App Review: Hemingway

Hemingway is an online text editor app started by two brothers Adam and Ben Long who had realized that their writing was hard to understand because of long, imprecise sentences. This text editor is said to help writers have bold and clearer writing and while bold and clearer writing - much like Hemingway's signature style which was direct and precise, with short sentences that said volumes.

You can access Hemingway App on your web browser by going to www.hemingwayapp.com. The app is also available as a desktop app or program is you are willing to pay $9.99. I would personally stick to the website since the website doesn't specify any special features for the desktop version.

Hemingway opens to a page full of writing that explains how the app works. There are color coded highlights to show you possible writing mistakes that Hemingway has found in the writing. These mistakes include: hard to read sentences (how clear what you are saying is), superfluous word choices (see what I did there? :P), adverbs (which may be place-holder words that don't add meaning to your sentences), and when you are using passive voice. The Hemingway App also tells you what grade level your writing is in. Hemingway can also be used as a tool to see if your writing level is suited to your audience.

Keep in mind that most articles in newspapers are written at a 6th - 8th grade reading level.

In order to put your text into Hemingway, just click on the writing explaining the program, delete what's there and either start typing or paste your text in. These tools are great may be helpful in some situations but not all. Here are some instances where using the Hemingway app would make sense:

1. Blog Writing
   
   This is when your writing really does need to be precise and to the point - and writing at a 6th grade reading level may be to your benefit. For the most part blog articles are expected to be short and sweet and to the point. Make it too long - and your readers don't make it to the end. Make it too short - and you might as well have just posted that on twitter. In this Hemingway will root out unnecessary words and make your writing clearer.
   
   
2. Creative Writing
   
   Now, this depends on your writing style. Hemingway was known for being the opposite of flowery so if you like long flowing sentences that sound pretty - this app will just highlight everything you write. After testing some of my own creative writing, I found that this was not really for me. I like my adjectives and adverbs and honestly, as long as you're not overdoing them, what's the harm of keeping them in your story?
   
   
3. Essay Writing (BUT only for grades 6-10)
   
   Hemingway can be used as an effective editing tool for essay writing if you know how to use it properly. For younger students, Hemingway will point out when your sentences need to be separated into smaller sentences (usually when your sentences are hard to understand) or when you are using too many unnecessary words. For younger students, this tool is extremely useful because you're still learning to communicate your ideas in writing. It will root out common mistakes like passive voice (which really shouldn't be used in essay writing) and overuse of adjectives and adverbs.
   
   As you start to get older though, you may start to outgrow the Hemingway App. I tried putting in one of my A grade college essays into Hemingway ( I was a British Literature major in college) to see what it would say and well, Hemingway was not happy with me. The overall paper was grade level 13 (which is deemed "okay" in clarity) and I had a lot of long (though grammatically correct) sentences Hemingway was more than happy to highlight. My introduction paragraph as a standalone was grade level 18 and the clarity was considered poor. Suffice it to say, there were a lot of highlights in my intro.

Honestly, I was a bit bummed. I got an A on this paper and I remember being really proud of it. And because of this, Hemingway may not be suited for college grade essay writing.

To learn more about the Long brothers and how the created the Hemingway App, check out this New Yorker article.

If you've been using the Hemingway App please let me know how and if it's been working for you. If you've never heard of it before, check it out and let me know about your experience with the app. I hope this helps some of your with your writing. Good luck with your assignments.