When You Write

Best Essay Writing Software: 16 Apps That Can Help You Write Perfect Essays

Nowadays, we have apps for almost anything. Writing apps though, are really unique and serve several practical purposes, such as essay writing for example.

Writing an essay isn’t as simple as typing a bunch of words and arranging them as paragraphs. Writing a perfect essay entails planning, maintaining structure, writing clear and impactful sentences, and using good grammar.

That’s why we have writing apps. So in this post, I’m going to cover all the best essay writing software tools that are available now.

Okay, let’s get into it!

Our Top 3 Essay Writing Software at a Glance

Prowritingaid, the 16 best essay writing apps.

Best Book Writing Software.

Scrivener is a book-writing software program developed—13 years ago—by an aspiring writer Keith Blount.

Scrivener is what you get when you combine a typewriter, ring binder, and a scrapbook and make a book writing software tool.

It has so many useful features that take your book or any other writing project from the outline to a finished draft. We’re talking of features like corkboards, pre-set formatting, templates, file importing, metatags, automated document listing, and a bunch of other important capabilities.

Scrivener can be used by novelists, scriptwriters, academics, lawyers, translators, journalists, and students.

Pricing: Scrivener for macOS costs $49, iOS is $19.99 , and Scrivener for Windows costs $45.

Best Grammar Checker.

As far as grammar checkers go, there’s no app better than this.

It’s perfect for checking your text for typos, punctuation, and spelling mistakes. 

But it goes further than that; it has several editing features that tackle issues such as passive voice, lengthy or complex sentences, offers broader vocabulary options, et cetera. It also has a plagiarism checker and furnishes you with writing stats and readability scores.

Grammarly has a free version but reserves the best features for its premium plans.

Pricing: Free and Paid. Grammarly Premium starts at $11.66, and Grammarly Business starts at $12.50.

Excellent Tool for Self-editing

ProWritingAid is one of Grammarly’s fiercest competitors and pretty much gives you what Grammarly gives you.

Just itty-bitty shallower, BUT way more affordable.

If you want a proofreading and grammar checker writing app that has the potential of helping you improve the overall quality of your writing, this is it!

ProWritingAid refines your writing by checking important elements of your writing such as ambiguous sentences, grammar, transitions, abstract words, overused words, etc.

Over time, you start to notice improvements in your writing, especially the way it flows.

Pricing: Free and Paid.

  • Monthly – $20
  • Yearly – $79
  • Lifetime – $399 

Best note-taking tool for Students

Evernote is a simple but excellent writing app that uses the idea of virtual notes. The virtual notes can be used in several ways: making book shopping lists, writing down essay ideas, and making notes on researched information.

The notes are backed up on Evernote’s servers, and you get about 60MB of storage space per account.

Pricing :  Free and Paid. The Premium plan costs $7.99 / month, and the Business costs $14.99/person/month.

Focus Writer

Free Alternative to MS Word.

I haven’t used this free word-processing app yet, but I’d seriously consider replacing my beloved MS Word with it.

It’s a very good alternative to MS Word; in fact, not only is it free and sufficient, it is available on almost all major platforms— Windows, Mac, and Android.

If you’re a student, I’d recommend this software, and you won’t have problems using the documents from this app because they’re saved in Rich Text Format so that most word processors can read them.

Pricing: Free.

Excellent for the Creative Stage of Writing

Before you write a good essay, you need to build the idea behind the essay first.

You need to add fresh to the bones before bringing the beast (of an essay) to life.

This tool helps you expand your original ideas into sub-ideas and construct full-fledged essays by using expressive, powerful flowcharts, process maps, and other diagrams.

Pricing: Free and Paid. The Awesome Plan costs $5/month, and the Organisation Plan is at $8/member/month.

Top-Notch Open-Source Tool

Manuskript is a tool perfect for organizing and planning stages of writing. It’s an open-source tool—for writers including novelists, journos, and academicians—that uses the snowflake method of writing to help you build your idea into a finished book; by helping you create the story step by step.

It has features for helping you keep track of notes on characters, plot, event,  and place in your story. Manuskript’s features include:

  • The Outliner, which lets you organize your ideas and little pieces of your story hierarchically; 
  • The Distraction-free mode gets rid of all distractions; 
  • Personal goal-setting features;
  • The Novel assistant utilizes the snowflake method to help you develop your basic ideas into a coherent plotline or a full-fledged story.

Pricing: Free

LivingWriter

Fast Developing Tool

This is a different writing app altogether. It has a lot of features that are excellent for both fiction nonfiction writers. It has features that help with story elements, general notes, goals and targets, doc sharing, and stats.

Plus, you can also switch LivingWriter in and out of Dark Mode and focus mode.

One thing I like about LivingWriter is that it started with a single platform (web) but is now expanding rapidly.

It has iOS and Android applications, Full integration with Grammarly, Canva integration, and its desktop apps are 90% complete (according to the Living Writer Roadmap )

Yearly Plan – $96 billed once a year

Monthly Plan – $9.99 per month

Best Writing Tool for Apple Products

I don’t know about now, but Ulysses was big back then (like a dozen years ago or so).

The app is rich with features similar to the other word processing software. It comes with a Markup-Based Text Editor, a library for organizing notes and documents, features for setting writing goals, publishing capabilities, and many others.

Ulysses is perfect for both small essays and large academic ones.

Pricing : Ulysses has different pricing options for different regions but using the US plan, it costs $5.99 per month and $49.99 per year.

Hemingway Editor

An App Most Impactful Writing

The Hemingway Editor AKA Hemingway App is a simple tool for writers who want to write content that is easier to read but bold.

Hemingway does this by looking at elements of your writing such as adverbs, passive voice, phrases and words with simpler alternatives, hard-to-read sentences, very-hard-to-read sentences, and other “lexical atrocities.”

The web-based version is free, but the downloadable version (for Mac and Windows) is a paid tool.

Pricing: $19.99

Excellent Mind Mapping Tool

They used to call this app IMindMap. Ayoa is an essential tool in the planning stages of your essay writing.

You can create mind maps for your essays which help give direction when you start fleshing out your essay.

This mapping tool helps increase productivity because everything you need to write is already outlined. The fact every step is already planned and you know exactly what to write can also increase your daily word count.

Pricing : The Ayoa PRO plan costs $10/month and is billed annually. The Ultimate Plan costs $13/month and is also billed annually.

Best App for Multi-Lingual Essays

This is another incredible alternative to Grammarly.

For non-native English speakers, this is a pot of gold right here. It can check your text for grammar errors and translate Spanish, French, German. And many other languages.

As a grammar checker, the tool mainly looks at aspects such as verbs, adverbs, confused words, commonly misspelled words, etc.

Here’s a funny story about Ginger (Just happened today.) As I was using the web-based editor, I copied some texts on Ginger’s website and pasted them into the editor and the tool found one misspelled word. Their content writers must not have used Ginger.

I felt like Ginger’s content writers were like Drug dealers, you know, they followed rule number one of drug dealing. “ never get high on your own product.”   

  • Monthly Plan – $9.99
  • Yearly Plan – $74.88
  • Two-Year Plan: $119.76

Write Or Die

Best for Productivity Purposes.

This app has a name that sums up life for some of us.

Write or Die!

Write Or Die gives rewards, stimuli, and punishments if users set goals. This is what you need if you are a sloth like myself.

It gives you that needed push because the punishments—which include erasing current texts—can really scare the hell out of you and make you put an extra gear.

Pricing : Free and paid. $10 for macOS and Windows, and $1 for iOS.

Simplest Writing App

IA Writer is a distraction-free writing app that is more than perfect for writing short essays.

It has a very basic interface and uses plain text. As I said, there are no distractions because the IA writer also has a full-screen mode that fades out everything else but the line you are currently typing.

This minimalist writing app is available on Windows, Android, iOS, iPadOS, and macOS.

Pricing : Paid (offers free trials).

macOS- $29.99. has a 14-day trial

iOS &iPadOS – $29.99. No Free Trial.

Android – $4.99 /year or $29.99 once. Has a 30-day trial.

Windows – $29.99. Has a 14-day trial.

Hubspot Topic Generator

Best for Generating Topic Ideas.

This is a whole different menu right here.

It’s very different from the tools that I’ve listed in this post. This is why… you’re not going to use it to write. Instead, you use it to automatically generate writing ideas.

It’s a very simple tool; you input three words, and it provides you with nouns to generate a topic idea that you can use on your next writing project.

If you’re going to use this tool, it’s going to be during the very first stages of your writing project.

Manuscripts

Best App for Academic Assignments

Manuscript (not to be confused with Manuskript from above) is an app for students and academics. This is a convenient tool that works with popular word processing apps, including Microsoft Word.

The reason why it’s perfect for academic writing is it excels at the referencing aspect of writing—citations, abbreviations, etc.

So, for class writing assignments and larger tasks like dissertations, this is the tool I’d recommend.

Pricing : Free

Simplenote is a note-taking tool that helps you keep all your notes in one place but accessible everywhere.

You can back up your notes, add tags, share the notes with collaborators, and publish your notes in Markdown format.

Supported Systems: Android, iOS, Windows, macOS, Linux.

Guide to the Best Essay Writing Apps in 2021

Things to consider when choosing essay writing software.

A good essay writing software has to do things that make your essay look delectable and sound convincing.

Here are some of the things that an essay writing software need to be able to help you with:

Organization

I already talked about organization at the beginning, so you already know how important it is. The essay writing app has to help you arrange your essay and ensure that it flows nicely. It needs to clear the chaos that would have existed had you not used that specific tool.

Grammatical correctness

This is crucial in any writing project. The essay writing software has to help you correct your grammatical and spelling errors.

Proofreading

The proofreading capabilities of a good essay writing app go beyond checking for grammar and spelling mistakes. It also has to excel at checking other aspects like overuse of adverbs, passive voice, run-on sentences, weak writing , and readability.

Writing software doesn’t have to cost an arm. Most of these apps have similar features and pretty much do the same things. A higher price doesn’t necessarily mean the app is good but in some circumstances, apps are pricey for a good reason.

What Features Should an Essay Writing App Have

So, to achieve the above requirements, what features does a writing software need to have?

Below are the most important features that a good essay writing software program MUST have.

Grammar and Spelling checker

To achieve the overall grammatical correctness of your essay, a writing app needs to have a grammar checking feature. If it doesn’t, being integrable with an efficient grammar checking tool is also convenient.

Sentence structure and flow reports

Again, I cannot overemphasize the importance of structure in essay writing. The structure should start from your sentences to your paragraphs and the whole essay. A good essay writing app needs to have features that check aspects of structure and flow.

Punctuation checker

We can’t have an essay littered with semicolons, commas, and hyphens looking like they’re lost. Punctuation might be one of the most underrated features but make no mistake, it’s essential for professional writing.

Plagiarism checker

A good essay has to be unique and original. Therefore, essay writing software has to make sure that the body of the essay does not contain any plagiarized content.

Writing Metrics

Stats like word count, words per minute, or the number of pages are important for tracking progress. School essays usually have a word or page count requirements, and writing software must be equipped with writing metrics so that the user is kept abreast of the distance covered.

Sentence quality checker

In the writing profession, Quality matters.  It doesn’t matter if you have reached the minimum word count but the essay is of poor quality.

Writing apps must be able to pick out sentences that need improving or deleting due to poor quality writing.

Why Should You Use Writing Software to Write Essays?

Writing software won’t write your essay for you, but the writing process is hard to manage and that’s what these tools do.

Here are the benefits of using writing software:

1. Planning and Outlining

Planning is an important element of a good essay writing process. Writing software tools come with features that help you plan before you start writing.

For example, Scrivener has a feature called corkboard, which is a good planning tool. It’s like a set of digital index cards, and each represents a section of writing.

With writing software, you can plan and outline before the actual writing starts, and you can go back to the outlines and notes while writing.

2. Productivity

Productivity is a big problem for most writers. Writers like myself just write without setting a lot of writing goals, so when we feel like writing, we need to be at our most productive levels.

For those that set daily goals, maintaining a daily word count is not easy.

For both kinds of writers, writing software can help increase productivity.

The software tools come with writing stats to help you keep track of your progress. They also have features for distraction-free writing.

Templates also help increase productivity. The templates make things easier and save you a lot of time (which would have been used setting things up).

3. Editing and Formatting

Writing software tools come with features that can flag spelling & grammar mistakes and other errors. They also offer solutions to these errors.

This is very important for your editing process—it makes the editing stage easier and faster.

This also helps in increasing productivity since editing is less laborious and speedy.

Usually when we write essays (especially academic ones), some formatting requirements come with them. Writing apps are furnished with most of the formatting rules and styles that essays (academic or otherwise) may require.

4. Organizing

Writing can be a messy process.

Most often than not, essays also require a lot of research. And again, we’re not saying that writing software will help you research.

But when you get all the bits of info needed for your essay, the apps will help you keep the researched content organized.

With these writing apps, you can have all of your research organized and easily accessible.

The thing about a disorganized writing process is that it is reflected in the flow and structure of the essay.

How to Effectively Use Essay Writing Software

Let me reiterate, essay writing apps won’t write your essays for you, neither will they be correct all the time.

To get the best out of them, you need to treat them as writing tutors or co-writers. If they suggest something useful, take it on board, and if you feel like the suggestion is a bit off point, disregard it.

What Is a Perfect Essay?

A perfect essay convincingly speaks to the reader. An essay is like an argument or a speech, and it has to have a readable flow or show direction.

Perfect essays must contain arguments, supporting ideas, and most importantly, evidence.  

To write a perfect essay, you need to:

  • Thoroughly plan the whole essay before you start writing.
  • Start writing your arguments using a clear structure.
  • Back up your points and refer to relevant sources if necessary.
  • Make sure that you infuse the information with creativity. There’s nothing exciting about a bunch of truths thrown into an essay using bland sentences.
  • Before you finish your draft, ensure that you’ve answered the question in your introduction and conclusion.

How can I write an essay on my phone?

Well, most of the apps listed here are available as mobile apps. If you feel it’d be okay to write on your phone, try out a couple of the apps on this list and see which one works better on mobile platforms.

I’d recommend using tablet computers as they have bigger screens than regular smartphones.

Final Words

There are just so many essay writing software tools nowadays that even though Scrivener and Grammarly top the list, stumbling on the best one for you is almost 1/1000 probable.

You have to try out these tools before purchasing them.

Just to say it for the one-thousandth time, essay writing apps won’t write your essays for you; YOU WILL.

Recommended Reading...

Best dictation software in 2024, scrivener vs word: which is the better book writing software, vellum vs scrivener: which is better for writing and formatting your book, write app review 2024: the best distraction-free writing app.

Keep in mind that we may receive commissions when you click our links and make purchases. However, this does not impact our reviews and comparisons. We try our best to keep things fair and balanced, in order to help you make the best choice for you.

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Last updated on Feb 07, 2023

The 23 Best Writing Tools of 2024: A Guide for Writers

Before the computer there was the typewriter, and before the typewriter there was pen and paper, and before pen and paper there were plenty of other lost tools of writing — like clay, papyrus, wood, slate, parchment, and, of course, pens made out of reeds. (Fun fact: the name “Reedsy” is inspired by the “reed pen,” which was used as early as 800 B.C. for documentation).

As you can tell by now, the act of writing has been a part of human culture from the days of chiseling stories onto the walls of caves — and as we have evolved, so have our writing tools . In fact, today’s writers and storytellers are spoiled for choice when it comes to deciding which tools to use.

The following list details our favorite writing tools and resources for taking any idea through to its written conclusion. If you want to cut straight to the chase and find out which is the right writing app for you, we recommend taking this quick 30-second quiz.

Which writing app is right for you?

Find out here! Takes 30 seconds

Otherwise, let's dive in!

Writing tools

We all know Google Docs and Microsoft Word, so we’re not going to waste your time giving those two a run-down in our list. Below are four other word processors you might not know about, and that are worth checking out.

1. Reedsy Book Editor

Cost: Free Does “fake it ‘til you make it” ring true to you? Well,  Reedsy Studio  is a free, online word processor that formats your book as you write. See your drafts automatically turn into a professional-looking, ready-to-publish manuscript — and allow this glimpse of your work as the final product spur your motivation to write.

ZF6MHRgMQIo Video Thumb

It comes with an automatic spell-checker — and a built-in goal reminder system to get you back into shape if you find that you're falling behind on your writing schedule! Another one of the Reedsy Book Editor’s best functions is that it lets you instantly typeset your manuscript to EPUB and print-ready PDF files.

Check it out if: if you want a writing tool that takes care of formatting and conversion for you.

FREE WRITING APP

FREE WRITING APP

The Reedsy Book Editor

Set goals, track progress, and establish your writing routine in our free app.

