Encouraged by the response to the Word Frequency Finder, I've written another program to help writers.
The Passive Word Highlighter contains a program to highlight passive, misused, or over-used words and phrases in a document.
It is often difficult for a writer to see words that are misused or used too frequently. Many of us use "was" or "that" with so little thought that the words become almost invisible and nearly impossible to edit.
Consider the following words: is, isn't, am, are, aren't, was, wasn't, were, will, would, won't, has, had, have, be, been, do, don't, did, didn't, does, doesn't, seem, seems, exist, exists, appears, make, makes, show, shows, occur, occurs, get, got, went, put, some, many, most, that, very, extremely, totally, completely, wholly, utterly, quite, rather, slightly, fairly, somewhat, and suddenly.
These words either indicate passive sentences or are just plain boring. Often, they are necessary, but more often, they can be replaced with something more evocative.
So how can this program help? You give it a list of words you want to check, and it replaces each instance in your document with the same word but formatted in a color of your choice (red, blue, or green). For instance, you can find every instance of "was" and replace it with "was" (formatted in red). Suddenly, your manuscript is a forest of red, blue and green, making these boring words and phrases instantly obvious. Then you can decide which instances should be replaced with a more appropriate word and which to keep.
You can find this program on my website here:
http://www.rogerjcarlson.com/WritingHelp/TechTips.html
I would appreciate any comment, suggestion, and especially problem reports.
Thanks.
The Passive Word Highlighter contains a program to highlight passive, misused, or over-used words and phrases in a document.
It is often difficult for a writer to see words that are misused or used too frequently. Many of us use "was" or "that" with so little thought that the words become almost invisible and nearly impossible to edit.
Consider the following words: is, isn't, am, are, aren't, was, wasn't, were, will, would, won't, has, had, have, be, been, do, don't, did, didn't, does, doesn't, seem, seems, exist, exists, appears, make, makes, show, shows, occur, occurs, get, got, went, put, some, many, most, that, very, extremely, totally, completely, wholly, utterly, quite, rather, slightly, fairly, somewhat, and suddenly.
These words either indicate passive sentences or are just plain boring. Often, they are necessary, but more often, they can be replaced with something more evocative.
So how can this program help? You give it a list of words you want to check, and it replaces each instance in your document with the same word but formatted in a color of your choice (red, blue, or green). For instance, you can find every instance of "was" and replace it with "was" (formatted in red). Suddenly, your manuscript is a forest of red, blue and green, making these boring words and phrases instantly obvious. Then you can decide which instances should be replaced with a more appropriate word and which to keep.
You can find this program on my website here:
http://www.rogerjcarlson.com/WritingHelp/TechTips.html
I would appreciate any comment, suggestion, and especially problem reports.
Thanks.
