bank". It was suggested I should "simplify" Consolidated to "unified". The software couldn't tell the difference between a proper name and a normal word in context ... one of many issues it has with proper names.
I have a character named "Sally Norzon". It was suggested (27 times) that Norzon was misspelled and should be changed to "Norton". Evidently it couldn't figure out that if I spelled that name the same way TWENTY-SEVEN times, I might be serious about it.
The word "questioning" was flagged as a "dialogue tag", even though it appeared in the first sentence of a PREVIOUS paragraph, and did not refer to the speaker of the dialogue in the next paragraph.
Dozens of two word phrases were tagged as cliches which were not cliches.
Other phrases which could be cliches in another context were flagged as cliches, even though they were not in my context. For example, "in the dark" just might really mean the character is in a dark room, not that he doesn't understand something.
It has the same Catch-22 comma trap that made me turn off the feature in MS Word 20 years ago. If you have "and" in a sentence with no comma before it, the software suggests you need a comma. If you DO have a comma before it, the software suggests you should delete the comma. LOL (Do all that, run the check again, and it will reverse all those suggestions).
If you do make a correction, or tell it to ignore a suggestion, it does not propagate that action throughout the document. You'll see the same suggestion over and over again, anyway.
It will actually flag things which are right and suggest you make them wrong. I loaded a famous author's novel (more on that in a minute). He had the sentence "Drop the loose equipment!" PWA suggested that the word "loose" might need to be changed to "lose".

The list really goes on and on. The few things mentioned above happen over and over and over again ... at times HUNDREDS of suggestions which are simply wrong or meaningless. Plus, there are many more deficiencies I didn't bother to note examples of.

I'd say 90-95% of the suggestions are nonsense. I don't have days to waste flipping through the nonsense to find the few suggestions which might actually help.

The grades for my novel were generally good. It "Failed" me on only one report grade. The investigator in me took over, so I loaded a second instance of PWA and loaded the novel mine is a sequel to. The original was written by an author generally recognized at the top of his field. I let PWA analyze that novel, and he got worse scores than I did. LOL The novel is considered one of his best works. I scored higher than him across the board, and I am NOT the writer he was. And my "Failed" grade? It failed him in the same spot, with an even worse grade. LOL

I've looked at some other grammar checkers, and I'm generally not satisfied with any of them. I have looked at grammar checkers before, and I have the same complaints today I had 20 years ago. These developers are just going through the motions. They are not improving this class of software to become more aware of the* real world* of prose. Maybe they would help point someone who IS a terrible writer in the direction of some flaws. 

If you're not an incompetent grammarian, don't waste your money. Instead, know the few things you tend to need improvement on in a second draft, and look for them yourself.


----------



## indianroads

I use Grammarly (free version for Word), and considering what I paid for it, it's a good product. It catches more than word does, but I consider what it finds to be suggestions.


----------



## Cephus

I would never pay for any of these things, they're just not worth it. Grammarly, specifically, is written for business language and is near worthless for creative writing. PWA isn't really any better. You're better off just learning how to write in proper English. Granted, Word is no better. It has a serious problem with "its" and "it's". It doesn't matter which one you use, it marks it as wrong, tells you to change it to the other and when you do, it marks that one wrong too and tells you to change it back!


----------



## Periander

I hate spell checkers so much that I make sure I turn them off before starting a manuscript.  Those red wiggly lines drive me crazy.  If there's a mis-spelled word, it's because I somehow missed it in the proof-read.  Those pesky spell checkers!

Thanks for reviewing Pro Writing Aid, vranger.  I hate being micro-managed by a computer program.  Looks like I won't be paying for that service any time soon.


----------



## sunaynaprasad

I was considering Pro Writing Aid, but now I might find something else.


----------



## indianroads

sunaynaprasad said:


> I was considering Pro Writing Aid, but now I might find something else.



What problem are you trying to solve?


----------



## Ralph Rotten

I shun writing aids and all them fancy gizmos.
I started writing on a government-surplus Royal typewriter.
Now I use MSWord.


KISS principle.


----------



## sunaynaprasad

Indianroads, I want to eliminate all errors and typos before publishing. Even the editors I've worked with have missed to many errors. I've published my books with errors and not realized it until much later, sometimes, years after. Of course, I will still use editors, but in addition, I think I will also use an editing software.


----------



## indianroads

Has anyone tried AutoCrit? I've only just heard of this tool - what does it do?


----------



## Davi Mai

I use PWA for all my writing. I even write stories directly into it, not bothering with Microsoft Word anymore. I agree, some of its suggested corrections can seem a little weird. But it can be tweaked to improve, and anything can be ignored. Its way better than Grammarly.
Perhaps its more suited to noob writers like me. Because I find its detecting of things like "Sticky sentences" really useful, as well as the echoes and repeats function. I'm amazed at just how many times I fall into the trap of repeating a favourite adjective for example. It even detects repeats of 2,3,4 word phrases.
So yeah, for me.I couldn't do without it. I bought the lifetime license.  But your points are valid. It can be quirky 
(if anyone wants me to run their work through it, I'd be happy to)


----------



## Suzilla

I wouldn't pay for any writing tools, but I found that pro-writing aid provides a _lot _of tools in the free version, and because of that I prefer it over grammarly. I agree that the program doesn't take into consideration names or, in my case, word choice in dialogue, but other than that there doesn't seem to be a big issue.