Cost: Free Do you like a helpful tap on the shoulder, reminding you about something you need to do? Well, you’ll likely enjoy Draft then, because this kind of writing software not only keeps track of how many words you write per day , it can also email you daily reminders about your daily word count goals. (Of course, if this sounds a little too “hands-on” for you, you can always turn the reminder function off).

Other than that, Draft functions a lot like Google Docs: allowing you to track changes, collaborate via suggested edits, and make comments on the doc.

Check it out if: you like Google Docs, but want an even simpler interface. 

3. LibreOffice

Cost: Free Yes, we did say that we wouldn’t mention Microsoft Word, because by now everyone knows that it’s a useful writing tool. But we didn’t say we wouldn’t mention its free counterpart: LibreOffice .

LibreOffice is the open source answer for people who want to try Microsoft without paying the price tag. (Open source means that the software is built on code that anyone can inspect and enhance). Plus it’s compatible with all of the regular file types people are used to, such as  .doc, .docx, .xls, .xlsx, .ppt, and .pptx files.

Check it out if: you like a classic word processor — and moreover, a free one.

Cost: $50 (or try a 30-day free trial) The people behind Mellel don’t just know word processing — they also know catchy, memorable marketing. Their description of why writers should choose Mellel starts like this: “Mellel is a writer's dream come true. To start, it is exceedingly boring: it just works, day in and day out, reliably. An enormous number of people used Mellel to write and they all report that their journey with Mellel was boring and uneventful. As well it should. In other words, it does all the mundane bits, and leaves the creative stuff to you.”

Mellel is not free (and note that it’s only for Mac). In return for the price tag, you’ll get more book-specific tools than other, perhaps more traditional word processors — such as outlining and bibliography-making functions. And, judging by the witty, funny copy on Mellel’s website, Mellel makes the process of writing much more fun than they let on.

Check it out if: you’re a Mac user who wants more than the Pages app offers.

Organization tools

Plotters tend to finish their writing projects quicker than pantsers — simply because when they hit a wall, they have their notes or outlines to reference, allowing them to jump straight over that hurdle and hit the ground running. P.S. You can grab a free template for your book outline here in this comprehensive guide to outlining.

The following resources will help you keep your thoughts organized so that any bouts of writer’s block don’t slow you down.

5. Milanote

Cost: Free for basic plan or $12.50/month for premium. Milanote is an easy-to-use creative writing app to organize your research, ideas, characters and outline in one place.

The vast majority of novelist-oriented writing software is organized around the idea of a linear document. But for most people, writing isn’t linear — because thinking isn’t linear. Writing is about gradually getting a jumble of ideas into shape, and Milanote's writing app matches the way writers think.

milanote platform a writing tool for organizing your writing

Check it out if: you're a plotter who likes a flexible workspace to organize ideas and see a birds-eye view of how your story outline is coming together.

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Get our Book Development Template

Use this template to go from a vague idea to a solid plan for a first draft.

6. Evernote

Cost: free for basic plan or $9.99/month for premium. Its cute, little green elephant logo aside, Evernote is a great and easy-to-use option for writers who could do with a little more organization in their lives.

everyone knows the writing tool evernote but here is a screenshot

The app lets you quickly jot down thoughts, record audio notes, save online articles you’re hoping to reference, and it will sync all of this information across all of your Evernote-installed devices. What’s also handy about the app is the collaborative aspect of it: you can create shared accounts, so that multiple people can access saved documents at once.

Check it out if: you’re prone to getting great ideas while on the go, and need somewhere to make sure you don’t forget them by the time you’re home.

Cost: $5/month or $40/year (or try a 14-day free trial) While it’s ultimately a writing tool, one of the best assets of comprehensive programs like Ulysses or Scrivener are their organizational features. At the end of the day, whether you’re writing a blog post or a full-length novel, the seed of an idea doesn’t get too far without the ability to organize that idea into a cohesive piece of writing.

And that’s exactly what Ulysses allows you to do: organize your thoughts into a well-written work. This is accomplished through features like customizable writing goals and deadlines , plain text enhancements, a distraction-free typewriter mode, bookmarks, outlining functions, and more.

Check it out if: you’re working on a lengthy piece of non-fiction, like a blog post or essay. (For a comparison of Scrivener vs. Ulysses, keep reading!)

8. Scrivener

Cost: $45 (or a 30-use free trial) Literature and Latte ’s word processor is a popular writing tool — also, in large part, thanks to its organizational capabilities that seamlessly allow writers to turn fragmented ideas into a fully realized book/script/research paper/or whatever else you’re writing.

Scrivener vs Ulysses Apart from the price (Scrivener charges a one-time licensing fee while Ulysses charges yearly), the two platforms offer many of the same features. So we’ll focus on what makes the two programs different.

  • Scrivener’s corkboard function is an absolute favorite for writers who rely on visual aid to help with outlining. The function looks like an actual corkboard, and lets writers pin notes to the board in chronological order.
  • Scrivener offers templates for works such as fiction, essays, recipe collections, screenplays, comic books — which gives Scrivener another point for versatility.
  • Ulysses boasts an interface that is slightly more clean and simple — so if ease-of-use is high on your priority list, it might be the better option for you.
  • Ulysses offers a very helpful WordPress and Medium integration, which bloggers who publish on either of these platforms will love.

Check it out if: you’re working on a longer piece of content (like a book or screenplay) and want one comprehensive place to manage all your work. (And don’t forget to check out our equally as comprehensive review of Scrivener’s newest update : Scrivener 3!)

9. Hubspot's AI Content Writer

Cost: Free, with premium upgrade available

HubSpot’s Free AI Content Writer is designed to help bloggers streamline their content creation process. This tool can generate drafts of blog posts, website copy, emails, and more with ease and without additional resources, by relying on prompts or topics provided by users. For those suffering from writer's block, the AI content writer can also create outlines to help spur writing along. 

For those already using HubSpot's marketing and sales tools, the AI content writer's integration will be extra handy. 

Check it out if: you're a blogger short on time or inspiration.

Productivity tools

Alright, let’s kick things into high gear now. You know what you want to use to write, and your thoughts and ideas are concisely organized. If you’re finding it difficult to buckle down and get the job done (or struggle to write quickly or consistently ), these resources will help you realize that Nike manta: just do it.

10. Ommwriter

Cost: free web version or $7 for the full program Do you find the clacking sound of old typewriters satisfying? Do you find soft, neutral colours calming? Does nothing really get you focused quite like a purposeful, long, deep breath? If so, Ommwriter might be the tool to help you reach your goal. As the site’s tagline reads, Ommwriter is “a perfect place to think and write.”

Omm writer is a zen writing tool that lets you write with no distractions

With soothing background noises, customizable keyboard noises, and peaceful backgrounds to choose from, Ommwriter could just be the “break” from everything else going on around you that you need to write.

Check it out if: your very best writing ideas come to you while in “savasana.”

11. To Doist

Cost: free or $4/month for premium plan Have you ever woken up in a cold sweat, panicking about something important you forgot to do? Or, god forbid, gripped in dread about how far behind you are on your word-count goals?

Well, To Doist might be able to help. It’s the ultimate app for creating to-do lists — but these aren’t your grandma’s pen-and-paper lists with little check marks beside them (though we mean no offense to your grandma). It lets you get a daily or weekly overview of your tasks, prioritize the tasks that are most important, and even lets you assign tasks to other people if you’re working on a specific goal with other collaborators.

Check it out if: you have never been able to find an agenda that’s souped up enough to keep you on track.

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In 10 days, learn to change your habits to support your writing.

12. Marinara Timer

Cost: Free The Pomodoro Technique is a time management method meant to promote productivity. In a nutshell, it stipulates that you should work for 25 minutes, then take a 5-minute  break, then work for 25 minutes, take another 5-minute break, etc., etc.

The free-to-use Marinara Timer makes this easy for you by alerting you each time your work sessions and breaks are up. It also offers customizable timers in case the 25/5 isn’t quite right for keeping you on track. Fun fact: taking a break to stand up or walk (or do anything but sit!) every hour is also a good way to protect your back if you sit hunched at a computer working for long stretches at a time.

Check it out if: consistent breaks from work help actually keep you focused on the task at hand.

13. Cold Turkey

Cost: Free for basic plan or $20 for premium plan “Meet your match, Zuckerberg,” says Cold Turkey ’s tagline. In case that, paired with the writing tool’s name, doesn’t make it clear enough, Cold Turkey is a program that allows you to completely rid yourself of distraction. And when we say “completely,” we mean completely.

With Cold Turkey, you can block yourself from accessing certain websites — or even your entire computer — for periods at a time, only allowing you to use the current document you’re working on.

Check it out if: “willpower” is not a characteristic you’d ascribe yourself, and the only way for you to get something done is in a totally distraction-free state.

14. Freedom

Cost: $7/month or $29/year (or a 7-use free trial) Apart from pleasantly getting the “freedom” refrain from Aretha Franklin’s “Think” stuck in your head, the Freedom app is another resource that can turn your devices into tools of productivity once more.

It functions like Cold Turkey; however, a unique function of Freedom is the ability to sync your distraction-free periods across all your devices. So if you know that on Tuesdays, you want your computer, phone, and tablet to all block access to Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook — you can!

Check it out if: letting other people know not to bother you during your non-negotiable writing time isn’t enough, you need to let yourself know not to interrupt, well, yourself.

Cost: Free If total silence encourages your mind to wander, whereas light sensory action keeps your thoughts on the task at hand, Noisli will be a friend to you. The tool lets you choose from a range of soundtracks, such as rain, coffee shop, wind, lake, and more. You can mix several sounds at once, and choose the volume for each one. So let’s say you want to create the atmosphere of writing by a babbling brook, with a fire crackling next to you, and the moon shining brightly overhead. Noisli will make this happen for you!

Check it out if: you get the most work done with white noise.

Editing tools

If you’re planning to publish a book — or any kind of writing you’re hoping to make a profit from, it’s crucial that your work is thoroughly edited. To that end, working with a professional editor is an investment you should give serious thought to.

In the meantime, here are a few editing tools that can help you out along the way. Hopefully, they’ll either ensure a typo-free draft, so by the time you do work with an editor, they can spend less time fixing small typos and more time on big-picture work, or, if you decide to forego a professional edit, you’ll have the tools to do the best editing job you can.

16. Hemingway

Cost: Free The Hemingway app claims to make your writing “bold and clear.” It has a number of handy features like a word-counter and an automatic readability score. But its real use lies in the features that make suggestions to your prose. For instance, it might highlight a complex sentence that’s hard to read. It also highlights instances of passive voice , qualifiers, and adverbs. Let’s take a look at how this passage from Ernest Hemingway’s very own To Have and Have Not fares:

essay writing tools software

“Just” is highlighted because it’s a qualifier, and Hemingway suggests, instead: “Be bold. Don’t hedge.” The sentence in red is highlighted as being hard to read. And “probably” is pointed out as an adverb — the app suggests using a forceful verb instead.

Check it out if: you want to bring out your inner Ernie. (Curious what else Hemingway offers? Check out our full review of the app right here .)

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17. Fictionary

Cost: $19/month or $169 per year 

The Fictionary Story Editing software creates intelligent visuals that help you improve your story's structure, characters, plot, and settings. Using Natural Language Processing, Fictionary identifies your key story arc scenes and gives you actionable insights to improve the structure of your book.  Annual subscribers get access to year-round live classes on writing and editing. Think of it like Peloton for writers. Check it out if:  You want to get your story structure in the best possible shape before submitting to agents and/or editors.

18. Marlowe Pro

Cost: $29.95/mth or $199/year; $45 for single reports

This manuscript assessment tool will provide in-depth feedback on your novel within minutes. Using artificial intelligence, Marlowe can analyze your plot, pacing, story beats, and readability — then provide actionable insights ( as well as comp titles ) based on its database of bestsellers across a number of genres.

authors AI — a screenshot of Marlowe Pro's report

To try out this AI editor, claim a free report by entering REEDSYFREE at checkout. And for a 15% discount on a Marlowe Pro subscription , enter REEDSY15OFF when prompted at checkout.

Check it out: to take a scientific and methodical approach to your developmental edits.

19. Cliché Finder

Cost: Free Cliché Finder is exactly what it says on the tin: it combs through your writing in search of clichés, and then highlights them for you. It’s not always necessarily bad to use clichés in your writing, but when you do, you want to be purposeful about it (and not to mention aware of it!).

Check it out if: you want to avoid clichés like the plague, and for your book to sell like hotcakes — and the rest is history.

20. Grammarly

Cost: Free Have you ever sent an email, only to realize that you'd made a glaring typo just as you hit “Send”? Well, no more!

Grammarly essentially functions like the spell checker tool from Microsoft Word or Google Docs, but here’s the great part: it’s a plug-in that will work wherever you happen to writing. That means Twitter, Gmail, Google Docs, Facebook — anywhere. Plus it offers vocabulary or alternate word suggestions — for instance, it might suggest you replace “walking aimlessly,” with the word “wandering.” For a more in-dept analysis, check our full Grammarly review . 

Check it out if: you’re typo-prone! (Read below for a comparison of Grammarly vs. ProWritingAid.)

21. ProWritingAid

Cost: Free browser extension or $79/year for the full software ProWritingAid is a tool you can install that will proofread and spell check your material for you , no matter where you’re writing. It will also offer suggestions to improve your overall language — outside of just grammatical technicalities. (You can even get 10% off via this special offer !) 

ProWritingAid vs Grammarly The two programs offer a lot of the same services, so you might be wondering which one to pick. We have a review of ProWritingAid  that dives deep into this comparison, but the main differences are:

  • Grammarly is free to use, and while ProWritingAid offers a free Google Chrome plug-in, this free option only offers spell checking services, it won’t make editorial suggestions.
  • ProWritingAid is slightly more tailored towards authors, while Grammarly is a slightly better fit for articles and essays. Ultimately, both tools lend a very helpful editing hand, so deciding between the two mostly boils down to the one you enjoy using more.

Check it out if: you want to make sure your writing is as polished as possible.

Workspace tools

At the end of the day, all you really need to write is a pen and paper. All the fancy tools and apps in the world won’t get the words out for you. That being said, creating an environment that’s appealing — and conducive! — to write in can make the whole process more enjoyable, and encourage you to get the job done.

Here are few physical tools to look over if you’re thinking of sprucing up your workspace.

22. Livescribe Pen

Cost: starts at $100 If you prefer writing on paper, but dread the process of transferring your words to a computer, Livescribe will likely be right up your alley. Through Bluetooth technology, the pen can actually transcribe your pen and paper words to your device. What’s more, it can also transcribe voice notes into digital documents for you.

writing tools

Check it out if: you’ve ever felt envy at Rita Skeeter’s Quick-Quotes Quill in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire .

23. Ergonomic desk setups

Cost: Varies As more and more of the workforce moves to sedentary jobs where the majority of 9am to 5pm is spent sitting — usually hunching — at a computer, a growing number of sitting-related health injuries have been occurring. That’s why looking into more ergonomically friendly desk setups is a good idea for writers who spend long hours at the computer — or even writing in a notebook. This could be a standing desk, or even just a number of textbooks piled under your desktop so that your screen is eye level, resulting in less stress on your shoulders.

Check it out if: you don’t want writing gains to come at the cost of growing back pains.

24. Computer Glasses

Cost: Varies Writers are all familiar with computer-caused eyestrains. Because you blink far less when looking at a screen than you do otherwise, computer vision syndrome (CVS) is a condition people have been developing due to long stretches of staring at a computer.

One way to help alleviate this — other than just making sure to take time looking away from your computer — is to invest in some computer glasses. They typically come in blue or amber shades, and are coated with a protective coating.

There are several brands you can check out, such as Pixel Eyewear or Felix Gray .

Check it out if: you notice itchy or tired eyes after long writing sessions.

Have you tried any of the above writing tools — and if so, which were your favorites? Or maybe you feel there are some great resources missing from this list? Let us know in the comments below!

Mystic says:

24/10/2019 – 03:38

I tried Cliche Finder several times and it found a couple of items in my text, but it didn't highlight where it was at. The rest of the tools here, that I can use since I'm on a strict income, are amazing!

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Best Essay Writing Software

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| Writing Tools

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Candace Osmond

Candace Osmond studied Advanced Writing & Editing Essentials at MHC. She’s been an International and USA TODAY Bestselling Author for over a decade. And she’s worked as an Editor for several mid-sized publications. Candace has a keen eye for content editing and a high degree of expertise in Fiction.

Getting a passing grade on an essay assignment is difficult if students don’t know how to organize their ideas. Bloggers can also not get high SEO rankings when they plagiarize their writing. 

