writingwellishard.com is a free digital tool that helps academic writers to identify the patterns in their own writing, and to compare their work to a sample of their choice. I made writingwellishard.com because I’m not persuaded there’s only one way to write well, and I don’t like that the norms of “good” writing are too often white, cis, male, and dead. If you’re an academic, I want you to be able to edit your own work strategically and with intentionality, modelling your work on whatever writer or writing you decide is good.
So while, like other digital tools, writingwellishard.com aspires to help you to write clearly, persuasively, and succicently, it also allows you to set the bar as to what constitutes clear, persuasive, succicent, and good for your audience and your context.
To make the most out of writingwellishard.com, I recommend grabbing my free 13-page guide. I’ve also written about this tool for a few different publications:
- “Writing well is hard: how to write like the best writers in your discipline,” published in University Affairs
- “Zombie-proof your writing: tips for making the conceptual concrete,” published in University Affairs
- “How (And Why) I Developed a Digital Tool for My Freelance Clients — And Then Gave It Away for Free,” published in the Editors Canada blog, The Editors’ Weekly.