Slick Write – Free Writing Support for K-12 Classrooms!

Free!

Slick Write is a writing analysis website. To begin, users must first launch the website and then click the “Start Writing” option. A webpage will appear and users can either copy and paste text into the box or type directly into it. Next, users must tap the “Check” button on the top right of the screen and the website will analyze the writing. As part of the analysis, the website will show users a variety of insights into their writing including: Passive voice, Excessive use of prepositional phrases, Adverb usage, and Redundancy among other aspects. In addition, “Key Statistics” for the writing are shown under it, which offer word count, average word length, reading time, long sentences, average sentence length and more. Users can access additional data using the features on the left side of the screen.

After analyzing the text, users can tap the “Edit” button to make changes to their writing. They can then copy the text from this website and insert it back into the file where it is stored. The “Flow” option shows a sentence-by-sentence breakdown of the writing, which is aimed at encouraging reader engagement with the text. The “Statistics” option offers an overview via a host of indicators, and users can tap the blue “?” button to access an explanation of most indicators. The “Associator” tool is a word game that connects one word with different words, and it is intended to help users overcome writer’s block.  The “Settings” option lets users turn on or off different analysis options.

Instructional Ideas for Slick Write

1. When students are proofreading a piece of writing, teachers can have them use this website to analyze their writing for common mistakes, complexity, and other indicators.
2. Teachers can have students engage in a writing workshop and use this website as part of it. To begin, students can write a draft using Zoho, Neffice 24, or another word processing program. After drafting the piece of writing, students can have a peer read it and then analyze it using this website. Afterwards, the student who wrote the text along with the student who read it can conference, and the student who read it can provide feedback and ideas for improvement to the student who wrote it. At this point, the student who wrote it can revise the draft accordingly and the two students can then repeat the process.
3. Students can compose a piece of writing and then analyze it using this website and Grammarly. Students can then choose which of the two websites provides them better feedback and use that one to revise pieces of writing in the future.

Screenshots for Slick Write