If you’re looking for applications that help you write better essays, I compiled a list of the best essay writing software. These apps include both free and paid programs. I included tools to help you improve your grammar and an app that writes essays for you.

10 Best Essay Writing Apps

2022 05 19 12

Grammarly is one of the best writing apps you can try for your essays. It helps you perfect your essay or any writing project by giving detailed explanations for its corrections. 

For instance, if you mistakenly use “see” instead of “sea” in your sentence, Grammarly will tell you why it’s wrong. This editing software is the most popular writing tool because it focuses on correctness, clarity, engagement, and delivery.

While it doesn’t help you summarize or format your essays, it can fix issues like your spelling, grammar, writing style, and punctuation. Grammarly lets you set your writing goals so it can tailor its corrections according to your essay’s intent, audience, and emotion.

Grammarly Premium gives you access to a plagiarism checker. It examines your document against billions of websites and articles while providing links to any duplicate content. 

The editing tool has a more straightforward interface than ProWritingAid. Or you can download the free extension for Chrome and Safari if you want to receive real-time suggestions on Google Docs. 

Grammarly is also available as a desktop or mobile application, Grammarly Keyboard. The keyboard app quickly spots spelling mistakes and other issues on your text messages, email, and social media.

  • Built-in spelling and grammar checker.
  • Produces more grammar reports than other apps.
  • Guarantees original content through a plagiarism checker.
  • Multiple platform availability.
  • Not ideal for long-form writing.
  • Free version is very basic.

Pro Writing Aid

ProWritingAid Checker

ProWritingAid is a cloud-based tool that enhances your writing in different ways. It’s not a word processor or rewriter for essay writers but an editor for users who want to improve their grammar and spelling.

The premium version can spot over 20 errors in your essay, including repeated sentence starts and over-reliance on adverbs. The writer can also take advantage of readability reports, sticky sentences, and subject-verb disagreement. 

The online editor not only corrects your grammatical mistakes. It also helps you become a better writer. For example, using adverbs and the passive voice are not necessarily “errors.” But avoiding these elements can help your essay readers engage with your content better.

Aside from checking grammar, ProWritingAid also scans your essay for plagiarism. It ensures your document is original and free from duplications. The essay writing software provides a link to the source so you can correctly cite it.

ProWritingAid has browser extensions and a desktop version. The powerful tool also features a 14-day trial for writers who want to test it first. You can also use it in Google Docs, Scrivener, and Chrome.

This advanced grammar checker is available for $20 per month or $79 per year. 

  • Simple interface.
  • Wide platform availability.
  • Twenty-five types of writing reports.
  • Free trial.
  • Lifetime plan.
  • Unnecessary features like sticky sentences.
  • Slow loading time.

Writing essays becomes more motivating when you use FreeMind. This software isn’t your typical editing tool that performs grammar checking. It helps you achieve daily goals in writing through structure diagrams and project tracking.

This app for writing essays improves your writing habit by letting you add subtasks for each activity. It will allow you to organize your essay ideas on any topic to produce impactful writing.

Another extra feature of Free Mind is its time recording element. Brainstorm your work, use colors, and take advantage of DES encryption to produce and protect your mind maps.

  • Helps users make flowcharts and mind maps for essays.
  • Perfect for other types of project planning.
  • Protects your work from being lost.
  • Completely free.
  • No grammar-checking tool.
  • Difficult to use for first-timers.
  • Not specifically designed for essay writing.

Edusson

Among the numerous writing applications, Edusson is the most interesting for its wide variety of features. The essay writing app writes essays for you, ensuring they are free from grammar mistakes and have a proper sentence structure .

Content writers will save more time coming up with a topic idea for their next post. An additional feature of Edusson is its self-help resources. The website also includes essay samples its writers produce to let everyone know they make high-quality papers.

Edusson does not offer offline mode because it’s not an AI writer. The app lets you order assignments for a real writer to write. These writers also ensure that your work is free from grammatical mistakes.

Whether you write blog content, academic papers, or magazine articles, this assignment writer is for you. Use it on your desktop or download the mobile application for more writing ideas.

  • Real writers help you with your essay.
  • Ideal for other types of writing.
  • Easy to use for beginners.
  • May take time before you get your assignment.

SimpleNote

If you’re looking for an essay writing app with a basic interface made for note-taking only, Simplenote is your best choice. Like other writing tools, it lets you jot down ideas and concepts for your document. But it doesn’t have advanced features.

You can organize your text through Markdown, a standard syntax like HTML but more straightforward. If you’re a web developer or a programmer, you know how fantastic markdown is for readability. 

Long-form writers benefit the least from Simplenote because the app is developed for hand-written notes and ideas. It also doesn’t feature a virtual proofreader, file importing, and comprehensive formatting.

  • Best app for writing notes.
  • Markdown support.
  • No grammar and spell check. 
  • No automatic writing tool.
  • No file imports and lists.

Libre Office Writer

Libra Office Writer

Writer is LibreOffice’s app for essay writers that is available for free. Its free yet advanced writing abilities are inspired by Microsoft Word. It has basic features like font styles, sizes, insert pictures, layout settings, and referencing. It also displays your character count.

The desktop app is ideal for academic writing that requires strict formats and layouts. It’s an excellent alternative to Google Docs and Word, the most popular word processors on the market.

One downside to Libre Office Writer is its lack of a built-in grammar and spelling checker. You need to edit your work on third-party tools like Grammarly for corrections.

  • Free alternative to MS Word.
  • Comprehensive formatting and layout options.
  • Reputable word processor.
  • No grammar checker.

Scribus

Scribus is a fantastic choice among writers who want to produce aesthetically pleasing projects. Millions of writers use this software for reports, magazines, academic writing, or even your personal journal.

The open-source tool doesn’t help you organize your ideas or correct grammar. Instead, it focuses on one aspect of your writing: your book layout. You can use the Layers, Outline, Styles, and Properties to style every page of your book.

Many believe actual writing starts with the look of your document. Scribus is like a basic version of Adobe InDesign and Affinity Publisher. Use it for your essays, academic texts, and self-published books.

  • Improves the layout of your written work.
  • Free. 
  • No option for checking your spelling and grammar.
  • Dated design.

Focus Writer

Focus Writer is a free word processing app you can use as an alternative to MS Word and Google Docs. The distraction-free writing app has a focus mode that blocks other windows and menus. All you have to do is write on the blank page.

But the essay writing services also offer several formatting options for different aspects of writing. Move your cursor upwards to reveal the menu. Focus Writer lets you set goals for your daily word count with a percentage bar displayed below to show your improvement.

You can use Focus Writer for simple essays, personal thoughts, and critiques. 

But I don’t recommend it for academic writing. It also doesn’t have a built-in file editor for spelling errors.

  • Straightforward interface.
  • Runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux.
  • Limited export formats.
  • No collaboration options.
  • No writing templates.

Evernote

Evernote is a note-taking application for hand-written notes. You can create checklists, to-do lists, and other organizational elements in individual files. As an academic writing software tool, Evernote uses thematic Notebooks to help you group your writing projects into subjects.

One of the most valuable features of this app is its template gallery. The dozens of templates make Evernote a common choice of essay writers in work and school. It also has a clipper tool where you can take clippings and snippets from any site. 

Evernote is also the only application with features for optical character recognition technology. That means this app for writing papers also searches scanned images of hand-writing. 

  • It helps users write to-do lists, notes, etc.
  • Web clipping.
  • Clean interface.
  • Collaboration features.
  • Basic free version.
  • It keeps changing the layout and startup screen.

Jasper

Jarvis or Jasper AI is not a proofreading software or a note-taking tool. It’s an app that writes essays for you without the user having to do anything. It works using Natural Language Processing to write paragraphs of blog articles for you.

The main focus of Jarvis is SEO. All the pieces of content it automatically writes ensure they will rank high on search engine result pages. It can also finish your first draft two to five times faster than a human.

This artificial intelligence software is perfect for content writers who must produce dozens of essays weekly. Use this tool for social media posts, ad copies, and blog posts. 

  • Automatic rewriter.
  • SEO integration. 
  • Doesn’t include a plagiarism checker.
  • The final piece of writing still requires human editing.

Is There a Software That Will Write Essays for You?

Many desktop and mobile software can automatically write essays for you. These “bots” are powered by artificial intelligence to make the writing sound human-like.

Some essay writers only require you to insert keywords or a specific topic. Then, it will create everything else for you. Jarvis or Jasper AI lets you pick a template, narrow the subject, and click “Generate AI content.”

Other AI writers need you to copy and paste a piece of text from other sources. Then, it will rewrite the entire content for you. Quillbot is a paraphrasing tool that produces plagiarism-free content for you. It can also summarize, shorten, or expand your writing.

Best Free Essay Writing Software

The best free essay writing tools you should have are ProWritingAid and FreeMind. The former is editing software that offers spelling, grammar, and style correction, while the latter helps you brainstorm your next essay. These two software programs are completely free.

Use FreeMind to plan your next essay. Different mind maps, time recording, and project tracking features will help you brainstorm your topic. 

Once you’re done writing your essay, run it on ProWritingAid to check for issues. It provides over 20 writing reports to make your written document error-free and readable.

Research Paper Writing App

Some essay writing apps are specially developed for writing research papers, theses, and dissertations. For example, Libre Office Writer has all the formatting settings you need to write your research, including page numbers, text alignment, and a bibliography.

Another research paper writing app you can consider is Evernote. Although I wouldn’t recommend writing your research on this app, you can use this tool to make notes. Use it to organize your review of related literature, analyze your findings, or structure your intro. 

There’s a Tool for Every Writing Goal

So many tools exist to help you plan, write, and edit your essays differently. I hope the list of best essay writing software stated above saves you more time and makes you a better writer. 

My top choices are ProWritingAid and Grammarly because writers in all fields need them for proofreading purposes. Which essay writing tool are you trying first? 

Grammarist is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. When you buy via the links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission at no cost to you.

2024 © Grammarist, a Found First Marketing company. All rights reserved.

essay writing tools software

Free writing software: 24 tools to help you create better content, faster

Find the best brainstorming, researching, writing, and editing tools.

writing-editing-apps primary img

As a freelance writer, I try to keep my app costs lean, so I'm a sucker for free writing tools. But with so many writing apps on the market, it's hard to tell which free options are actually valuable.

I've done some of the legwork for you by bringing together some of the best free writing apps on the internet. All of the options listed here are tools the Zapier team or I have used and enjoyed.

For this roundup, I prioritized completely free tools and freemium apps with a forever free plan that was sufficient for actual regular use. Many of the options have paid plans, but those plans are generally geared toward power users.

The best free writing software at a glance

Brainstorming and organizing your thoughts

Expanding your ideas with mind mapping

Brainstorming and organizing your thoughts

Creating content outlines

Brainstorming and organizing your thoughts

Brainstorming together

Brainstorming and organizing your thoughts

Brainstorming topics

Brainstorming and organizing your thoughts

Brainstorming ideas with AI

Brainstorming and organizing your thoughts

Brainstorming out loud

Research and note-taking

Keeping everything in one place

Research and note-taking

Finding free copies of paywalled research

Research and note-taking

Transcribing interview and video content

Research and note-taking

Collecting research from other people

Solo and collaborative writing

Collaborative writing

Solo and collaborative writing

Writing messages and blurbs

Editing

Finding the perfect word

Editing

Finding the right word anywhere

Editing

Rewording what you write

Editing

Clear and concise writing

Editing

Creating compelling headlines

Editing

Finding and removing cliches

Editing

Finding jargon in your text

Editing

Varying your wording and sentence length

Editing

Comparing your writing to AI content

Proofreading

Catching spelling and grammar mistakes

Proofreading

Proofreading short-form content

Proofreading

Making MLA citations

Free writing tools for brainstorming and organizing your thoughts

Best free writing software for expanding your ideas.

MindMeister, our pick for the best free writing software for brainstorming with a mind map

Best free writing software for creating content outlines

WorkFlowy, our pick for the best free writing software for creating content outlines

Best free writing software for brainstorming together

Miro, our pick for the best free writing software for brainstorming together

You can even use Miro with Zapier (also free), so you can automate your brainstorming workflows. Here are a couple of ideas to get you started.

Create Miro widgets with new Trello cards

Trello logo

Add Miro cards from new rows on Google Sheets

Google Sheets logo

Best free writing software for brainstorming topics

Ryan Robinson's Keyword Research Tool, our pick for the best free writing software for brainstorming topics

Keyword Research Tool pricing: Free

Best free writing software for brainstorming ideas with AI

Example of ChatGPT, powered by the GPT-3.5 model, writing marketing copy for a newsletter: headlines, taglines, and call-to-actions.

ChatGPT pricing: Free; ChatGPT Plus is $20/month

Best free writing software for brainstorming out loud

Your computer's dictation software (MacOS, Windows)

Windows dictation software

If you process your thoughts best through speaking, there's a brainstorming app already on your computer. Boot up Windows 10 Speech Recognition on Windows or Apple Dictation on Mac to record your thoughts as you brainstorm out loud.

Windows 10 Speech Recognition and Apple Dictation pricing: Free

Free writing tools for research and note-taking

Best free writing software for keeping everything in one place.

Notion, our pick for the best free writing software for keeping everything in one place

Save new tasks in Google Tasks in Notion databases

Google Tasks logo

Add new Microsoft Outlook calendar events to Notion databases

Microsoft Outlook logo

Notion pricing: Free plan available; from $8/user/month for team plans

Best free writing software for finding free copies of paywalled research

Unpaywall, our pick for the best free writing software for finding free copies of paywalled research

Unpaywall pricing: Free

Best free writing software for transcribing interview and video content

oTranscribe, our pick for the best free writing software for transcribing interview and video content

oTranscribe pricing: Free

Best free writing software for collecting research from other people

Google Forms, our pick for the best free writing software for collecting research from other people

Create Trello cards from new Google Forms responses

Google Forms logo

Share Google Forms responses in a Slack channel

Slack logo

Google Forms pricing: Free

Free writing tools for solo and collaborative writing

Best free writing software for collaborative writing.

Google Docs, our pick for the best free writing software for collaborative writing

Create new Google Docs from text with new rows in Google Sheets

Google Docs logo

Create new Google Docs when Trint transcripts are ready

Trint logo

Google Docs pricing: Free

Best free writing software for messages and blurbs

WordCounter, our pick for the best free writing software for messages and blurbs

WordCounter pricing: Free

Free writing tools for editing

Best free writing software for finding the perfect word.

OneLook Reverse Dictionary and Thesaurus, our pick for the best free writing software for finding the perfect word

OneLook Reverse Dictionary and Thesaurus offers all the synonyms you could dream of like a regular thesaurus, but it stands out in its reverse dictionary capabilities. Enter a phrase—or even a full sentence—to get words that match that meaning. This feature comes in handy when you want to write more concisely or find that word that's on the tip of your tongue.

OneLook Reverse Dictionary and Thesaurus pricing: Free

Best free writing software for finding the right word—anywhere

Power Thesaurus, our pick for the best free writing software for finding the right word—anywhere

As a freelance writer, I find myself needing to switch up words when I write on various platforms across the internet. Power Thesaurus gives me synonyms, antonyms, definitions, and other forms of word assistance wherever I like to write. It can do the same for you—put it to use on its website, in your browser, on your phone, in Google Docs, in Word, and in Gmail.

Best free writing software for rewording what you write

Wordtune, our pick for the best free writing software for rewording what you write

Best free writing software for clear and concise writing

Hemingway, our pick for the best free writing software for clear and concise writing

Best free writing software for creating compelling headlines

CoSchedule, our pick for the best free writing software for creating compelling headlines

CoSchedule Headline Studio pricing: Free for basic features; from $8/month to buy "Premium Headline" credits that give you access to an SEO score, AI writing features, headline suggestions, and word banks for a certain number of headlines

Best free writing software for finding and removing cliches

Cliche Finder, our pick for the best free writing software for finding and removing cliches

Cliche Finder pricing: Free

Best free writing software for finding jargon in your text

De-Jargonizer, our pick for the best free writing software for finding jargon in your text

De-Jargonizer pricing: Free

Best free writing software for varying your wording and sentence length

Expresso, our pick for the best free writing software for varying your wording and sentence length

Expresso pricing: Free

Best free writing software for comparing your writing to AI content

GPTZero, our pick for the best free writing software for comparing your writing to AI content

Free writing tools for proofreading

Best free writing software for catching spelling and grammar mistakes.

