Edvertisement: Hemingway App

Using in class

Both teachers and students can benefit from the Hemingway App.

Teachers can use it to ensure that their texts are clear and easy to understand. The readability score indicates the minimum reading level needed to understand the text. This can help teachers write at the correct level.

Students can use the Hemingway App to check the style of their work. Highlighting the hard to read sentences assists students in getting their message across. Encouraging boldness and clarity will enhance any persuasive text.

This article explains the theory behind the app.

Getting started

The Hemingway App is one of the easiest eLearning Tools to use. Go to www.hemingwayapp.com, delete the place-holder text, and paste in your own. The app will analyse and highlight your text.

Hovering over the highlights provides suggested remedies for passive voice, and complicated phrases.

The panel on the right provides a readability score, some simple analysis. There you will also find controls to turn different highlights on and off.

Lighten the Draft Marking Load

It is around this time every term where you can see teachers disappear under piles of drafts. Over the years I have developed an approach which reduces the amount of time I spend of drafts.

The process aids students in correcting their own grammatical errors. This allows me to focus on the content of the documents. There are many ICT tools which can support this process, and I've included them below.

The Drafting Process

Step 1 - Spell and Grammar and style check

The student must spell and grammar check the document. If I get a document with red or blue lines under the words, I give it straight back to the. Students are also encouraged to use readability tools to check the style of their writing.

Step 2 - Text to Speech Recital

Using a text to speech tool (depends on the type of document), the student must listen to their entire document read back to them. In doing this they will hear what they have actually written, not what they think they have written.

Step 3 - Peer Review

They have to share their document with another student, who reads it and leaves comment. These comments are evidence that their peer has read the document.

Step 4 - Submit for draft check

After completing the three prior steps, the student can now submit their draft for checking.

The ICT Tools

There are many ICT tools which can support this process. Which tools you use will depend upon how the student created the document.

Below is the presentation that I show my students when I explain my draft process. I have slides for both Word and Google Docs. Feel free to copy this presentation and adjust it for your needs.