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WordDog Plain
English Editor
Reviewed
by: Robin
Nobles,
send e-mail
Published
by: Plain
English Technologies, go
to the web site
Requires:
Microsoft Word XP (2002), 2000 or 97; Windows XP, 2000, ME,
98, NT4, or 95; Pentium 200+ MHz, 32 MB RAM, 1.2 MB disk space
MSRP:
$24.95
When
you sit down to read the newspaper, a book or a letter, what
do you do when the words are difficult to read or a little
too flowery? Do you skip the section and find one that is
easier to read and understand? If you're the writer of that
content, you certainly want to make sure your readers find
nothing which causes them to stumble or skip. The point struck
home recently when a copy editor changed all my "utilizes"
to "uses" because she remembered something that
I forgot: the simpler words, the easier they are to understand.
Plain
English Technologies has created a unique program which helps
ensure your writing is clear and easy to understand. It helps
cut needless words and it makes your writing stronger and
more professional. Key features include a database of over
16,000 suspicious words, wordy phrases and plain language
choices. It even has a built-in spelling and grammar checker.
So,
how does it work? Once you've created some content, simply
click on the little WordDog icon. You're asked if you'd like
to run a spell check on the document first. Then, the program
starts at the beginning of the document, searching for redundant
words, "wordy" phrases, or simpler replacements
for some words. You're given several options, which can be
selected or ignored (leaving the original words intact). Here's
some text from one of the WordDog sample documents:
"All
warm-blooded animals and human beings can acquire rabies.
Rabies is a disease of the central nervous system and the
fact remains that it is in most cases fatal once symptoms
have developed.
"There
were substantially more occurrences of rabies in France prior
to the twentieth century due to the fact that there were an
abundance of rabid foxes. At present the majority of persons
acquire rabies by a bite from an infected dog."
Here's
the result of running WordDog to see if the text could be
simplified, made easier to understand and generally more professional.
"All
warm-blooded animals and human beings can get rabies. Rabies
is a disease of the central nervous system, and it is usually
fatal once symptoms have developed.
"There
were more incidents of rabies in France before the twentieth
century because there were plenty of rabid foxes. Now most
people get rabies by a bite from an infected dog."
Quite
a difference in content and readability, isn't there?
Who
can benefit from this program? Anyone who creates Web site
content, writes articles or fiction, creates reports for his
or her job, or authors any work that will be read by someone
else. WordDog fast and easy to use, with no learning curve
whatsoever. It even links to Web-based encyclopedias and thesauri
for extra help. The only downside that I can see is that WordDog
only works with Microsoft Word XP (2002), Word 2000, and Word
97. WordPerfect users are out of luck.
Give
WordDog a try. You'll be surprised at how it can clean up
your writing! A free trial version is available so that you
can download and try this handy utility.
Letters
to the Editor are welcome and occasionally abused in public.
Send e-mail to: whine@kickstartnews.com
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