Grammarly, our pick for the best free writing software for catching spelling and grammar mistakes

Best free writing tool for proofreading short-form content

ProWritingAid, our pick for the best free writing tool for proofreading short-form content

Best free writing tool for making MLA citations

EasyBib, our pick for the Best free writing tool for making MLA citations

EasyBib pricing: Free

Free writing software FAQ

Here are some questions lots of people have about writing apps and how to choose the right one.

What's a good free writing tool?

Tools like Google Docs and WordCounter are free forever and very functional. Other apps, like Grammarly or ProWritingAid, have free plans that offer basic features, with more advanced features available via a paid plan.

But there are a lot of free writing tools available that perform a wide variety of functions—everything from brainstorming to research and note-taking to writing to editing to proofreading.

What writing tool do most writers use?

There's a wide variety of writing tools out there, and which one a writer uses really comes down to preference. A lot of writers use Google Docs to write because they already use Google for so many other things—but some may prefer a tool like Notion, where they can combine writing with project management.

What makes a good writing tool?

In short, whatever helps you write! If a blank page and no distraction is what helps you actually get words down, then open a new Google Doc and go at it. If you need to organize your thoughts before you even think about writing, consider adding a brainstorming tool to the mix. Each writer's process is different, and it's all about finding tools that enable your writing, not add another roadblock to your process.

Sharpen your craft with your new toolkit

Related reading:

This article was originally published in June 2015 by Jane Callahan and has also had contributions from Jessica Greene. The most recent update was in August 2023.

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Melissa King

Melissa King is a freelance writer who helps B2B SaaS companies spread the word about their products through engaging content. Outside of the content marketing world, she sometimes writes about video games. Check out her work at melissakingfreelance.com.

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  • Google Forms

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Writing an essay is not that difficult once you have all your sources in place and an outline of your major ideas. There are essay writing apps that help you achieve this. So, we’ve made a list of the top ten essay writing tools that can help you improve your essay and score better grades.

Of course, when we speak of essay writing apps, we mean essay editing and writing tools that improve your work and NOT apps that provide ready-made essays. That is cheating, and it can get you expelled from your course.

As your loyal editors , we want the best for you. So, none of the entries in our list of top ten essay writing tools will help you cheat. They will, of course, help improve your essay to make it your best work. If you’re looking for a list of the best essay editing services, visit this article .

Get an A+ with our essay editing services! Learn more

Can writing tools help improve your essay?

Well, they certainly help.

The problem with automated tools and software is that they don’t understand writing like human beings do. So, editing tools like Grammarly or Hemingway are likely to point out mistakes where there are none or fail to spot more complex errors.

Obviously, a human editor is always more reliable than software. But it can help to have a writing assistant that improves your essay while you write it. So, write your best essay using these tools, and then be sure to send it for proofreading.

Top ten essay writing tools

Our top ten essay writing tools are a diverse list. They help you in various essay writing tasks such as planning your essay, writing it, improving it, and getting feedback when it’s complete.   So, let’s begin!

1. Essay Map

This tool helps you develop an outline for your essay. Although it is targeted toward school-aged students and not college-going researchers, its basic format is helpful. It helps you develop a map of your central ideas around which you can write your essay.

The main structure, although limiting, is also the basic outline that you would expect from essays. There are five main checkpoints: introduction, idea 1, idea 2, idea 3, and conclusion. You can also jot down three key points for each of these ideas.

2. MindNode

This isn’t strictly an essay writing app, but it can help you develop your thoughts into an outline. It has many modes which many can be useful in your mind mapping process .

You can use the quick entry feature to jot down ideas as soon as you get them. From there, you can develop detailed notes using the notes feature. You can then use the outlining mode to develop an outline for your essay.

Other features like the focus mode and task tracker are also useful when you have a lot on your plate. Which, we understand, happens often as a student! Assignments pile up and focusing on individual essays gets tougher. That’s exactly where this app can prove helpful.

3. Evernote

Evernote is a note-making and planning app, but also more than that. It is designed to help organize tasks and deadlines, which is extremely useful to students. It connects to Google Calendar, which is an added bonus.

The app allows you to create tasks in your notes and assign dates, flags, and markers to them. It also lets you scan important documents, upload useful content in various formats, and save relevant web pages.

This tool can be your space to store all your essay-related material. It also provides a connection through all your devices, letting you work offline as well.

You can save the finished map on your device or print it out. This is a great tool, especially for people who struggle with outlines or are new to developing structured essays .

4. Voice Dictation

Voice recognition technology has advanced enough to allow users to write entire essays with just their voice. Suffice it to say, the voice dictation tool is indispensable for people who can’t use a keyboard.

Even if you’re just a student with far too much on your mind, the tool is useful. After all, using note-taking tools to make elaborate mind maps isn’t for everyone. People have different methods of working, and speaking our thoughts out loud as they come is one of them!

The tool helps you churn out a great essay without following a set process or format. It’s also time-efficient. Just type the whole thing out with your voice, and all you have to do later is refine it.

Voice Dictation also allows you to utter simple commands to provide punctuation, like “new line” or “comma.”

5. Grammarly  

Grammarly is one of the best essay editing tools, offering users a choice between American and British English. Its A.I. helps you find problems with spelling, punctuation, grammar, and style to help you write better essays.

The free version highlights basic grammar mistakes while the paid version optimizes your use of language. This means that it flags things like repetitive phrases, vague wording, and excessive use of words.

Grammarly is available as both a download for MS Word and as a Chrome extension for Google Docs or other online formats.

6. Hemingway

The app makes your writing clear and direct. It highlights lengthy and complex sentences so you can reconsider whether splitting them up would be a good idea. The app keeps you aware of how you use adverbs, passive voice, complex phrases, and lengthy sentences by using color-coded highlights.

The app is named after the American writer Ernest Hemingway, who is known for his no-nonsense style of writing. It helps improve your essay to make it clear, direct, and forceful.

You can use the app or upload your text on the web page to get similar results. Be cautious about taking the bot’s advice, however, because it is prone to machine error.

7. Cliché Finder  

Everyone uses clichés while writing. However, if you use them too often, your writing becomes trite and uninteresting. This tool helps you avoid exactly that.

The checker uses a unique algorithm that marks any overused and stale phrases in your writing. Making changes based on these suggestions is completely up to you, but it’s certainly important to identify patterns in your writing.

The tool isn’t restricted to essays and can be used to identify clichés in any form of writing. Just upload your text on the web page and you’re good to go!

8. Thesaurus.com

Half the struggle in writing an essay is to figure out the exact word you need to use! There’s always a word that’s at the tip of your tongue but somehow, keeps eluding you. This is exactly the case where a thesaurus can come in handy.

Just put the word you can think of, and the tool will provide a number of similar words. You can find the exact word you’re looking for, or even end up with a better alternative!

The thesaurus also helps when you’re referring to something often, but don’t want to use the same word too much. The tool gives you variation and helps avoid repetitiveness.

If you’re looking for the exact antonym of a word, the thesaurus can help here, too! Just scroll down and you’ll find a variety of antonyms.

9. Citation Machine

Perfect citations are key to scoring well on academic writing tests. There are methods to cite sources in academic essays, like APA , MLA , or Chicago . These citation styles follow different rules, and you can’t afford to fumble between them.

Citation Machine is a quick, time-efficient tool to generate citations in your desired style format. It allows you to create citations in more than 7000 styles, and also keeps a record of your entries. So, once you’re done citing all your sources, you also get a ready bibliography!

For its paid plans, the tool offers a plagiarism check, expert help on your essays, and other useful features. It’s certainly a great tool for any essay writer!

10. Paper Rater

This tool comes into play once you’re done writing. Upload your essay and the tool will give you feedback using Artificial Intelligence and Data Science.

The tool checks your text for grammar and plagiarism. It also offers suggestions based on its evaluation. For school students, it also gives a score!

Of course, feedback from an A.I. tool has many limitations. No matter what essay writing tool you use, it can’t match the expertise that an essay editing service has.

So once you’re done with your essay, just send it over to us for some real feedback. Good luck!

Want to keep reading? Here are the newest articles we’ve worked on:

  • How to Write an Essay Outline
  • Tips on How to Structure an Essay
  • How to Write an Essay Header
  • How to Format a College Essay
  • How to Write an Expository Essay

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Top 24 Writing Tools for Students in 2023 (Unbiased)

Top 24 Writing Tools for Students in 2023 (Unbiased)

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essay writing tools software

As students, we have a lot going on. Back-to-school season means more assignments, research, essays, papers, and reports. Generally, more writing, and writing takes a lot of time. 

But hey - it’s the 21st century. Despite the lack of time, we cannot complain about the lack of tools and apps that help us do everything we need to do - better, faster, and cheaper.

The best AI tool for students in 2023 > The best AI tool for students in 2023 >

best tool for students

The essay writing process

The essay writing process

By utilizing the latest writing tools for students, we can greatly improve our processes and grades.

The right tools can help students in various ways:

  • They can help you manage your time more efficiently.
  • You'll be able to automate tasks such as checking grammar, spelling and punctuation.
  • They can improve more advanced aspects of writing essays like language, structure and tone, for better overall readability.

The writing process can be broken down into three main stages: conceptualize, create, and check.

Let's examine each stage, and see how to optimize each one to save us time and get the job done efficiently. 

Stage 1: Conceptualize

First, we must conceptualize what we intend to write about. Are you having trouble getting started on your writing assignment? These tools can help.

Essay Topic Generator

Choosing the right topic and title is crucial to your success. Are you familiar with first impressions? That's what your paper's title and topic do.

Using a free tool like EssayTopicGenerator , which takes in keywords and generates topic ideas in seconds, gave me lots of ideas.

Essay Topics Generator

These are just rough ideas or thought starters, as you can see from the screenshot. Take a look at these titles and try to turn them into something. 

I would choose option 23. Aside from being clearly worded, it also gives me a fascinating new angle to study: how capitalism can develop within communist states.

To write a successful paper, you will need a strong position or perspective. For many students, writing a thesis can be a challenge.

By using Wordtune , I was able to turn my thoughts into more carefully considered words and make my final thesis statement as compelling as possible. In addition, I selected the option for it to generate suggestions with a more formal tone, which made them sound more academic.

Wordtune

You could benefit from services such as ThesisStatementWriter if you only have disconnected ideas and need help formulating a basic thesis. 

In academic writing, you need to gather and analyze existing research. This is not only to build your knowledge, but also to ensure your own work adds a unique angle without repeating others. Zotero and ReadCube can be really useful assistants to collect, organize, annotate, cite, and share research easily and quickly; and Pockt and Memonic can help larger teams easily access all the curated and collated research painlessly.

Your arguments will be more persuasive if you use high-quality references. Organizing them smartly is not enough. It's difficult to read, comprehend, connect, write, and build upon several GBs of research documents. How do you do it without missing your deadline?

While speed reading and skimming may help you get through your reference research, they do not guarantee comprehension.  Wordtune Read promises to read and summarize complex research papers, reports, and essays tirelessly.

I pasted a link to a 5,000-word essay into the panel, and within seconds it summarized all the key ideas and concepts. The Spotlight option, on the right side of the screen, highlighted all the keywords that needed my attention. 

Wordtune Read

Rather than spending weeks reading through mountains of information, I could focus on the real challenge - making a strong argument based on what's already out there. The ability to analyze more papers with Wordtune Read added to my perspective. This made my own research and arguments much stronger than they would have been if I had only read a few.

Stage 2: Create

Putting a mere idea into 2,000 words or more is the heart of the assignment. Smart writing tools can really make a difference here.

All your research and ideas are in place - now it's time to create the frame that will hold your essay. Bubbl.us , MindMeister , Miro, and MindMup are all virtual mind mapping tools that help you brainstorm, get ideas flowing, and build your own outline by connecting logical ideas in the research.

Mind Map

It's not everyone's cup of tea to write, and it's even harder to write well. Your job as a student is to come up with a compelling, evidence-based argument that proves or disproves your thesis. It's time to flesh out the outline. 

Wordtune made my sentences sharper, smarter, and tighter. While I wrote, it was like having my favorite English teacher improving my writing, sentence construction, and rephrasing my thoughts on a one-to-one basis.

Writing for academic purposes is not creative writing. It should be properly organized and argued, usually in the third person, in a formal tone. You should also use the most appropriate vocabulary, especially subject-specific terms and jargon. By using Wordtune, you can improve your tone and style, as well as choose the most appropriate words.

Ludwig is another writing assistant that helps you write better while on the go. With its multiple contextual options, it describes itself as a 'sentence search engine'.

Collaborative assignments are common among students. Google Docs is a helpful tool for writing with a team. Tutors, experts, and even parents can be granted read, comment, or edit access to it, and version control is maintained. 

Similarly, Miro helps larger teams collaborate and brainstorm visually, allowing complex ideas and perspectives to come to life. This is particularly useful for distributed and remote teams, since everyone can work on weekends or even during breaks.

Miro

For more complex or advanced assignments, distributed teams may have different roles assigned to them. A student working on a product launch assignment at a business school may assign one member to research, another to design, and another to conduct market research.

Depending on the team, a collaboration tool like Trello can keep the project on track, flagging bottlenecks, delays, and upcoming deadlines as they arise.

Trello

Wordtune Read

Once you've written all your words, check the flow. Do all the sections, heads, and subheads follow the right themes? Is it possible to group and consolidate themes that repeat themselves? A friend can give you feedback on whether they understand the gist of your argument by skimming the flow. 

You can check whether all the key points of your argument are covered with a tool like Wordtune Read , which will summarize and highlight key points from your essay (remember we used it to summarize and distill our research material as well?).

If you want to improve the visual side, then tools such as Canva , Book Creator , and Storybird can help you with format and design, visual illustrations, or any specific format and template.

Stage 3: Check

Now that all your thoughts and ideas are on paper, it's time to tidy up. Smart editing tools are more than capable of helping you, and you need an objective third party:

The use of tools like Hemingway editor ensures you won't overlook anything when it comes to editing your content for grammar, punctuation, and spelling errors. In addition, sentences that are too long, too short, too complex, too passive, too repetitive, or just the wrong tone will be highlighted.

With Wordtune , you can flesh out short sentences and fill in content-thin paragraphs, as well as shorten long or complex sentences without losing meaning. Use Wordtune if you get a low readability score - which measures how easy or difficult it is for someone to comprehend your content - to tweak and rephrase your sentences, and improve sentence variety and paragraph transitions.

Bottom line: smart tools enhance the quality of your content, not just speed up the editing process.

  • Copy and plagiarism checks: like millions of others, you can quite comfortably trust tools such as Wordtune and Hemingway to ensure there are no spelling, grammar or punctuation errors in your copy. Use Plagscan to ensure you don't inadvertently copy existing material into your essay.
  • Citations and biblio : following any writing convention, such as APA, MLA, and Chicago style, and writing bibliographies and citations of your references, will make the rest of your assignment process a breeze. It's easier than ever to source and cite research with apps like BibMe , Citavi , EndNote, and Citethisforme . 

Write essays with confidence, speed and style!

You can find the right task and tool with this handy chart.

The smart writing tools checklist

As long as you have these tools at your disposal, you will be able to ace this school year.

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Grammarly Alternatives: Which Writing Assistant is the Best Choice for You?

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Best Academic Writing Software: 21 Top Options (2024)

In this article, you’ll discover the best academic writing software options based on their features, prices, and usability. 

I remember spending countless hours in my University’s library, desperately trying to format my thesis correctly, surrounded by half-empty takeaway coffee cups. If only I had known that the right academic writing software could have helped me save time and improve the quality of my work. 

Whether you’re a university student struggling to finish your thesis like I was or a researcher with deadlines looming, you can rest assured that the right academic writing software will take an enormous weight off your shoulders. What is academic writing? Read our guide to find out!

Academic writing requires meticulous attention to detail which is why we’ve scoured the web looking for software that will support you in the following areas:

  • Concise sentences
  • Readability improvements
  • Chapter, footnotes, and bibliography automation

The academic software options in this article will help you unlock your true potential as an academic writer by improving your grammar, structure, style, and planning.

1. Grammarly

2. prowritingaid, 3. scrivener, 4. google docs, 9. obsidian, 11. microsoft word, 13. mendeley, 14. endnote, 16. turnitin, 17. copyscape, 18. chatgpt, 20. authorea, why should you trust me , our testing criteria, is grammarly good for academic writing, 21 best free & paid academic writing software.

Pricing : Free version available, Premium $12/month, Business $15/month Use for : For plagiarism and grammar checks of academic writing

Grammarly no issues found logo

Grammarly is the most popular writing software on the market, and it’s being used by all types of writers, from high-school students to academic writers in top institutions and universities.

I personally never submit work to my clients without running it through Grammarly first, and I’ve even shelled out for the yearly premium subscription to get access to the plagiarism checker. To find out more, read our Grammarly review .

