Does the Hemingway Editor Really Improve Your Writing?

Insights to help you decide whether using the Hemingway Editor is worthwhile

Image generated by ChatGPT

The Hemingway editor aims to make your writing clear and correct. You can use it for free online, or you can purchase the desktop app for $19.99, which allows you to save, import, export, and publish documents.

Start by pasting some text into the editor window. Hemingway then highlights common writing errors:

Sentences highlighted in yellow are characterised as being hard to read.

Red highlights are defined as being very hard to read. Hemingway recommends that these sentences be broken up into several shorter sentences for better readability. Having some longer sentences does give your text more variety.

Purple highlights are words with simpler synonyms.

Blue highlights adverbs, passive voice and words or phrases that limit or soften the meaning of another word.

The Key

Hemingway provides a key that provides measures and some targets for the pasted text:

Adverbs and the Passive Voice

By running a few trials, I discovered that Hemingway’s target for the number of adverbs and instances of the passive voice is one per cent or less.

Hemingway, like other grammar checkers, is adverse to adverbs and the passive voice.

Using adverbs and the passive voice isn’t wrong, but their use is often criticised because they can make writing less clear, direct or engaging.

On the other hand, using adverbs can add nuance or clarity, and the passive voice is useful when the subject is unknown or irrelevant.

Simple alternatives

Clicking on the words that have been highlighted in purple will display other, simpler options.

Hard-to-read sentences

These are equivalent to reading ages between 16 and 18. Hemingway shows the proportion of sentences that are hard to read, but doesn’t give any targets.

Very hard-to-read sentences

These are equivalent to a reading age of 18 upwards. Again, Hemingway shows the proportion of sentences that are hard to read, but doesn’t give any targets.

Readability

Hemingway also displays the readability of your text by calculating its overall grade level. The average adult in the United States reads at a grade 8 level. This is approximately equivalent to a reading age of 14.

If you are interested in learning how to calculate the readability of your writing, you might be interested in having a look at How Readable Are Your Stories?

Drafting

Instead of pasting text, you can also draft your story using the Hemingway Editor.

It has most of the usual features, including headings, bold, italic, quotes, bulleted lists and numbered lists.

However, the major missing feature is the ability to insert images.

Importing, Exporting, and Publishing

If you purchase the desktop app for $19.99, you can also save, import, export and publish your documents.

Importing

Hemingway can import:

• Plain text (.txt)

• Webpage (.html)

• Word document (.docx)

Exporting

It can also export to:

• Plain text (.txt)

• Webpage (.html)

• Word document (.docx)

• PDF document (.pdf)

• PDF with Hemingway highlights (.pdf)

Publishing

Hemingway documents can be exported to both Medium and Wordpress.

Hemingway Editor Plus

Hemingway Editor Plus highlights spelling and grammar errors in green. It also features AI tools to fix highlights, rephrase text and change tone.

Cost

Monthly
5000 AI sentences/individual/month: $25
10,000 AI sentences/individual or team member/month: $30

Annual
5000 AI sentences/individual/year: $100
10,000 AI sentences/individual or team member/year: $150

Conclusions

The Hemingway Editor highlights parts of your writing that could be improved. Excepting ‘phrases that have simpler alternatives’, Hemingway doesn’t provide suggestions unless you pay for the Hemingway Editor Plus.

As with all grammar and spelling checkers, I would recommend reviewing any suggestions that are made and then deciding whether you want to use them.

It is very important that you retain your writing style and not have your stories look as if they have been written by AI.

Have you used the Hemingway editor, and what is your opinion of it?

Online editor
Desktop versions