Style checker

Paste any paragraph, like a help article, an error message or a release note, and see what I’d flag in review. The rules come from the style guides I’ve worked with, and everything runs in your browser. Nothing you type is sent anywhere.

Words: 0
Sentences: 0
Avg. sentence: –
Reading grade: –
Issues: 0

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Suggestions

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What it checks

Rule	Why
Passive voice	Active voice says who does what. (Error messages are the classic exception, so this is a suggestion, not an error.)
Wordy phrases	“In order to” → “to”, “utilize” → “use”, “prior to” → “before”. Simple words are faster to read and easier to translate.
Minimizing words	“Simply”, “just”, “easily”. If it isn’t easy for the reader, these words make them feel worse.
Link text	“Click here” tells readers nothing about where they’re going and fails screen reader users.
UI instructions	“Click”, not “click on”. Bold the UI label instead of quoting it.
Latin abbreviations	“e.g.”, “i.e.” and “etc.” are often misread, and they trip up non-native English readers and translation.
Plural hacks	“user(s)” reads badly. Ask engineering to handle singular and plural in code.
Numbers and currency	Spell out zero to nine, write “percent”, and put the currency code after the amount (50 USD).
Tense and headings	Prefer the simple present over “will be able to”. “How to…?” headings are indirect questions, so use a gerund instead.
Long sentences	Sentences over 30 words are hard to scan. Split them.
Punctuation and terms	No “!!”, no “&” in running text, “email” not “e-mail”, “sign in” not “login” as a verb.

A checker catches patterns. It can’t tell whether the content is right, or whether it answers the reader’s question. That’s still the writer’s job. See before and after rewrites for the judgement calls a tool can’t make.

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