Some new students also wonder if it’s ok to use this tool to edit their essays and papers. It’s fine to use but if you need more context, in this article, our writer answers the question, is using Grammarly cheating ? 

  • Grammarly is user-friendly, allowing you to either copy and paste your work directly into the application or have it check your documents while you type
  • Makes Suggestions to improve sentence structure and explains why the change has been suggested
  • Picks up on adjectives that could lead to exaggeration
  • Encourages you to write in the action instead of the passive voice
  • Works for British English, American English, and Australian English
  • Plagiarism checker is only available to premium customers
  • Plagiarism checker doesn’t cover academic papers
  • Live checker is not available for Microsoft Word

We tested dozens of grammar checkers, and Grammarly is the best tool on the market today. It'll help you write and edit your work much faster. Grammarly provides a powerful AI writing assistant and plagiarism checker.

Grammarly

Pricing: Free version, $20/month, $79/year, $300/lifetime Use for: As an alternative for grammar and plagiarism checkers of academic writing

ProWritingAid website logo

ProWritingAid is an affordable grammar checker that leverages artificial intelligence and a personal support system to help you improve your writing by pointing out specific areas of weakness. 

ProWritingAid presents suggestions similarly to Grammarly through bold pop-up boxes that are easy to navigate. However, this software targets professionals looking to make fundamental changes to their writing style. To find out more, read our ProWritingAid review .

  • Reasonable prices, especially with the lifetime option
  • Compatible with Microsoft Word
  • Includes a digital writing coach
  • Style score gives you a guide regarding the quality of your work
  • Plagiarism is not included in the free version
  • PLagiarism checker less accurate than Grammarly

ProWritingAid is a powerful, accurate grammar checker and style editor. It's suitable for non-fiction and fiction writers and doesn't require a monthly subscription. Save 20% per month or year.

ProWritingAid

Price: 30-day free trial, student/academics discount $50, IOS $19.99, Standard macOS and Windows $58.99 Use for: For managing large academic papers, organizing research, and references

Webpage of Scrivener are seen on a laptop computer

Scrivener may not be as well known as the last two software options, but it has much to offer academic writers. For example, the platform will help you get your references in order, and it will help you integrate large chunks of text into one, which is useful when you’re moving big paragraphs.

Although bloggers and journalists overlook Scrivener, if you’re someone who is dealing with long research papers, this could be the ideal software choice. To find out more, read our Scrivener review .

  • Great formatting tools for academic writers
  • Affordable prices, especially with the academic discount
  • Helps organize your reference 
  • Keep all your files, including PDFs and web pages, inside your Scrivener account
  • Take a snapshot of your work and return to early versions if you want to make retrospective changes
  • No plagiarism checker
  • No live checker for editing on external platforms such as Google Docs and Word
  • A learning curve

Scrivener is our go-to app for long-form writing projects. It's popular with best-selling novelists, screenwriters, non-fiction writers, students, academics, lawyers, journalists, translators and more. 

Scrivener

Price: Free Use for: General writing, collaborative writing, and editing

Google Docs is a free Web-based application in which documents and spreadsheets can be created

Google Docs is probably the most well-known writing software, and it’s used by professional writers, bloggers, and academics worldwide. I’m personally using Docs to write this post, as its sharing feature makes sending your work to an editor a breeze. 

Docs offers many valuable features for academic writers, including headers and footers, collaborative comments, citations, and the new document comparison tool. 

This platform is useful when combined with Grammarly, its spell checker, and writing tips are highlighted clearly in Google Docs, and you can accept and reject suggestions with one click. 

  • Easy to use, familiar software
  • Collaboration made easy
  • Easy to format text with citations, headers/footers, and Headings 
  • Grammarly compatible
  • Export in PDF
  • Document comparison does not make up for the lack of a plagiarism checker
  • Native spell checker is a little unreliable, but adding Grammarly makes up for this

Price: Free Use for: For writing scientific papers

The LaTeX Project logo

LaTex is a writing software designed to help people improve the structure of their academic papers. It’s worth noting that LaTeX doesn’t offer a spell-checking service, so you’ll want to use it in combination with Grammarly or ProWritingAid. 

The software interface may not boast a high-quality-looking interface, but the underlying features are impressive, especially considering the software is free to use. 

  • Automatic indexing and bibliography generator 
  • Automatic chapter and paragraph macros
  • Math typesetting
  • No spelling and grammar checker 
  • Not as user-friendly as some competitors

Price: 30-day free trial, $3/per month for students, $5/month for academics, $10/month for business Use for: To manage, read, annotate, and share your research references

ReadCube Papers

Papers help you gather your research materials across multiple devices, making your books, articles, and journals easy to access and organize. 

If you’re writing a long research paper, manually collating all your references into one library would be extremely time-consuming. Papers automate the process, letting you focus on writing, 

Although Papers isn’t a stand-alone academic writing software due to the lack of most expected features, it will be handy for academic writers struggling to organize their references and sources.

  • Low price for academics and students
  • Import references to your library from multiple platforms
  • Access all your research sources in one place
  • Collaborative annotation of notes and sources
  • $10/month is a little expensive, considering you don’t get plagiarism or a spell checker

Price: Free Use for: As a markdown editor and for organizing academic notes

Zettlr review

Zettlr is an open-source markdown editor software that lets you focus on your writing without worrying about making it HTML compatible manually. Zettlr is excellent for academic writers looking to include citations or export their work in multiple formats. 

  • Export in multiple formats
  • Citation system.
  • Tags to help you organize information
  • Writing goals tracker
  • Preview documents without opening them
  • You may need some CSS coding knowledge to get the best out of the software.
  • No plagiarism checker.

Price: $5.99/month or $39.99/year Use for: Writing on IOS devices

Ulysses Writing App

Ulysses is a writing software designed for use on Mac, iPad, and iPhone, so if you aren’t an Apple user, then this one isn’t for you.

Although academic papers are usually full of data, graphs, and charts, you sometimes need to focus on your text, which is where Ulysses can help. Ulysses is minimalist in design with a clutter-free interface, so if you’re someone that quickly gets distracted from writing, it could be a great option. It supports Markdown. You can also use it to prepare an academic paper for publication. To find out more, read our Ulysses review .

  • iCloud synchronization
  • One payment plan for three devices
  • Minimalistic design.
  • Set and track writing goals.
  • Lacks academic writing features such as a bibliography, references, and chapter organization
  • No option for collaborative writing
  • Not available for Windows

Price: Free, but you can make a one-time payment of $25 for special developer features and a yearly $50 for commercial use rights Use for: Note taking and organizing

Obsidian is a powerful Markdown app

Obsidian is a note-taking and personal knowledge management tool for improving how research writers organize ideas and notes. 

Academic writing often involves developing complex ideas and presenting them clearly. Obsidian can help you develop your theories by organizing your ideas and notes into mindmaps and information stacks. 

Obsidian won’t be the standalone app you use as an academic writer, but it can help you develop ideas and connections within your papers. To find out more, read our Obsidian review .

  • Unique mind mapping system
  • Many plugins offer features such as voice recording, formatting, and writing templates
  • If you have some knowledge of coding HTML or Java, you can customize parts of the software for your specific needs
  • It will take some time to get to grips with all the features
  • Lack of specific academic writing needs such as a plagiarism checker

Price: Free Use for: Organize your notes across various platforms

Joplin website Review

Joplin is an open-source note-taking software that operates across various devices and has a thriving community developing free tools to improve the platform. You can share your notes from Joplin across different platforms, and it runs on Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, and Android. 

For academic writers, Joplin offers a space to collect web clippings and notes from online sources and access them from multiple devices. 

  • Accessible on all major operating systems
  • Web clipping system is excellent for researchers gathering notes
  • The community is constantly developing new features
  • No collaborative feature
  • No free storage/cloud
  • Like other note-taking apps, it doesn’t check for plagiarism or spelling

Price: $6.99/Month Use for: General writing, editing, and note-taking

Laptop computer displaying logo of Microsoft Word, a word processor developed by Microsoft

Microsoft Word is one of the most widely used word-processing applications for academic writing. Known for its user-friendly interface, it offers various formatting options and tools. It has an inbuilt spell checker, dozens of fonts, and various formatting options.

It’s a fairly general writing tool that lacks some of the more specialized features of some of those mentioned in this article. Nonetheless, Word is a tried and tested writing companion you should consider using with a good referencing software from this list.

  • Robust formatting tools for academic writing
  • Familiar to most writers
  • Available on almost all PCs
  • Solid offline writing tool
  • Collaboration features are not as good as other options
  • Additional cost for extra cloud storage
  • Outdated UI
  • Lack of specialist tools

Price: Free Use for: Organizing references

Laptop computer displaying logo of Zotero, a free and open-source reference management software

Zotero is an open-source reference management software ideal for anyone struggling to keep their bibliography neatly ordered. If you’re writing a lengthy academic paper and haven’t settled on a referencing software, Zotero is worth a try, especially as it’s free.

If you’re working on a group project, Zotero’s collaborative features are helpful when organizing citations in various formats, including Chicago and APA. Naturally, as this is citation software, you’ll want to combine it with a writing platform such as Docs or Word.

  • Free version
  • Over 10,000 citation styles
  • Collaboration features
  • PDF reader built-in
  • Compatible with Google Docs and Word
  • Limited customer support
  • Limited offline access without a paid subscription
  • Not the easiest to use without spending several hours practicing

Price: Free with optional premium plan Use for: Researching and referencing

Laptop computer displaying logo of Mendeley

Mendely is a free-to-use reference management tool that PhD students created. You can tell from the software that the people who created it had wasted hours manually referencing and wanted a more streamlined and efficient way to add citations to their papers.

The Mendeley Library has millions of papers and can be easily browsed from tablet, PC, and mobile. Combining it with a reference management tool will help you organize your research.

  • Social networking for research collaboration
  • Over 100 million articles in the database
  • Clean UI, even on smaller screens
  • It can be used to generate bibliographies
  • Storage is limited in the free version
  • Reports of poor synchronization on collaborative documents
  • The downloadable version for PC is no longer available

Price: $269.95/Full License Use for: Referencing, annotating, and journal matching

EndNote website

EndNote is a premium academic research and writing software that is a market leader in providing reference management, citations, and bibliography creation. The premium price tag might be worth swallowing if you’re a serious academic writer.

EndNote can help you match your research papers with potentially compatible journals via its Manuscript Match tool. This software is easy to integrate with popular writing software like Google Docs and makes reading and annotating PDFs very easy, even on your phone.

  • Excellent reference management
  • Smooth integration with word processors
  • Top-class PDF reader and annotator
  • Novel journal matching tool
  • Collaboration is made simple
  • The price tag is out of most people’s range
  • The learning curve for new users
  • The student discount isn’t very generous

Price: Free trial or $1000 Use for: Collaborative reference management and writing

Citavi webpage

Citavi is an academic writing and reference management tool. The software combines a seamless collaborative writing experience with an automatic citation tool with over 10,000 styles. 

The software automatically links citations, creates a bibliography, and allows you to export directly to Microsoft Word. The software is impressive and has received great reviews, but the price tag naturally means most people will probably settle for something cheaper.

  • Covers citations and writing
  • Easy export process to Word
  • Collaborative writing is as good as with Docs
  • Complex academic search queries can be narrowed down with several filters
  • The price is high as the product is aimed at companies, not individuals
  • Lacks Google Docs compatibility
  • The free trial is very limited

Price: Free Use for: Plagiarism checker

The website logo of Turnitin

Turnitin is a plagiarism detection tool that anyone writing research papers should consider using. Most major research institutions use Turnitin to ensure they don’t publish plagiarized work.

The software is easy to use and rates the uniqueness of academic rating based on its massive pool of papers. Turnitin doesn’t just give a yes or no answer. It points out sections of your work that may be plagiarized and links them to citations of the work that appears to be being copied.

  • Trusted by major institutions and leading universities
  • Easy to use
  • The feedback system gives a detailed breakdown of where you’ve plagiarized and helps you avoid it in the future
  • Not the most modern user interface
  • Does occasionally flag non-plagiarized copy as plagiarized
  • No in-depth writing support or cross-compatibility

Price: Free version or pay per word Use for: Plagiarism checker

Copyscape webpage

Copyscape is a plagiarism checker designed for online content creators and anyone who runs a blog or a website. Although it’s probably less helpful for academics than Turnitin, it’s still worth mentioning, as it can help academics in the early stages of research that involves collecting information from sources other than official journals. 

The software is straightforward to use as it is a simple copy-and-paste system. There is a limited free version, but even the premium per-word rate is very reasonable.

  • Great for someone running a blog that posts academic content from multiple writers
  • PDF compatible
  • Generally, Turnitin is more appropriate for academics
  • The website has a very cheap feel

Price: Free version or $20/month Use for: AI-enhanced writing, editing, and researching

Screen with ChatGPT chat with AI or artificial intelligence

ChatGPT has been the most talked about technological innovation this year. Its impact on the world of research and writing is still evolving, and the model is still developing. It’s a fantastic tool for researching if you’re willing to spend a few hours learning how to create effective prompts. 

ChatGPT can rapidly search the web for content published before 2021 and present it concisely. Regardless of the topic you’re researching, this software is going to be able to help you research and write more efficiently.

If you want an in-depth review of ChatGPT and how you can use it to become a better academic writer, check out our ChatGPT review . 

  • Rapid response to even very niche research requests
  • Finds sources from all over the web much faster than a traditional Google search.
  • Speeds up the writing and editing process
  • It is a useful tool to master, considering the likelihood of more large language models hitting the market in the future
  • It does make factual mistakes.
  • Sometimes, the AI suffers from so-called hallucinations that can result in very strange answers.
  • Its access to the web was cut off in 2021, so it can’t find the latest research papers.
  • You’ll need to spend some time learning about writing prompts to get the best out of ChatGPT

Price: Free version or $4.99/month Use for: Spelling and Grammar

Ginger website

Ginger is a spelling and grammar software that offers an interesting alternative to Grammarly. This software is compatible with most popular writing platforms and goes beyond basic grammar and spelling checks.

Ginger offers unlimited rephrasing suggestions and can translate documents into dozens of languages. In addition, they’ve managed to undercut Grammarly’s prices, so this could be worth a try if you feel Grammarly is too expensive.

  • Solid grammar and spell checker
  • Very nice UI
  • The rephrasing tool will help you add new life to your writing
  • Well priced particularly if you pay for a yearly subscription
  • The translation feature makes it stand out from the crowd of grammar checkers
  • The free version isn’t as comprehensive as the one offered by Grammarly
  • Only available on three browsers

Price: Free version available Use for: Writing and publishing

Authorea homepage

Authorea is a collaborative writing tool designed for researchers working in small teams. Importantly, Authorea goes beyond just helping you write by offering several tools that help researchers publish their papers once it’s completed. Beyond the basic collaborative writing features you may expect, it also offers automatic citation formatting even when multiple people are editing one document.

The software can automatically format research papers to suit 40 of the biggest publishers in the world. The free version is fairly comprehensive, but frustratingly, it’s unclear how much they charge for the premium service, as the price has to be negotiated directly via email with the team. It appears to vary depending on the insulation you work for and the size of your team.

  • The publishing feature will be beneficial for academic writers.
  • Free to use
  • Elegant website and UI
  • Collaborative writing and automatic formatting of citations
  • The premium pricing plan is not clear
  • It’s specialized software, so using it will require some practice
  • If you only publish in one journal, then the formatting feature won’t be that useful

Price: Free version available Use for: Specialized academic spelling and grammar checker

Trinka registration page

Trinka is an AI-powered technical writing grammar and plagiarism checker. This is essentially a more technical version of Grammarly that’s been designed specially to help academic writers. It can help you create a more formal tone, introduce technical terms, and even have the option to focus suggestions on specific scientific areas such as medicine, chemistry, and physics. 

In addition, it has a publication feature that can help you get your paper into the format required by most publishers. If you’ve been using Grammarly as an academic writer but feel that its suggestions are too general, then Trinka could be a great alternative.

  • A spell checker designed for academic writers
  • Suggestions tailored to your scientific field
  • Formatting tool and an in-house plagiarism checker
  • Tone enhancement designed for academic papers
  • Premium version reasonably priced at $80/year
  • The free version is slightly limited
  • Only 5,000 words per month with the free version
  • Slow response times from customer support, according to some reviews

If you need a good grammar checker, Grammarly is our top choice due to its accuracy and speed. Scrivener excels at managing long-form papers, but Ulysses is easier to use. Obsidian is great for managing research as it Papers.

My work as a journalist has been published in major news outlets such as The Daily Mirror, Newsweek, Zenger, and Yahoo. In a hectic newsroom, there’s no time to waste, and mistakes are rarely forgiven, so I’ve spent hundreds of hours using writing software to guarantee accuracy and clarity in my copy. 

