Computer Tips From A Computer Guy

Analyze and Improve Your Writing with PaperRater

Posted: 05 Mar 2010 03:42 AM PST

Does the thought of writing make you nauseated? Do you struggle with grammar? If you are a student, do your papers look like a red-ink blood bath when the teacher returns them to you? If you answered yes to any of these questions, Paper Rater might be the answer to your problems.

Using PaperRater is easy—copy and paste your entire paper, including works cited (if writing a research paper) into the text box. Paper Rater warns that it is only designed to work with high school level writing and above.

Next, select the kind of paper you have written. If you are writing for the Web, using the essay analysis is probably the best idea. There are options for just about any kind of writing, though, including movie reviews.

Finally, click Get Report.

Paper Rater instantly evaluates the paper for plagiarism, grammar, style, word choice and vocabulary. Each of these categories is marked in a different color, making edits easy.

For grammar issues, words or phrases are underlined in green. Click on the underlined words and Paper Rater tells you how to fix the issue.

The same options are available for word choice and spelling issues. Spelling problems are underlined in red, while word choice problems are underlined in blue. Word choice issues have an option to explain the problem, in case you do not understand why your expressions are faulty.

Style is also analyzed, but not underlined. In the academic world, using the passive voice is completely forbidden. Paper Rater explains the passive voice, then tells you how to fix it. Avoiding to be is first on the list.

Paper Rater also rates your vocabulary. If you used big words correctly, you will receive praise.

Unfortunately, Paper Rater has one deficiency that cannot be overlooked. The plagiarism checker is not a keen as it should be. The paper we used for our test is almost completely plagiarized (the student that submitted the paper received an F), yet this was Paper Rater's analysis:

Those attempting to plagiarize should be warned that this particular paper was caught immediately with TurnItIn, the most popular of the plagiarism detection tools for teachers and professors worldwide. The student copied directly from Wikipedia for part of the paper, yet Paper Rater did not catch it.

So, if you are looking for advice on grammar, style and vocabulary, Paper Rater is an excellent tool. But, if you are looking to see if your cheating methods will fool your teacher, it's best to either not cheat, or use a different analyzer.