Grammar apps are fun and useful, but there is one piece of advice they give you that you should use with care.

I love apps like ProWritingAid and Grammarly. They turn the hard task of rewriting and editing your work into a game. For example, when you write a long, complicated sentence, ProWritingAid will draw a red line under it. As you clean it up—for example, by adding some full stops—the line turns green. That is fun.

But there is a trap that such apps may lure you into. They point out repetition. That’s not a problem, per se. But it becomes a problem if avoiding repetition starts to confuse your reader. For example, if you are writing about leadership, you will use the term a lot in your writing. But switching to another term—management, power, command—may make your reader wonder if you are still on the same topic.

When I ran this post through ProWritingAid, it pointed out that I had used the word ‘fun’ twice in the first two paragraphs. And if I wasn’t writing about repetition, I might have changed that word. Use this feature with judgment.

What is a word or activity you love to repeat? For me, it’s going on a bike ride. Oh, and ticketyboo.

PS: If you’ve been wondering whether you are ready to write a book, wonder no more… I have a short quiz that will give you insights into what it takes. Enjoy https://tinyurl.com/2uet4r94