In my opinion, you can make the best use of academic writing software by combining different options based on their individual strengths. I recommend using Google Docs if you collaborate with a team combined with Grammarly or ProWritingAid for spelling and plagiarism and then adding something like Papers to help organize your sources. 

We update this roundup of the best academic writing tools regularly. We test key features by checking MS Word documents, blog posts, essays, articles and even book chapters. 

These writing samples range from several hundred to several thousand words. Typically, we use the web, desktop and browser apps and plugins, factoring in price, ease of use, and functionality. We’ve reviewed many of these tools individually and included links to those reviews.

FAQs About The Best Academic Writing Software

Grammarly is useful for checking academic writing for grammar and spelling mistakes. It can also help academic writers improve the readability of their reports or papers. However, Grammarly isn’t meant to function as a tool for planning and writing academic papers. For that use, a traditional word processor or a dedicated academic writing app.

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Basic spell-checks often miss academic terms in writing and mark them as errors. Scribbr has a large dictionary of recognized (academic) words, so you can feel confident every word is 100% correct.

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Scribbr is committed to protecting academic integrity. Our plagiarism checker , AI Detector , Citation Generator , proofreading services , paraphrasing tool , grammar checker , summarizer , and free Knowledge Base content are designed to help students produce quality academic papers.

We make every effort to prevent our software from being used for fraudulent or manipulative purposes.

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Best free writing app of 2024

Bring your words to life with the best free writing apps

Best overall

Best for markup, best word alternative, best word processor, best for mac, best online, how we test.

The best free writing software makes it simple and easy to better manage and organize all your ideas, outlines, and projects. 

A close up of a person typing on a MacBook keyboard.

1. Best overall 2. Best for markup 3. Best Word alternative 4. Best word processor 5. Best for Mac 6. Best online 7. FAQs 8. How we test

Like the best free word processors , writing apps help you get your thoughts on the page without breaking the bank (or your train of thought). But we’ve also made sure they’ll make it easier to save, share, and sync all your documents and keep them safe, whether you need a desktop writing app for work, school, or play. 

If you struggle to stay focused, we’ve tested some of the best free writing apps come with distraction-free layouts or gamification challenges to keep you in the zone. We’ve also reviewed those built for professional document creation, with advanced business features such as speech-to-text transcription and online collaboration tools. 

Our picks cover the best apps for writing on the web, Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS - so you’re always ready whenever and wherever creativity strikes. 

literature and latte Scrivener 3

Scrivener: best writing software for authors Scrivener is packed with all the features a novelist needs, helping you track plot threads, store notes on characters and locations, structure your work and (most importantly) get some serious work done. It's not a free writing app like the tools below, but it's well worth the investment if your budget will allow it.

The best free writing app of 2024 in full:

Why you can trust TechRadar We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. Find out more about how we test.

Website screenshot for FocusWriter.

1. FocusWriter

Our expert review:

Specifications

Reasons to buy, reasons to avoid.

FocusWriter helps writers combat one of their biggest challenges: distractions. One of the best free writing software tools out there, it's specifically designed to let you just concentrate on your writing. 

The stripped-back interface is deliciously sparse - ideal for when you just need to get your head down and write - and not dissimilar to a moderately powerful version of Notepad, featuring support for TXT, basic, RTF, and ODT files. 

Even the toolbar is hidden until you actually need it. Just swoop your cursor to the top on the screen to reveal a barren menu, from basic formatting to themes and timers.

Features are light within the software, but FocusWriter isn’t made for heavy editing sessions. It’s designed to make the act of writing flow seamlessly onto the page. 

Elsewhere, the writing app boasts the ability to add themes and your own background images, which can help you stay motivated. 

The Daily Progress tool is a sweet extra, adding Duolingo-style gamification that lets you track your daily writing streak. For when it’s oh-so-easy to slip onto social media when you can’t find the perfect word, it’s a nice way to keep you within the app. 

Available for Windows, Linux, and macOS, the writing software also comes as a portable download, no installation required. So, you can pop it on a USB stick and plug it into any computer you’re working on. 

Read our full FocusWriter review .

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Website screenshot for Writemonkey.

2. WriteMonkey

WriteMonkey is another piece of free writing software that cuts down on the clutter to deliver uninterrupted writing sessions. 

The free word processor, cleverly described as zenware, is unbelievably pared back compared to more traditional writing apps. 

There’s very little in the way of distracting ‘screen furniture’, which means you’re better positioned to concentrate on the writing process. And absolutely nothing else. 

But don’t let that stripped-back approach fool you. As one of the best free writing apps, WriteMonkey is still rich with the sort of core features that matter to writers. 

However, most options are hidden in a context menu (so you’ll need to right-click to view it). It also only supports TXT files, which may limit those looking to read, write, or edit across multiple formats. It is, at least, a portable download, letting you take it wherever you need.

If you’ve enjoyed Markdown, the simplified text-editing language that lets you format, annotate, classify, and link as you type, then great. WriteMonkey’s inner workings will instantly chime. 

First-timers should spend a little time with this free writing software, to uncover that intuitive simplicity. 

Read our full WriteMonkey review .

Website screenshot for LibreOffice.

3. LibreOffice Writer

Writer, the open-source, free writing software, serves almost all general writing needs.

LibreOffice is a near-perfect example of free office software - a familiar, feature-rich take on the office suite. What the veteran software package lacks in Microsoft polish (its interface is undeniably old-fashioned, for starters), it makes up for in its price-point: free. For that, you get access to six tools: Calc, Impress, Draw, Base, Math, and Writer. 

Earning it a slot on our list of best free writing apps is the fact that LibreOffice Writer packs the full editing toolbox. 

This isn’t just a note-taking app for staving off distractions when you’re deep in the zone; it’s for when you’re in pure writer-mode. 

If you’re at all proficient with Microsoft Word, you won’t have any problems using the Writer software. Layouts and functions are almost identical, and there’s support for DOC and DOCX file types, making it efficient to switch out of the Microsoft garden.

This free writing app is ideal if you’re hunting for a tool that almost perfectly replicates the Word experience without the cost. 

Read our full LibreOffice review .

Website screenshot for Microsoft Word.

4. Microsoft Word

When it comes to word processors, Microsoft Word is probably the baseline against which all others are compared. It’s the one most of us use at school, home, and work. It’s familiar, comfortable - and it’s available free on the web and mobile devices. 

That may not be the best way to write your masterpiece (unless you’ve hooked up a Bluetooth keyboard). But it’s a great way to jot down ideas on-the-go. When we tested the browser-based version we found it could be a bit slow at first, and we were typing faster than the words appeared on screen. This settles down (mostly) after a minute or so. 

Microsoft’s free writing apps on Android and iPhone had no such issues. Using these was velvety smooth. We especially appreciated the option to switch between mobile view and desktop view, so we could gauge how the document would appear in full-screen. 

As with Google Docs, you’ll need to sign up with a Microsoft account. And, like Google, that also lets you use free versions of PowerPoint, Excel, and the like. While Word offers one of the best free writing app experiences, there’s no denying that the paid-for upgrade is superior, offering more tools, and a true desktop app. 

Read our full Microsoft Word review .

Website screenshot for Author.

Author promises to make it easier to ‘think, write, and cite’. It’s a promise capably delivered, with a clean interface and bags of writing features designed to make it easy to go from first draft to final copy. 

If you're an Apple user in search of the best free writing apps on macOS, this one demands your attention. 

Concept Maps is one of the best features. It’s a great mind-mapping tool to visualize and lay down all your thoughts while they’re fresh in your head without constraint. You can worry about whipping them into shape later. 

Students and report writers will appreciate Author’s ‘fast citing’ tools - speeding up assignment-writing by correctly adding and formatting citations, references, and contents. 

A paid-for upgrade of the writing software that offers exporting options is available. However, unless you need automatic formatting on export, you can stick with the free version. 

Website screenshot for Google Docs.

6. Google Docs

Google Docs is a great free writing platform for any writer. It’s an extremely clean, quick word processor available in the browser, on desktop, and phone and tablet apps. So, you can take notes wherever inspiration strikes. 

Docs is more or less Google’s spin on Microsoft Word. The interface is a bit more simple than the professional office software - although it’s no less powerful. 

You’ll find heaps of writing tools, including a pretty accurate speech-to-text transcription tool (just enunciate and don’t talk too fast). Keyboard shortcuts are very well-supported. 

For best results, you’ll need an internet connection, though documents can be used offline. They’ll be synced, and in our experience, that happens swiftly behind the scenes. 

To take advantage of the free writing app, you’ll need a Google account, which may be a deal-breaker for some - but that also opens up the rest of the Google-stuff in the Google-sphere, such as Sheets, Slides, and . With a free account, you get 15GB of storage, which should be more than enough for word documents. A Google One subscription upgrades your storage space, amongst other things. 

Additionally, Google Docs is great if you want to collaborate with one or more other writers. Just be warned to stay in Google Docs for that, because exporting the data into Word or other writing applications can result formatting errors.

Read our full Google Docs review .

What's the difference between a writing app and an AI writer?

AI writers vs writing apps - what's the real difference?

Artificial intelligence is growing in a big way - and when it comes to writing, it's ChatGPT that's been snatching all the headlines of late, with its ability to generate short- and long-form content based on user prompts.

Generally, an AI writer will write your content for you, based on its current learning (although often without 'understanding' the context). A writing app simply lets you write your way, in your own voice. 

Some platforms, such as Canva , have even integrated AI into its Canva Docs and Canva PDF Editor services. However. its Magic Write tool acts as a writing assistant, serving up suggestions and ideas, leaving real writers to work their magic on the content. Though usually hiding in the back-end, you can also find AI integrated in other ways across other the best PDF editor apps (and even the best free PDF editor apps, too).

As always with AI-generated content, whether it's the written word or an artwork masterpiece, human involvement is usually necessary and always desirable. Even if you're using the best AI writers out there, editing and proofreading is essential to give the content accuracy and emotional resonance.

How to choose the best free writing app for you

When deciding which free writing app is best, start by figuring out what sort of writing you want to do. 

Do you need a handy tool for quick scribbles and jotting down ideas here and there, or are you using the writing software to write and edit an epic novel? Tools like FocusWriter and Write Monkey are great for getting thoughts on the page without friction.

It’s also worth considering if you need a writing app with a distraction-free design, so you can concentrate on what really matters to you. Again, FocusWriter performs admirably here, but as a result, you lose core typography and editing functions. Unlike LibreOffice, this isn’t the best Microsoft Office alternative if you need those tools. In that scenario, it may be worth considering looking at some of the best free office software , which includes MS Word-style apps, alongside other tools similar to Excel, PowerPoint, and so on. 

Access is an important factor when using your writing software. A tool like Scribus needs to be downloaded to your machine. Lightweight apps like FocusWriter, however, offer a portable download that can be downloaded to a USB and carried with you. 

Check what file formats your chosen writing app supports, too. While some let you create and edit the common DOC and DOCX files, others only allow TXT or RTF documents.

But most of all, it’s important to choose the best free writing app for your unique creative flow. 

Testing the best free writing apps and software, we assess how easy it is to get your words down on the page with the least amount of friction. Portable writing apps rank high, because they let you use the program on whatever computer or laptop you’re using. 

We also look at performance for its intended audience. For distraction-free writing apps, do they really foster focus? For word processor-style software, does it offer good formatting and editing options? 

Most importantly, we expect to see free writing apps that are genuinely cost-free - no-one wants to stumble across hidden fees and charges in the contracts. 

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Steve is TechRadar Pro’s B2B Editor for Creative & Hardware. He explores the apps and devices for individuals and organizations that thrive on design and innovation. A former journalist at Web User magazine, he's covered software and hardware news, reviews, features, and guides. He's previously worked on content for Microsoft, Sony, and countless SaaS & product design firms. Once upon a time, he wrote commercials and movie trailers. Relentless champion of the Oxford comma.

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Six Essay Helper Tools for Students

Six Essay Helper Tools for Students

4-minute read

  • 23rd August 2023

Essay writing is a significant aspect of any academic career – regardless of the subject. Creating a research timeline and writing an essay from start to finish can be a daunting task, but luckily, online essay helper tools can assist you throughout the writing process. In this post, we’ve compiled a list of the five popular tools to help you with your essay, from the initial outline to the citations. Keep reading for more.

Google Scholar

Google Scholar is a freely accessible web search engine provided by Google that focuses specifically on scholarly literature, including academic articles, conference papers, theses, and books. It was created to help researchers and students find authoritative and credible sources for their research and provides links to the full-text versions when available.

One feature of Google Scholar is that it allows you to track citations of academic works. For example, you can see how many times a particular article has been cited by other researchers, which can help gauge its significance.

Scrivener is a popular writing software designed to assist you in drafting, organizing, and editing your work. For example, it allows you to break down your writing into smaller, manageable sections called scrivenings . These can represent different sections or paragraphs of your essay.

You can then view and arrange your scrivenings on a virtual corkboard or in an outline format so you can plan the structure of your work, which is especially helpful if you’re writing a longer essay. Scrivener also provides a research folder where you can store reference materials, images, web links, and notes related to your project, keeping all relevant information in one place for easy access. It also has a customizable full-screen mode that allows you to focus solely on writing without distractions.

Turnitin is a plagiarism checker widely used by educational institutions to help students avoid unintentional plagiarism. It compares submitted work to a vast database of academic content to identify potential matches. After your essay is processed, Turnitin generates an originality report that highlights any text in the submitted document that matches content from other sources. Turnitin can also check citations and references to ensure they are correctly formatted, which helps ensure your sources are credited properly and decreases instances of unintentional plagiarism .

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Thesaurus.Com

Do you ever find yourself reusing the same words over and over when writing an essay? Varying your word choice in your writing helps make your essays more interesting and expressive, but it’s not always easy to come up with the right synonyms . Thesaurus.com is one of the largest and most reliable online thesaurus tools and is a great resource for finding synonyms for commonly used words in essays (such as significantly or additionally ) and expanding your everyday vocabulary. You can even have a synonym of the day sent directly to your email.

Evernote is a note-taking app that provides a platform for students to organize ideas, research materials, and take notes in one place. It syncs across devices and provides a browser extension called the Web Clipper that allows you to save articles, web pages, and images directly to your Evernote account.

Citation Machine

Citation Machine generates citations and references for your essay based on the information you provide, such as the title of the work, the author’s name, and the publication year. It offers a wide range of citation styles commonly used in academic writing, including APA, MLA, and Chicago styles.

Citation Machine can generate reference entries and in-text citations for different types of sources (e.g., books, articles, websites, and videos). In addition, it offers tutorials and tips on proper citation guidelines and avoiding plagiarism .

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19 Academic Writing Tools (that are completely free!)

19 Academic Writing Tools (that are completely free!)

A selection of tools for academic writing – from collaborating, time-tracking and project management to finding the perfect phrase or translation. We are continuously updating this list (latest update: April 2023).

I often get asked about my favourite academic writing tools. That’s why I compiled this scientific tools list for you with 19 great tools to support your academic writing. You can use all these scientific research tools for free and some of them have paid versions with additional features.

Just one word of caution: Exploring new academic writing tools can be a time-suck and distract you from getting your actual writing done. If you are one of those people who spend hours signing up for new software for academic writing and getting it set up, only to abandon the tool a few days or weeks later – then be careful reading this scientific tools list, and don’t get overenthusiastic. 😉

By the way, I don’t have any affiliation with any of the academic writing tools listed below, and none of these are affiliated links.

Here, we go, 19 tools for academic writing and scientific research I recommend in no particular order:

ACADEMIC Writing tools

1. writefull.

This proof-reading tool for scientific texts is powered by AI and big data. You can integrate the Writefull app into Word or Overleaf for free. A reader of the blog brought my attention to this tool (thank you so much!) and I’ve only recently started using it, so I can’t give you a full-blown review just yet but so far the results are promising. Writefull is owned by Digital Science, a company that has released several Open Science apps, such as figshare, Overleaf and Altmetric. 

2. Phrasebank

Created by Dr John Morley from “The University Language Center” of Manchester University, the Phrasebank is a database of common phrases used in papers, dissertations and grant proposals – a real goldmine!

The phrases are organised both by the common sections in a paper such as the Introduction, Methods, Results or Discussion section. For example, in the tab for the Introduction section, one can find entries for “establishing the importance of the topic for the world or society” or “identifying a knowledge gap in the field of study”. If you click on the latter, you can find among others the following suggested phrases: “It is still unclear whether…”, “However, the behaviour of X has not yet been investigated” and “Causal factors leading to X remain speculative”.

