home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
PsL Monthly 1994 June
/
PSL Monthly Shareware CD-ROM (June 1994) (Public Software Library).bin
/
reviews
/
wu_03
< prev
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1994-02-23
|
8KB
|
197 lines
WU-03: Writing Analyzers
------------------------------------
7072/1861 Analyzers & Spell Checkers
------------------------------------
1861 Spelling Checkers
----------------------
LSpell
works with Turbo Lightning(tm Borland) to proofread a full document.
SpellR 2.0
JeWeL Software
$30
will check the spelling of any straight text document. It will then create a
file with all of the words not found in its 40,000-word dictionary. The use can
also specify an additional file of words to check the text file against. The
output file format is well suited to being processed by the BRIEF editor, but
BRIEF is not required.
PoetEase 1.0 (POETEAS)
Crew, Louie
$5
This program asks the user to specify the phonetic spelling with which to match,
and then generates lists which are assonant, consonant, or rhyming. It is small
enough (34k) to allow the user to shell from most word-processors, run, and
return immediately to composition in progress. The program mainly serves poets,
or anyone else looking for a word with a specific consonance or assonance or
rhyme.
1861 Analysis
-------------
Basic English 1.0 (BASICEN)
Crew, Louie
$5
analyzes your text and reports how many words are in Basic English. The program
will serve mainly those who write for audiences that use English as a second
language. It helps them spot words beyond the most basic level and then
consciously choose whether to keep them or to simplify them.
Critic 2.3
Wygant, James
$10
is a writing analysis program. It creates a copy of your text file with
comments embedded, pointing out long sentences, words that are repeated too
close together (eg: "I really think you really ought to..."), words that are
generally overused, split infinitives, and many other grammar errors.
At the end of the file is placed a word-frequency chart, a word-length
chart, a count of words in the file, and a sentence length chart. Another chart
compares your writing to that of Hemingway, Steinbeck, Stephen King, Byte, and
Time magazines. Also included is a Readability chart with tips for
improvement. There is even a punctuation analysis. Overall, we think this is
the best shareware writing analyzer we have seen and that it is modestly
priced at its $10 shareware registration fee.
FogFin
Robichaux, Joey
$15
is a program based on the Gunning Fog Index. A Fog Index is a measure of what
people consider easy reading. It doesn't measure whether the writing is good,
bad, clear, or muddy. However, it will measure whether the writing will tire
the reader because of the way the words and sentences are assembled.
Phrase Watcher 2.4 (PHRASE)
Yee, George
$8
finds all sentences in a document containing bad or wordy phrases and suggests
possible improvements.
Read21 (READ-GS)
Spiegel, Glenn
$?
a program to calculate (for your writings) Flesch readability scores which are
purportedly more reliable than the "Fog Index". READ will read WordPerfect and
WordStar files without converting.
ReadRite 1.41 (READRIT)
Petrakis, Peter L., Ph.D., M.P.H.;
$0
is a memory-resident program that determines the Flesch readability score of
text that is on your monitor screen, either the whole screen or a marked block.
While we have other programs for checking completed files, this one lets you
check your work as you go. It also counts the words on the screen. res:7k
--------------------------------
END OF SMALL PROGRAMS DISK #1861
--------------------------------
Buddy 1.2
Chatfield Software, Inc. ASP
$20
#12077
is a tutorial on writing technique. It consists of eight lessons on
language, spelling and punctuation. An Artificial Intelligence program is
used to teach the lessons, so you can ask the program questions and get an
answer back or just trade insults if you are feeling frisky.
Cliche Finder 1.7
R. K. West Consulting ASP
$0
#7072/2155
is a writer's tool that helps avoid the use of trite and overused words and
phrases. It checks a document for the presence of any of several hundred
cliches. This program has the option to create text file with cliches marked.
Progress is displayed on screen as a document is checked. The user can interrupt
the procedure. It comes with a utility program that allows you to edit the
cliche list. Requires 360K RAM.
Professional Scribe
Smetana, Rob W.
$43
#7072/0646
analyzes your writing style. Maxi-Read thinks the sentences in our newsletters
are too long and that many of the words are too long. Here are some of the
words it thought were too long: library, consider, example, newsletter,
imagine, anymore, everyone, already, directory... excuse me, am I going too
fast for the dullards in the audience? ...f-o-r-m-a-t, s-p-e-c-i-f-y... well,
you get the idea.
PS checks your writing for five categories of writing mistakes: wasted words,
misused words, tongue waggers, nouns-to-verbs and passive voice. You can
customize PS to eliminate your own pet pieces of jargon you want to avoid.
Support for WP 5.0 and MS Word files is provided and an on-line thesaurus and
a second program to help you customize your thesaurus are also included. A
line-by-line analysis of what's on the screen, and a running grade level
analysis give you even more feedback on your writing.
Styled
Crew, Louie
$?
#7072/805
is a writing analysis program. It reports on "long words" (over 10 characters),
punctuation, syntax and "nominalization". If you don't know what the latter is,
you probably don't want to know. I usually get a chuckle from these programs by
running them on our newsletter files, but this program is non-judgemental. It
reports and leaves it up to you how to use the information.
PC-Proof 2.0a [PCPROOF]
Intellect Systems ASP
$40
#20367/4785 [2 disks] (01-94 CD)
is a grammar checker which can detect dropped words, extra words, words
which have been misspelled into another word and other common errors
such as subject/verb agreement and missing punctuation.
The program highlights the sentence that contains the suspected error
and displays a detailed explanation and some advice. It allows you to
write the incorrect sentence and an explanation of the error to a
problem report file, edit the incorrect sentence, add a comment about
the error, or ignore the problem from now on. You also have the option
to proofread the entire document without stopping and all sentences with
suspected errors will be written to the problem report file. This option
allows you to do something else while your document is being proofread.
PC-Proof can read files created by WordPerfect, Microsoft Word for DOS,
Microsoft Word for Windows, Microsoft Works, Professional Write and
other formats which are mostly ASCII text. Requires 850K of disk space.
Readability Plus
Scandinavian PC Systems
$25
#2595
analyzes your writing on the basis of a sophisticated language analysis system
that identifies sentences that aren't appropriate for particular kinds of
writing. It assumes that what you've written is mechanically correct. Rather
than look for errors, it looks for sentences and words that aren't appropriate
for your intended audience and purpose. Compare your text to any of the nine
writing style models provided with the program.
The program directly reads documents created with WordPerfect, Microsoft Word,
WordStar, and WordStar 2000. It can also read any ASCII text file. It generates
four readability indices: the Flesch-Kincaid Index, the Flesch Reading Ease
Index, Gunning's Fog Index, and LIX (the technical name for RIX).
WStyle 1.13
Wintertree Software Inc.
$29
#4214
examines your writing for redundant words, wordy phrases, and inappropriate
sentence structure; analyzes your writing style and provides statistics that
specify where your writing is poor and where it is strong. WStyle is able to
check files created by most word processing software.
]]]]]