3 Tools for Editing Content

Originally published February 27, 2022

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A writer is only as good as their editing tools. Webster ended the golden days of writing words however you wanted. And—confession time—if you put a gun to my head and told me to spell "conscientious," I wouldn't even try.

As a professional content writer, relying on my raw abilities in the spelling and grammar arena wouldn't fly. I could research an article for months, but my credibility would go out the window with one dumb typo.

Lucky for me and everyone else, online content editing tools for grammar checking take the guesswork out. Since I've already written about my favorite content-writing tools, I wanted to share PFC's editing tool recommendations!

In This Article:

Our Recommendations

To clarify. These programs don't just remind you to cross your t's and dot your i's. Any word processor worth its salt will tell you to do that. Instead, these content editing tools are here to help you with everything from paragraph length to pacing.

Editing isn't just about fixing the squiggly lines; it's about creating cohesive, easy-to-read sentences and paragraphs (and correcting all the times you wrote 'the' twice and didn't notice).

We'll go through the programs' features, pricing, and integrations. All these tools have free online grammar and punctuation checkers; one offers a free rewriting tool.

#1: Grammarly

You've probably already heard of Grammarly. It's one of the most popular grammar and structure editing tools for a reason.

Editing your writing is a very streamlined and intuitive process. You can write your content in the web application or import your document to Grammarly’s web app.

Pricing and Features

Grammarly highlights its suggestions in your writing and allows you to one-click-fix some of the most blatant issues. You then hop from suggestion to suggestion, accepting or ignoring. Finally, they give you an overall score on the side that updates as you fix errors. This grades you on correctness, clarity, engagement, and delivery.

There are three tiers with Grammarly.

They offer a free tier, where you can check:

• Grammar, spelling, and punctuation (you really would be surprised at what your word processor will miss)

• Concision by suggesting shorter ways to say the same thing

• And tone by telling you what your text sounds like (formal, informal, and so on)

The premium tier includes those features while checking for consistency, fluency, formatting, sentence variety, politeness/formality, and inclusiveness.

They also offer suggestions for increasing clarity, improving vocabulary, and varying sentences.

This tier also checks to see if you’ve accidentally plagiarized, which happens way more often than you’d think.

The business tier adds a style guide, brand tone, analytics, and support features for teams 3-149.

Integrations

Grammarly shines in this area. While a dedicated web application exists, many other ways exist to use the program.

Grammarly is available as a download for Windows and Mac, giving you suggestions in different programs. In addition, there are browser extensions for all the major browsers. And there are also keyboards available for your Apple or Android device.

Downsides

There are only a couple of issues with Grammarly.

First, there is no one-time purchase option, making it impractical for those who only want to use it occasionally.

Second, while the integrations are nice, they can offer a false sense of security. For instance, I've often noticed that the Grammarly integration in Google Docs will catch fewer issues than the dedicated Grammarly app.

As for the quality of the edits, overall, they are excellent, with a few consistent issues. Sometimes, Grammarly will advise you to cut out so many words your sentence loses meaning. It also prioritizes brevity over natural writing. For example, it consistently recommends saying "much" instead of "a lot of," even when that's not grammatically correct.

Thoughts

Grammarly is an excellent option for those looking for speed, simplicity, and cross-platform support! The plagiarism checker is handy, and I use it for every article I write.

#2: ProWritingAid

ProWritingAid is a powerful tool for every kind of writer, whether you are a student, blogger, or professional. It provides feedback on your writing and helps you improve your writing skills by giving feedback and examples of mistakes.

While Grammarly is more streamlined, ProWritingAid has a lot of customization options for different use cases.

One fun feature is comparing your writing to your favorite author! For example, see how often Faulkner opened a sentence with a subordinate clause vs. you.

https://prowritingaid.com/en/App/Features

The editing experience is similar to Grammarly (highlighted with suggestions when you hover), but they provide a lot of different ways to check your document. There's real-time scanning that works as you do. It also allows you to check sentence length, pacing, and other structural issues.

There’s an option for you to compile your favorite editing features in the House tab, so you can check just for what you care about.

Reading Reports provides a lot of data, which is fantastic for longer pieces.

Price

ProWritingAid has a fully-featured free web version. But it has a 500-word limit and no desktop option.

There is only a free and premium version of ProWritingAid, but the cost varies depending on whether you pay monthly or yearly.

They also have a lifetime payment option, which I love in a world of subscription models!

The Team version has all the individual features plus a termbase, style guide, centralized user management, and team analytics.

All the purchases include a 14-day money-back guarantee and a student discount of 20%.

Integrations

ProWritingAid’s premium tier gives you access to a lot of different integrations. There are options for browsers, Google Docs, and Word.

The desktop application allows you to edit documents from various sources (including Scrivener). When you save the document in ProWritingAid, it modifies the source file, saving you the hassle of importing and exporting.

The Word plugin is particularly well done, essentially recreating the desktop application within Word.

Downsides

ProWritingAid is fantastic for more in-depth work but not as great for quick writing. While the number of times I use a prepositional opening vs. Faulkner may be interesting and helpful for longer pieces, it's overkill for a lot of web writing.

Depending on how many types of editing you have turned on, the page can get visually overwhelming, making it difficult to get everything fixed in one go.

Thoughts

While I use Grammarly more when I want a quick once over, I use ProWritingAid to do a comprehensive edit. I also love the extent to which you can customize the editing style.

#3: Ginger

Ginger is an AI-powered writing assistant focusing on machine learning to stay current with language evolution. It strongly focuses on ESL writers and supports those with writing struggles.

Features

Ginger does basic error correction but includes other elements that set it apart!

As an AI writing tool, Ginger allows you to rephrase your sentences. This can be a huge benefit when facing writer’s block or having too many similar sentences in a row.

The rephrase feature is similar to the Grammarly feature, which points out and suggests corrections for wordy sentences, but Ginger takes it further by actively rephrasing your work.

Ginger also offers translation features! This makes it a unique one-stop-shop if you need that feature because it translates and corrects grammar all in one go. They support over 40 languages.

They offer a "personal trainer" that tracks common mistakes to create quizzes and tests based on them.

Price

There is a free version, but it only provides limited versions of all of Ginger’s features and doesn’t include translation services.

The premium service only has monthly pricing but unlocks unlimited versions of everything.

The business plan requires a minimum of three users. The main benefit is more centralized admin control.

There is a substantial discount for students and teachers with 70% off!

Integrations

Ginger is available for almost anything you could want.

It's available for Windows, Office, Mac, all major browsers (except Firefox), and iOS/Android.

Downsides

Ginger doesn't offer plagiarism checks, though it suggests using the rephrase feature.

Don't rely too much on the translation features. While they're fine in a pinch, you're only going to get Google Translate levels of accuracy. It also doesn't catch as many mistakes as Grammarly or ProWritingAid.

Thoughts

While it's not my preferred editing tool, the translation and rephrasing features are definite pros, especially for those writing in their second language!

Final Thoughts

Any of these content editing tools will be better than your run-of-the-mill word processor since the focus is different. With all the content out there nowadays, polished writing sets you apart from the crowd, and these programs take the guesswork out.

If you have a business and don’t have the time to refine your content, we can help! At PFC, we care about producing high-quality content that fits your brand. So contact us and get better content today!

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