You can also look for phrases by choosing a general language function. Some of the choices are “being cautious”, “describing trends”, “signalling transition”.   

The Phrasebank is very useful to get inspiration for new wording but I do not endorse all entries. Sometimes you find language that is a bit clunky or overly complicated so do use your own judgement when you browse this academic writing tool. PS: You can also download the Academic Phrasebank as PDF or Kindle file.

3. Thesaurus.com

If you’re looking for synonyms, thesaurus.com is the best online thesaurus I’ve found so far. It divides the synonyms based on different meanings of the word and indicates the relevance of the synonym by using three shades of orange.

Just one word of caution: Don’t fall into the trap of using too many synonyms in your academic writing. Being precise is so much more important than varying the words you are using in your writing. In particular for field-specific terminology, I advise against using synonyms .

This is a hot tip for researchers who need to transcribe interviews (hello, social scientists!), who like to record research ideas or those who like to write by dictating text into their phone. Otter is an AI-based transcription tool that works for English language recordings. The quality of the transcriptions is comparable to other transcription services using AI, meaning they are often not accurate and can give nonsensical, even comical results — especially when the recorded voice has a strong or unusual accent. Still, the automated and quick transcriptions (real time transcriptions are available too!) can be a good starting point and are a huge time saver. What’s cool about Otter compared to its competitors is that they give you 300 minutes of transcriptions per month for free!

There are many online dictionaries but Linguee is my favourite for academic writing. It suggests a translation on the basis of previous translations published on the internet.  Therefore, this dictionary is especially great if you’re looking to not only translate a word but a certain turn of phrase or idiom. Linguee translates to and from English in over 20 languages. An essential academic writing tool for all non-native English speakers!

ACADEMIC WRITING TOOLS FOR Collaboration AND CO-WRITING

6. authorea.

The magazine “ TechCrunch ” describes Authorea as “a Google Docs for scientists”. On the academic writing platform, you can write, edit, and insert citations, figures and data. And it’s great for collaborative writing: Co-authors can access the same text at the same time, track the changes they made, insert comments and even live-chat during writing sessions. Documents can be imported from LaTeX and Word and exported as LaTeX, Word and PDF documents. You can also submit your article as a bioRxiv preprint straight from the Authorea platform. This software for academic writing is free for up to ten documents with limited sharing options.

7. Overleaf

Overleaf is to LaTeX users, what Authorea (see tool #6) is to Word users: an online editor that allows you to access and collaborate on your writing projects from anywhere. You can, for example, invite others to comment on your work. Overleaf offers some other neat collaborative writing features, such as a track-changes function, but – unfortunately – only on the paid plan. LaTeX may seem a bit intimidating at first but you actually get the hang of it quite fast (and feel like a coder 😎). Also, in my experience, you save a lot of time formatting your text (and feel smug about it when you talk to Word users 😁).

Slack is a chat tool that you can use in your lab or with your collaborators. Used in the right way, it allows you to save time by cutting down on emails and create a group atmosphere even if the members are not working in the same location. You can easily add files to the chats and create different channels for subgroups or certain topics. There also exist virtual communities on Slack you can join, such as the New PI Slack community for Assistant professors around the world. 

Loom is a great scientific research tool when you want to share a quick video with a colleague, student or collaborator. This could be a recorded presentation or lecture, your comments on the paper of a co-author, or a tutorial on using a piece of software. You can record your screen, camera and microphone. The neat thing is that after you’re done recording, Loom auto-generates a link you can share.

Academic writing tools for Productivity and project management

Toggl is a time-tracking app that you can install on your phone and computer. There’s only one way of knowing how long certain writing tasks typically take you, and that is by tracking the time they took you to complete . Time-tracking has another great advantage: You can identify time-sucks in your day. And these may be less obvious than you think.

I like to use Toggl for time-tracking because it’s quick to use and integrates with various other scientific research tools I am using. You just need to click the big red power button to start or stop a recording and assign tracked times to different projects. This scientific research tool has paid plans but for most people the free basic plan will be sufficient.

Are you easily tempted to check your phone when you really should be writing? This app called Forest may be just right for you then. Once installed on your phone, you can start planting a virtual tree whenever you want to focus. It grows from a little plant to a full-grown tree. When you pick up your phone and leave the app, the tree dies. This way, you can build your forest representing the time you have spent on focused work (or quality time with your family and friends…). I’m not using Forest myself, but I’ve heard that it works really as an academic writing tool well for some people. Give it a go!  

12. Focusmate

As Forest (see tool #11), Focusmate is an app to help you stay focused. Instead of  gamification, the concept of Focusmate is based on social accountability. Here is how it works: You schedule a 50-minute virtual co-writing session with another Focusmate member, turn on your webcam when your session starts, greet your temporary co-worker and then get to work silently.

Even though being filmed while working is a little strange in the beginning, co-writing sessions work really well for a lot of researchers. This is why we offer co-writing sessions as part of our academic writing program, the Researchers’ Writing Academy, as well.

13. Cold Turkey

If Forest (tool #11) or Focusmate (#12) don’t get you to focus on your writing, you may need to go Cold Turkey . This software for academic writing blocks any other application and turns your computer into a typewriter. You can choose whether you want Cold Turkey to prevent you from digital distractions for a certain amount of time or until you’ve hit a certain word count. With the paid version, you can even access integrated productivity soundtracks and text formatting.

Free writing training by the author of the blog post about free writing tools

Not an app exactly, but free as well: Click the orange button below to have me walk you through my step-by-step system to write clear & concise papers for your target journals in a timely manner . This free academic writing training is perfect for you if you’re reading this blog post because you are procrastinating on writing your paper.

Trello is an excellent project management tool for your academic writing, which you can use for managing each of your writing projects, for creating a publication pipeline and as a daily and weekly to-do list. Trello is a great introduction into project management because it’s a lot easier to learn and use than most other project management software. For each project called a “Board”, you can create different “lists”, which are vertical collection of “cards”, which you can move between lists. You can add due dates, checklist lists, links, files and text to each card. To work collaboratively, you can leave comments on cards and assign them to members on your team. You can also use Trello as a brainstorming tool, using the cards just as you would use post-it notes.

Members of my online course, the Researchers’ Writing Academy , get access to Trello templates I created to easily manage their publication pipeline, the writing process for each of their scientific papers and all of their other daily, weekly and monthly tasks and projects.

15. Todoist

Todoist is an alternative to Trello (see tool #16) or can be used in addition. It’s an online to-do list organiser and project management tool that comes as an app and browser version. You can organise your tasks in projects and schedule them for a certain day. This academic writing tool shows you today’s tasks as well as those for the next seven days. It also tracks your productivity, i.e. how many tasks you have completed.

academic writing Tools for finding and reading the literature

Feedly is a neat RSS feed manager that helps you stay up to date with the scientific literature. Instead of getting email alerts from journals (because who wants to get more emails…) you can view and organise the literature you are interested in by following journals’ RSS feeds. You can not only use this for scientific literature but also subscribe to blogs, for example the one you’re reading right now, by simply putting the URL in the Feedly search: https://annaclemens.com/blog .

Are you a mindmapper? Then you need Xmind , a free mindmapping and brain-storming tool. It’s intuitive, looks good and does exactly what you want a mindmapping tool to do. The free version allows for embedding of hyperlinks, images, attachments, so you can really use it however you like! That’s all I can really say about it as I’m not using mindmapping myself. But I know scientists who swear by it!

18. Audemic

Audio formats have become so popular (I’m a big podcast lover myself!) so it shouldn’t really come as a surprise that there now is an audio tool available for the scientific literature too: Audemic . This tool — completely free to use for individual researchers — creates summaries for you (that go beyond the abstract), lets you skip sections, highlight text and take notes while listening.

There are a few reference managers for your academic writing to choose from, some of which cost money. Zotero is free, open-source and doesn’t lack in functionality. You can easily save references from your browser, organise them in folders and with tags and create bibliographies with the right style. You can also create a citation library with your co-authors or share your library with others.

That’s it: 19 academic writing apps and scientific research tools to support your writing for free! However, the best academic writing software won’t make you more productive if you don’t rely on a streamlined writing process and if you aren’t using your writing sessions effectively. If you want to get your hands on a template to write scientific papers in a systematic fashion, sign up for this 1-hour writing training now. It’s free too!

Free writing training that goes beyond writing tools

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© Copyright 2018-2024 by Anna Clemens. All Rights Reserved. 

Photography by Alice Dix

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26 Terrific Essay Tools for Fast and Simple Writing

Our parents wrote essays with a pen on a sheet of paper. Our grandparents used dip pens. Today we print our writing pieces on laptops and computers and submit them via emails or cloud storage services. The world of college studies has turned upside down since everyone has got a personal computer. Could we imagine some ten years ago that we would type our homework on the cellphone?

But many students are not aware of how easy their life could be with essay writing tools. This article by Custom-Writing.org experts explores the best essay helper tools and resources for all stages of preparing an essay. Take your time to study these apps and instruments, and save sleepless hours later!

  • Thesis Generator
  • Essay Topic Generator
  • Compare to a Famous Writer
  • 🔧 Other Essay Tools 

1. ✍️ Essay Writing Tools by Custom-Writing.org

1.1. online summary generator.

This tool analyzes the patterns of any text, from a short story to a Ph.D. thesis . You can also summarize your own works to get perfect thesis statements and abstracts. The following benefits will win your heart!

  • This online summary generator does not just leave the most critical information. It provides you with a structured outline of your document.
  • If you summarize a long text, it will be divided into meaningful parts.
  • The summary contains a visible transition from general to specific information.
  • All the unnecessary information is deleted, saving your reading time.

1.2. Thesis Statement Generator

A thesis statement is the most challenging part of any essay. It is hard to condense 500 words into a single sentence. If it is an academic or research paper for several thousand words, the task becomes even more daunting. Complete the following steps and receive a perfect thesis statement in a second.

  • Enter the topic of your paper. Just as the statement, it bears the principal idea, but in a generalized form. The subject shall be concise and brief so as not to confuse the generator.
  • Enter your key findings . If they are yet to be discovered, provide the idea you expect to reach in conclusion.
  • Enter the counterargument . It is a statement that contradicts your main argument.

1.3. Essay Topic Generator

Sometimes instructors avoid giving an exact topic . They provide you with a subject matter or a problematic issue. An intriguing title is a part of such an assignment. If it is your case, an essay topic generator is there to accelerate your preparation work.

  • Enter your keyword. It works similarly to the Google search engine.
  • Press “Search topics.”
  • Look through the proposed ideas
  • If you need more topic ideas, press the button again. A new list will be shown.

1.4. Compare to a Famous Writer

If writing is your vocation and you are proud of your works, this tool will compare them to famous personalities’ writing style. It is an excellent tool for self-development. If you read the books by the author, you will find your strong and weak points.

  • Copy your text into the empty field.
  • Press “Compare my writing style.”
  • Read about the writer whose way of expressing their thoughts was similar to yours. The tool gives the names of their most notable works and a brief biography.

2. 🔧 Useful Online Essay Tools & Resources

2.1. essay tools to generate a topic.

Mindmapping tools and apps are designed for creative brainstorming. They help structure your thoughts and derive new ideas that are unlikely to cross your mind without the software. You can use them to generate topics for your essay assignments. Besides, if you struggle with the correct formulation, these tools will also be helpful.

✔️ This essay tool allows you to visualize your ideas, organize them, and share them with anyone via cloud storage. It is an excellent tool to generate topics for the whole class, as there you can make comments and assign issues to specific people. There is a built-in chat to discuss any issue online.
✔️ The tool creates mind maps instantly available on any device. In addition to topic generation, you can create outlines for your academic papers, edit them, and store them for subsequent reference. Keyboard shortcuts will accelerate the process. There is an option to convert any mind map into a PDF or PowerPoint file.
✔️ Miro is an intuitively clear tool to create informational architecture and build a strategy. It is organized as a whiteboard with colorful stickers, structural trees, and insertable pictures. The free version provides three editable boards, which is enough to generate a compelling topic for your paper.

2.2. Essay Tools to Organize Your Work

If you do not start an academic paper with a clear structure, you will have to struggle with it the night before the deadline. Believe us, it takes less time and effort before the work is written, and the result is many times better! Multiple sources require a concise arrangement of your arguments, statements, and evidence. These tools can make this work engaging and painless.

✔️ Zotero works with Windows, Mac, and Linux. It collects, organizes, and structures your research information. Besides, it sorts your research into collections tagged with keywords. You can as well save the searches so that they are automatically filled in the course of work. The software has a quick to create a list of sources in any citation style.
✔️ This is a free system of content management. Designed for scholars, libraries, and archives, it offers a flexible open-source platform for web publishing. It is user-friendly, so you do not need any special skills to use it. Create your collection of resources for any research project with Omeka.
✔️ This system is a compilation of writing tools. It is a typewriter, scrapbook, and ring-binder in one simple tool. It is not free, but a trial version can help with your first project as it lasts for 30 days and comprises the full version’s complete functionality. Many best-selling novelists and screenwriters use it daily, and they know on which side their bread is buttered.
✔️ You will discover how pleasant it is to be an essay writer when you use ReadCube. It’s an easy and useful library for all your papers.Just upload all of the files you have for your essay, and this essay tool will analyze them and identify the sources. This makes essay paper writing three times as fast. Why? Because after the sources have been identified, you can easily find any information you need!
✔️ Mendeley is an innovative way to escape the chaos of and organize everything in one place. It offers an easy-to-manage library that is up to you to fill with useful resources. Every file that goes into the library is available from your computer and smartphone at the same time.
Mendeley also hosts a global community of researchers in every scientific field! You can join these communities or follow their researchers and always be the first to hear groundbreaking news.

2.3. Essay Tools for Research

There is no need to spend days and nights at the local library since the Internet age provides access to almost any library worldwide. Besides, modern science is developing so rapidly that traditional libraries merely have no chance to beat the World Wide Web. Review the following tools that can accelerate any research.

✔️ One of the best databases for research is Google Scholar. It’s an easy-to-use website that archives thousands of scientific articles.With Google Scholar, you’ll have no problem finding the newest on any topic. Just type in a keyword, and read all the recent information!
✔️ Scopus allows for tracking the citation rate of scientific articles. It is also a bibliographical and referral base that indexes about 36 thousand publishers’ titles, including journals, trade journals, and book series. The service also allows search through patent databases. Scopus is multidisciplinary so that you can search outside your discipline.
✔️ WoS is a global citation database. It is independent of any publisher, so the search results are objective. It provides you with best-in-class citation data with convenient access and assessment instruments. The tool comprises specialty, data, patent, and regional indexes. All cited references and each article from every journal have been indexed, making it the most informative citation network.
✔️ Here you’ll find one of the largest electronic libraries. It offers database research, library technologies, access to e-books and audiobooks, paper book ordering service, and even a clinical decision-making resource. The latter would be particularly useful for medical students. The distinctive feature of this database is access to historical digital archives in various disciplines.

2.4. Essay Tools for Checking Grammar

If you’re like many students, you have probably thought, “I wonder how to make my sentences better.” And the answer is grammar! In fact, the main reason why students get low grades is poor grammar.

Although you can find a lot of materials on the most common mistakes in academic writing, another way to improve the quality of your text is to use a grammar-checking service. Such help with essay writing will allow you to make huge progress in proofreading .

✔️ Whether you’re looking for ways to paraphrase an article or checking punctuation mistakes in your report, Grammarly is the first essay tool to use. It helps you fix grammar mistakes, improve sentence structure, rephrase sentences, or correct the style.
First, put your text in a new document. Then choose your type of writing. Is it a creative article? Or an academic paper? Your score, as well as the mistakes that the service finds, will depend on the type of writing you choose.
✔️ Ginger Software is another essay writing tool. Its goal is to find mistakes and typos in your paper. All you have to do when the service finishes its work is to fix the mistakes it detected.
This software is free to download, but you can also try its benefits out online.

2.5. Plagiarism Checkers

If you hand in a paper with poor grammar, you’ll get a low grade. But what if your paper isn’t original? The worst—you could be expelled.

It’s important to know how to rewrite a sentence to make it original. That’s why you should use synonyms more often and find some paraphrasing word generators. But, first of all—use a plagiarism detection tool.

✔️ PlagScan is a helpful assistant for checking your paper. It also has an enormous database (with billions of internet pages). But they have another significant feature that is useful for any student: PlagScan allows you to store your documents online. Moreover, this essay writing tool guarantees the privacy of your texts. No one except you will ever see them.
PlagScan is a software for writing papers that are 100% original. It’s used not only for academic writing but also for business purposes.
✔️ Plagiarisma is a universal plagiarism checker as it supports more than 190 languages. It is a free resource to detect copyright infringement in any text. Paste your writing into the empty field, and in a couple of minutes, you will receive the percentage of plagiarism in it for subsequent editing. The tool does not retain your uploaded content, so it is 100% secure.