----------



## Kent_Jacobs

I currently use this: https://www.reverso.net/spell-checker/english-spelling-grammar/


----------



## Jk_Sl

TheMightyAz said:


> I currently use this: https://www.reverso.net/spell-checker/english-spelling-grammar/



Thank You for this [emoji122][emoji122]


----------



## matthew1959

My experience with PWA is that I use it as a tool and nothing more.  Maybe it's because of my temperament, or my experience with maps and GPS as a truck driver, but I view all of this as just an aid to help me get where I want to go.  It's a bad idea to blindly follow a mathematical algorithm.  My approach is that I look at what it is flagging and then decide what I want to change.  Sometimes I will redo several sentences in the flagged passage, to me the value then is that it is highlighting something that needs attention.  I think we forget that a computer is nothing more than a bunch of on/off switches.  Programs are nothing more than instructions that tell a computer what switches to throw and when to do it.  The programs are wonderful tools, but are only as good as the craftsman using them.  You can give me a complete set of Snap-on tools, but I still couldn't change a water pump.


----------



## Phil Istine

I prefer to stick with just the word processor myself, with spell checking switched on.  Even the spell check is more for confirmation.  Perhaps I'm fortunate that my spelling and grammar are reasonably sound.  This means add-ons can be more a distraction than a benefit.


----------



## voltigeur

I found in both cases you have to tell Pro Writing aid and Grammarly what you are writing. Make sure you tell it in your doing creative writing, audiance and tone. 

I think these default to business which will cause the issues that you decribe here. 

I find it cathces the stupid stuff and Pro Writing aid is the best at catching repeated sentence starts and over used words.


----------



## Theglasshouse

There is a new software called Outwrite and I mentioned Microsoft Editor. I haven't tried it. But Outwrite is a combination of Grammarly and Prowriting aid. It might check for some things the others do not detect.  If someone is bad at catching active and passive voice then Prowriting aid might be a decent way to check for it. That said I can't recommend Prowriitng aid since all I can comment is on my experience with it and using the features to check on style issues. I will eventually check for coupons for Outwrite.


----------



## Deleted member 59879

Thanks for this piece. I was thinking of changing from Grammarly Pro which is quite good, especially for blog writing which needs to be tight, and ProWritingAid. I wanted the latter because it works in situ with Word on Mac which Grammarly doesn't. It only takes up to 15,000 words at a time on a Mac which is a real downer. I suspect a lot of the 'tightening' suggestions - removal of past perfect and the like is changing our language...to be as fast as the society we live in. Luxuriating in language seems to be forgotten but, Grammarly is a good first edit app. I found even after it, and 3 professional editors, I had to do the last of it myself...


----------



## EternalGreen

*It has the same Catch-22 comma trap that made me turn off the feature in MS Word 20 years ago. If you have "and" in a sentence with no comma before it, the software suggests you need a comma. If you DO have a comma before it, the software suggests you should delete the comma. LOL (Do all that, run the check again, and it will reverse all those suggestions).*

So it's me when I'm editing my own work.


----------



## RGS

Word has a "feature" where it'll put a double underline under a word because it "thinks" it's the wrong word choice. I can tell it to ignore and carry on, but the next time I start Word and open the document, there it is again. It can't be told to ignore it permanently (or I haven't really explored it too deeply), and I've actually revamped my wording on sentences just to shut it up.


----------



## Jardis

A good question to ask with any sort of technology is "Does everyone who would benefit from this idea use this product?" If the answer is 'no' then consider why that may be.

Many years ago friend of mine gifted me some little 'magic' plastic bags she had got from some TV shopping channel. These were, she claimed, guaranteed to keep all types of fruit and  vegetables fresh for longer. And, to be fair, they did...sort of. They kept them edible for about two weeks and in some cases three weeks. I thought that was pretty good!

Then I learned that actually wrapping the same vegetables in aluminum foil tightly also kept them fresh for about the same length of time and, in a few cases, a bit longer.

In hindsight it was obvious to me that if the Magic Plastic Bags actually did keep produce fresher for a significant amount of time then absolutely everyone on the planet would use them. They would be available at grocery stores right next to the produce as an upsell, etc.  

The fact is, good ideas are almost always popular ideas. There aren't really any miracle cures that are not universally used. That is especially true with the rise of the internet and how easy it is to promote things. The whole 'Doctors HATE this one simple trick!' type of product is generally either a scam or, at the very least, exaggerated snake oil. Yes, marketing can inflate the perceived benefits of poorly designed products but rarely is it sustainable for long because the main way that products are sold, word-of-mouth, does not happen when a product is dissatisfying. 

My experience of 'Writing Aids' is, generally, that they are dissatisfying. Often they include features that purport to be useful but, as @VRanger illustrates, cause more confusion than they help to solve. The features that do work are generally no better than Grammarly and what you get with most editions of MS Word and it's super important to point out that Grammarly and MS Word are used by roughly the right proportion of people who need what Grammarly and MS Word promise to provide, where Pro Writing Aid I expect probably is not: A quick google search did not reveal many 'pro writers' who use it. Why is that, I wonder?


----------

