Overview
Writefull is an app that provides feedback on your writing by checking your text against databases of correct language.
You can activate Writefull in any tool (like Word, Outlook, TextEdit) by selecting a piece of text and hitting CTRL + Space. (see here how to change your keyboard shortcut).
Instead of using the shortcut, you can also enter a search in Writefull's search bar.
Choose the database you want to get your results from: Books, Scholar (ideal for academic writing), News, or Web. Find more info about the databases here.
Know how often a chunk (piece of text) appears
Writefull tells you how often a chunk appears in the selected database. The higher the number the more, likely that it is written correctly.
It also gives a number of sentences that contain your chunk. Click a sentence to see more of it.
For example, if you enter or select in concrete terms you get the results to the right.
Good to know: when using Web, News or Scholar, you can enter searches in any languages.
Compare two chunks
Writefull also allows you to compare two chunks. You just need to enter the chunks in Writefull's search bar separated by vs (e.g. growing concern vs increasing concern).
This tells you not only which chunk is most common (in the example to the right, growing concern), but also gives you example sentences for both.
Get words in context
Sometimes we want to know which adjective or preposition is most appropriate for a particular context, or we just want to know which word is most likely to follow. Writefull allows you do this by using the star (*), or underscore (_) characters.
In the following example, we can see which conjugated form we might use in the chunk studies have _ that.
Writefull gives us the alternatives, ordered by the number of times each appears in the selected database.
Get synonyms in context
Sometimes we find ourselves using the same word over and over again. We can use a synonyms dictionary, but these often give synonyms that don't fit our sentence.
You can use two stars to get synonyms in context. For example, if you want to get other words for fascinating in the chunk a fascinating book, you enter a *fascinating* book.
Get a word defined
Writefull comes with a dictionary that gives you not only definitions, but also synonyms.
You can search for any word by entering /define followed by the word you're looking for. For example, if you want to get the definition of broach, you can enter /define broach.
Click any highlighted word in the definition to see how often that word is used and how.
Get text translated
Writefull uses Google Translate, so that you can translate a piece of text from any language to English.
You can do this by entering /translate followed by the chunk of text you wish to translate. For example, if you want to get the translation for Es un bonito día, you can enter /translate Es un bonito día.
Note that you can click the 'See Examples' button to see how the translation is used in context, and how often it is used.
Get text pronounced
Writefull can pronounce a piece of text in English.
You can have text pronounced by entering /say followed by the chunk of text you wish to hear. For example, if you want to hear welcome, you can enter /say welcome.
