Is there a program that can list repetitive words. I know word has the "find" feature, but you can only do one word at a time.
Thanks,
Steve
Thanks,
Steve
Repetitive Words
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Not sure if it is still part of the free package, but http://www.autocrit.com/ might be useful to you.
why would you want to do them more than one at a time? The advantage to using the "find" function for that is that you can correct them as you find them. Also, you'd have to specify the word you want anyway - simply having a default setting that lists multiple uses of words is going to get hung up on the common words that are used repeatedly. Such as articles and the like.
In MS Word under the Edit menu: find/replace
just type in the word you want to find and you can replace it or delete it. If it is a word you use often and need synonyms: http://wordweb.info/contact.html is a good free program that also spell checks.
just type in the word you want to find and you can replace it or delete it. If it is a word you use often and need synonyms: http://wordweb.info/contact.html is a good free program that also spell checks.
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Member Roger Carlson has some Word macros that might do the trick (all free): http://www.rogerjcarlson.com/WritingHelp/TechTips.html
Not sure i understand your question. I would imagine you want to look at your favorite, repetitive words one at a time. In one sentence, the solution is to delete the repetitive word. In another sentence, you need to substitute it with another word. In yet another instance, you need to rephrase the entire sentence. Each instance requires its own solution. Word's Find does the job nicely for this.
Steve -- Take a look at this: http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=69257&highlight=Carmy
Written by an AW member, it's fantastic!
Written by an AW member, it's fantastic!
Surprisingly not. It’s a surprise that we repeat words where the reader is surprised by the surprised repetition. I’d be surprised if anyone came up with a surprisingly fabulous program.
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I frequently do counts of particular words. With each chapter of a novel as a separate file, I can find out how many times a certain word or phrase turns up in each chapter in several different ways.
I do all of my writing in a text editor - NOT WORD! One of the best text editors available, NoteTab, will count the occurrences of a word. It can also give some other helpful statistics, like the percentage of a certain word. Then I can obsess about "the" going too far over 4%
Sure, to change them you have to find them individually. But a count lets you know whether it is worth setting out on a hunting safari. If I have used the troublesome word in fifteen out of thirty chapters and there are three or more instances in some, I grab my shotgun and go.
I do all of my writing in a text editor - NOT WORD! One of the best text editors available, NoteTab, will count the occurrences of a word. It can also give some other helpful statistics, like the percentage of a certain word. Then I can obsess about "the" going too far over 4%
Sure, to change them you have to find them individually. But a count lets you know whether it is worth setting out on a hunting safari. If I have used the troublesome word in fifteen out of thirty chapters and there are three or more instances in some, I grab my shotgun and go.
I do rely on "the" and "and" and "an" a lot. I just decided life is easier if I don't worry about it.
PinkUnicorn
Tossing Elves in bed with Unicorns
I do rely on "the" and "and" and "an" a lot. I just decided life is easier if I don't worry about it.
words to live by.... and by that I mean I do live by them too!
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I find when I'm typing fast to get the thoughts down or I'm tired, I use words like "just" or "seems" constantly and my voice becomes more passive. When I go back and edit I'm like, was I drunk when I wrote this?
repetitive words, eh?
it is so important to avoid using the same words again and again. but we do that if necessary. if you are trying to look for a program to do that, look for yournovel and see what it can do. i used it once, but i'm not pretty sure about the name of the program if that is right.
try having a discipline on yourself to avoid the repetition of words. widen your vocabulary by means of reading!
it is so important to avoid using the same words again and again. but we do that if necessary. if you are trying to look for a program to do that, look for yournovel and see what it can do. i used it once, but i'm not pretty sure about the name of the program if that is right.
try having a discipline on yourself to avoid the repetition of words. widen your vocabulary by means of reading!
Long ago, I wrote a little program to histogram words from plaintext input. That's what I have used for years.
Edit: I should add this is a nontrivial problem. Generally, simple histogramming in English is useful only for words other than nouns and verbs, because nouns/verbs commonly inflect. The semantic analysis gets nasty really fast.
Edit: I should add this is a nontrivial problem. Generally, simple histogramming in English is useful only for words other than nouns and verbs, because nouns/verbs commonly inflect. The semantic analysis gets nasty really fast.
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And let's not forget about the instances when repetition is simply needed or even desireable.
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it is so important to avoid using the same words again and again. but we do that if necessary. if you are trying to look for a program to do that, look for yournovel and see what it can do. i used it once, but i'm not pretty sure about the name of the program if that is right.
try having a discipline on yourself to avoid the repetition of words. widen your vocabulary by means of reading!
Vocabulary isn't really the issue. Even if looked gets changed to watched, it's still a form of a repetition because it's saying the same thing as a few sentences before just a slightly different way. Rather, it's a narrative or editing issue because the sentences often needed to be rewritten completely into something new or deleted entirely. What we shouldn't be doing is replacing a repetitive word with something a lot fancier for no other reason than avoiding a repetition.
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I'm assuming you mean occurrences of the same word within close proximity to each other. If you read your work aloud you usually catch most of these anyway. No school like the old school I always say.
yWriter has a built in word usage counter thingy, plus it has all kinds of other awesome built in as standard.
http://www.spacejock.com/yWriter.html
http://www.spacejock.com/yWriter.html
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