Learn How to Write…in Style!
"Style" is one of the most difficult things to define when discussing how to write properly. Yes, it has something to do with grammar. Yes, punctuation is a key element of style. And yes, the way sentences are constructed is essential to proper writing style.
Yet writing style is also so much more than all of those things. In short, "style," when referring to writing, refers to making your text flow and sound good. If you read a document aloud and something just doesn't sound right, even if the grammar and spelling are 100 percent correct, then you likely have a stylistic error.
Here are two examples of common stylistic errors:
Monotony – If all of your sentences are the same length, they'll likely give off the same tempo, making your writing sound boring and bland. To avoid this, you should vary your sentence lengths and sentence structures, making for a much more melodic tone to your writing.
Switching tenses – What's in the past should remain in the past. If you begin a sentence in the past tense, it should stay that way until you type the final period. Switching mid-sentence from past tense to present or future will only confuse your reader.
WhiteSmoke's writing style checker is designed to identify the stylistic errors in your writing. Using computer algorithms that match your writing with hundreds of thousands of other writing samples, the software will quickly and effortlessly find your mistakes, giving you options of how you'd like to correct them.
We find that our style checking program is particularly popular among people who are learning English as a second language (ESL) or for people who are translating their documents from their native language into English. These people may be working towards English fluency in speaking, but learning how to write in English is an entirely different skill that many ESL classes fail to teach.
ESL students may learn the nitty-gritty rules of grammar, but still have trouble listening to their writing and identifying what works and what doesn't. That's when WhiteSmoke's online style checker will step in. Our program will enable such students of the English language to ensure that their work isn't just technically accurate, but that it flows well and contains no stylistic mistakes.
Of course our writing style checker is not intended for use solely by non-native English speakers. In fact, it is a popular tool in universities, law firms, and other business offices as well. In fact, anyone who writes anything will benefit from the ease-of-use and effectiveness provided by our style checker. With just the quick click of a button, your document will be scanned for stylistic errors and then corrected, leaving you with a brilliant piece of prose ready for submission or sending off. So whether you're writing a term paper, legal contract, business proposal, letter of recommendation, or a simply friendly email to your mom, we urge you to run it through our style checker – you won't just end up with a strong piece of writing, but you'll gain more confidence in your writing as well!