2.6. Essay Tools for Editing Your Paper

When the writing part is over, you still have a lot of important things to do. Most of them can be united in a category called “Editing.”

Every publishing company has its own editors. Why? Because proofreading is difficult and time-consuming, and when writing a thesis , essay, or report , you have to do it all on your own. That’s why you may need an essay writing tool.

✔️ It’s always interesting to know how other people see your writing. Even if it has perfect grammar and punctuation, a precise , and interesting arguments, it still can be boring.
But how would you know? Hemingway App is an innovative way of checking the readability of your paper. It reveals lengthy sentences, unnecessary adverbs, and complicated words.
✔️ This is another fantastic service to check your document’s readability. Just click “Score text” and enter your text. Then Readable will generate a report on how easy it is to read.
This report has several categories. One of them is the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level. If you score 8 points or below, it means that more than 80% of readers will be able to understand your paper.
✔️ Want to proofread and edit your paper? After the Deadline service will show you the best ways to change your text. Just click on an underlined word, and you’ll see a list of possible synonyms.
This essay tool also finds grammar and stylistic mistakes. For example, it detects passive voice. The use of passive voice isn’t a mistake, but it’s usually better to use active voice in .

2.7. Essay Tools for Making References

References are the last thing you need to complete a paper. But for thousands of students, this last step turns out to be a challenging, time-consuming, and frustrating task.

Why? Because every college or university insists on a specific citation style , such as MLA, APA, Chicago, and so on. Citing text online is easier than formatting it on your own. That’s why we found some useful tools to help you with this final to-do.

✔️ With Citavi, any piece of text you find on the Internet can be added to your citations. For this feature, add the plugin to your browser.
Citavi allows you to structure your citations, which is a great variant of creating an outline—by adding and classifying the quotes you want to use, you’ll develop an outline without even knowing it!
✔️ CiteThisForMe has a functional interface and many cool features to try out. Its workspace is similar to Microsoft Word, so the navigation is pretty easy. This program has a lot of built-in text tools, but the main function is the ability to change your references into one of many citation styles.
✔️ With this tool, you can choose from the four most popular citation styles to format your bibliography. Change text online depending on what source you’re using—books, journals, websites, and more.
You can choose another citation style before you download a reference list—MLA, APA, Chicago, and Turabian styles are all available.

Now you’re ready to create an essay that your readers will adore. With the help of these essay tools, writing will become a pleasant and interesting hobby.

Which of these tools do you like the most? Leave a comment below!

🔗 References

  • 21 Online Tools and Resources For Academic Essay Writing: Livehack
  • Top 5 Best Plagiarism Checking Tools In 2019: Tech Times
  • What is the best plagiarism checker tool? Quora
  • 13 Best Text Editors to Speed up Your Workflow: Kinsta
  • Outlining: Harvard College Writing Center
  • Writing a Paper: Outlining (Walden University)
  • 10 Simple Productivity Tips for Organizing Your Work Life: Entrepreneur
  • Organizing Your Social Sciences Research Paper: Academic Writing Style (USC Libraries)
  • Academic Writing: Purdue OWL
  • Fiction v nonfiction – English literature’s made-up divide (The Guardian)
  • Revising & Editing a Research Paper: Excelsior OWL
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These are some amazing tools, I am gonna use some of them and one more app on my list is Paraphraser: Reword your text, it is also a great android tool for students

Useful article!

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The whole purpose of writing tools is to make monotonous, tedious, and routine tasks obsolete.

Why do the same thing over and over again when you can easily automate the whole process, giving you tons of free time, less stress, and notably better results? After all, it’s not like you’re learning anything new by doing the same time-consuming tasks!

Writing tools allow students to spend their time focusing on things that really matter.

Hours Upon Hours of Saved Time

Have you ever thought to yourself that you could’ve done so much more if it weren’t for a certain writing assignment and all the many subtasks required to complete it?

With the help of writing tools, these thoughts will be gone forever. You’ll be able to:

  • Spend more time on your hobby or other things you love
  • Learn something new and broaden your knowledge base
  • Be more involved in your family’s life
  • Stay longer with friends
  • Find a part-time job

And that’s just to name a few things! The actual possibilities are endless.

Significantly Less Stress

Writing assignments tend to pile up, along with many other tasks. And unfortunately there’s no way to add more hours to the day to complete everything on time.

An approaching deadline brings nothing but stress, resulting in even lower productivity, which can make your mental state even worse. Not to mention the feeling of failure after receiving a bad grade.

With the help of writing tools, this nightmare is easy to avoid. You’ll be able to deal with all your routines more effectively and even meet multiple deadlines at once.

Improved Academic Performance

Needless to say, no matter how much time you’ve devoted to completing your writing assignment, if it contains mistakes — you won’t receive the grade you were hoping for.

With writing tools, mistakes are simply impossible. You’re completely covered: you can check your grammar, see if there’s any plagiarism in your text, create a summary, generate a topic and thesis statement, and so much more.

Long story short—these writing tools are here to make your academic life easier and your studying smarter. It’s worthwhile to try them at least once. After seeing the results, you’ll surely come back for more!

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Best Ai Essay Writer Tools in 2024

Revamped for originality: Our AI essay writer is an advanced yet easy-to-use software designed to help you create eloquent essays in no time, being secure against plagiarism.

Our essay writing software uses advanced AI techniques to generate complete essays at dizzying fast speed with just a keyword and without signing up.

Either the topic or the content of your essay must be added to the appropriate text field.

We will transform anything into an essay, from topic sentences to word selection.

The writing process will be kicked off from clicking the “My essay” button.

AI writer https://eduwriter.ai/ is just a couple of seconds from creating an original essay. You’ll find the output in the Box below.

Either by the copy icon or you can download it for your convenience, is all you need to do.

Quillbot’s AI-powered facilitated writing service is a one-of-kind tool with unique features. Its principal function is serving as a paraphrasing tool. It uses Artificial Intelligence so that text is reworded in different styles. It also hosts grammar checks and plagiarism detection controls.

In 2017, Roham Gharegozlou, David Silin, and Luke Lau formed a team to invent a tool that could assists in improving the writing skills of people through providing rephrasing and sentence restructuring suggestions. What is unique about QuillBot team is that it is bigger than the competing software teams who are not linguists, research scientists, and other experts. This diversity may be perceived as a suggestion that there is more experience than a single person behind the development.

Quillbot offers a suite of services including:

Paraphrasing Tool: Individuals can compose words themselves or use the AI-driven paraphrasing tool by copy and pasting the content which is already there. The device can be set to either adjust for simplicity or clarity depending on the user’s purpose of writing and desired formality.

Accessibility

Quillbot is browser based, as well as is plug-in-compatible with a great variety applications like Word, Google Docs etc. Therefore one can write in Quillbot whether he or she is online or offline, even in Microsoft word.

Homeworkify

Homeworkify enunciates its position as an assistant-app that is based on the AI technology, which is available to be used on both Android and iOS devices. The School’s objective is to boost the students’ success level in their academics. The tutor is the means through which these intricate solutions to math problems, scientific inquiries and many homework tasks, are provided, the tutor also gives out studying materials and exam readiness aids.

Humanizing the sentence: It turns out to be much simpler to locate the exact help after you have got familiar with the Homeworkify’s interface that is user-friendly. In addition, the AI-driven text-to-speech function brings an extra layer of learning by letting the learners completely understand the stated purposes audibly.

Including a variety of disciplines from mathematics and science to history and language proficiency tests, Homeworkify has developed a customizable platform to assist students in enhancing their performance. It be the case of standardized tests like IELTS, GRE, PTE, or TOEFL, or the one of disciplines such as Maths and Physics, Homeworkify is a comprehensive academic partner in all of the academic needs.

Story originally appeared on Mountain West Wire

essay writing tools software

Get science-backed answers as you write with Paperpal's Research feature

7 Best Referencing Tools and Citation Management Software for Academic Writing

citation tools

It has been estimated that early career researchers and scientists spend 23%, or almost a quarter, of their working hours reading.¹ While this is a great way to learn from previous findings and insights and stay abreast of the latest developments, keeping track of the sheer volume of scientific literature and ensuring accurate citations can pose a challenge for even the most seasoned academicians. This is where referencing tools and citation management software come in handy.   

What are reference management tools?     

Reference management tools or literature review software are online applications which can prove invaluable to researchers in their efforts to create, store, manage and format accurate citations that can be retrieved when required. Research management tools can help to –   

  • import and save bibliographic references from search engines, databases, and websites,    
  • create personalized research reading feeds and offer daily recommendations,   
  • organize articles into categories, and tag them with keywords for quick access at a later stage,   
  • ensure consistency in formatting citations to different reference styles (e.g., APA, MLA, Chicago).   

In fact, the benefits of utilizing reference management tools extend far beyond simply keeping references organized. They eliminate the need for manual data entry and minimize the risk of mistakes and inconsistencies when creating citations. Reference management tools allow researchers to focus on their writing and not waste precious time in formatting references. Moreover, some reference management tools also offer an exciting collaboration feature that enables researchers to share their reference library with colleagues and co-authors, thereby encouraging more productive research.   

How to choose the best reference management tool for academic writing?    

While researchers can take their pick from the many reference management apps available online, many find themselves wondering how to select the citation tool that best fits their specific needs. Making an informed decision before you start using reference management software is crucial if you want to avoid unnecessary hassles down the line. Switching between applications at a later stage, while possible, is very tedious and inconvenient, since the longer you use the application, the more files you collect.   

Here are a few tips to keep in mind when making your choice –    

  • Price: Consider your budget and evaluate whether the paid features justify the cost. Today, there are several excellent free and paid options. Choose one that will not burn a hole in your pocket.   
  • Access : Check whether the reference management tool has access to the specific databases and journals that you frequently access. Also, it ensures its ability to retrieve references from various sources and disciplines.    
  • Features: Look up the features that the citation software offers and check if they meet your needs—for example, does it have automatic formatting or annotation capabilities? Does it offer secure cloud storage and a backup plan?   
  • Quality: Spend a few minutes exploring the citation tool. This will give you an idea of its features and interface’s quality and help you assess its usability and efficiency. Look up user reviews and see if customer support is easily available.   
  • Accuracy: Ensure that the reference management tool reliably and accurately formats citations in a variety of citation styles and delivers error-free output.   
  • Compatibility: Evaluate whether the citation software you are considering is compatible with your operating system and word processing software.      
  • Privacy: Assess privacy policies and ensure that there are no concerns. This may be an issue if a commercial publisher owns the tool.  

Top 7 Referencing and Citation Management Tools

       
Zotero  Free and open source, strong citation management, offers browser extensions and collaborative features  Can be complex to use and has been known to have compatibility issues with certain websites  Windows, macOS, Linux 
Mendeley  Has a user-friendly interface, good social networking features, and offers PDF annotation. It has a basic plan that is free and premium plans that come with a fee  Less customizable than Zotero, this tool has limited free storage, and is not as powerful as some of the other tools  Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android 
EndNote  Comprehensive citation styles and advanced features for organizing references make this app very effective  There are limited free options and the proprietary software makes the app expensive  Windows, macOS 
RefWorks  This tool is easy to use and has great collaboration features   Limited customization and is not as flexible as other tools. Plus, it is subscription based and not free  Web-based 
Paperpile  Lightweight, functional, and well-designed interface  Works only with Google Doc for now  A web-only app, it works only with Google Doc for now 
ReadCube  Has advanced search features that allows automatic metadata extraction and article identification. Also has a user-friendly design that makes it easy to use  Some users have faced issues with formatting while others have pointed out that the selection tool is not the best  Windows, macOS 
Citavi  Integrates citation management with note-taking and has extensive search capabilities  It is a paid software and is expensive. Also, the user interface can be overwhelming for some   Windows 

Finally, when making your decision on the choice of referencing software to be used, do ensure that the features meet your specific needs, such as working across multiple locations, managing large libraries, or customizing citation styles.   

References  

  • https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5746228/  

Paperpal is a comprehensive AI writing toolkit that helps students and researchers achieve 2x the writing in half the time. It leverages 21+ years of STM experience and insights from millions of research articles to provide in-depth academic writing, language editing, and submission readiness support to help you write better, faster.  

Get accurate academic translations, rewriting support, grammar checks, vocabulary suggestions, and generative AI assistance that delivers human precision at machine speed. Try for free or upgrade to Paperpal Prime starting at US$19 a month to access premium features, including consistency, plagiarism, and 30+ submission readiness checks to help you succeed.  

Experience the future of academic writing – Sign up to Paperpal and start writing for free!  

Related Reads:

  • How to Cite Social Media Sources in Academic Writing? 
  • How Paperpal’s Research Feature Helps You Develop and Strengthen Arguments in a Pinch
  • Struggling with Citation and References in Research Papers? Automate Your Checks with Paperpal 
  • Publish or Perish – Understanding the Importance of Scholarly Publications in Academia

Maintaining Academic Integrity with Paperpal’s Generative AI Writing Features

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Every term you have to deal with loads of writing assignments in various subjects. Teachers expect you to write impeccable essays in terms of grammar and content.

Writing an essay is a time-consuming task that requires thorough research, data collection and analysis, as well as writing and editing. It is not a one-hour assignment. Sometimes you might need extra help.

Essaytools.com is a place where you can find some useful online essay tools that can make your paper perfect. Check out what we have to offer. Use our editing tools, impress scholars with excellent work, and get the highest grades.

Essay Writing Tools Online to Assist Students

Essaytools.com is an online service that offers the best essay tools for editing. Enhance your writing assignments to make them flawless. It is a helpful service for students from all over the world, especially the ones who learn English or speak it as a second language.

English is a tricky language. It seems to be easy, but when it comes to details and grammar, you might need some help. Knowing the rules is not enough when you don’t use English every day, especially when you’ve just started to learn it. Our website provides online software for students who strive for the better and want to write essays in a perfect way.

The website has a lot of tools for essay writing. Our services include grammar and plagiarism checker, assignment calculator, online editor, and citation generator.  We did our best to enhance the quality of our online software so that your papers sound authentic and are perfect in terms of grammar, style and format.

What Do We Offer?

Students find writing assignments one of the most difficult to deal with. Our team has decided to create several tools to help you make your essays. The essay writing tools online assist thousands of students all over the world.

What is more, these tools can be used by professional  paper writer who need a quick paper review, bloggers, people whose job is connected with writing legal documents, etc.

Essay writing tools software can help in many ways. For instance, use grammar checker to clear your paper of minor mistakes that can lower your grade. You can present great ideas in your essay, but if your paper has poor grammar, it won’t make the right impression. Poor delivery of the message of your essay may create wrong understanding. To make sure your paper is flawless, feel free to use our services.

The next issue that matters in writing is plagiarism. If some percentage of plagiarism is detected in your paper, it’s a total failure. Even being an excellent student, it can easily ruin your reputation and put you into troubles.

If you don’t want that, try our plagiarism checker software. It works perfectly well. Once you use it, you get 100% free of plagiarism paper. Be sure to get the highest acclaim from your teacher and stay in the A-team of your class.

It is also useful for freelance writers who need to check their papers before delivery. Teachers can easily upload their students’ papers and see who deserves the highest grade and detect fraud papers. Our team has done their best to create excellent software for essay check.

One more useful service provided by Essaytools.com is an online editor. It can help you get rid of lengthy and complex sentences that make your paper too complicated and hard to understand.

The editing software helps students and writers to make their papers look authentic. The online editor can correct grammar and punctuation in your essay, suggest a better word choice, etc. Upload your essay, and all mistakes will be detected within seconds.

In case you need proper citation, use a citation generator. The software will create a reference list at once in accordance to the requirements.

In addition, you can use essay planning tools that can help you create a schedule or calculate your grades. They are useful for self-control and can give you valuable tips on how to organize work. Also, these tools can help you keep track of your results.

Our Services

Grammar check, plagiarism checker, assignment calculator, essay editor, citation generator, case converter, essay writers, why should you choose our services.

Essaytools.com provides excellent service for everyone who needs to write original papers. Thousands of students, professional freelance writers, teachers, businesspeople, etc. tend to use our services on a regular basis. Why?

  • Our services are available online 24/7.
  • You get results within seconds.
  • Our tools help you create original, 100% correct and free of plagiarism papers.
  • You get valuable information on writing, grammar, etc.

Thanks to the tools we provide, writing isn’t that difficult anymore. Use our services and enjoy the perks our team offers. We want to make your essay better.

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