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Yomu is an AI-powered writing assistant that helps you write better essays, papers, and academic writing. Simply start typing and Yomu will generate suggestions for you to use in your writing. You can also use Yomu to generate entire paragraphs or sections. Yomu also helps find citations, references, and sources for you to use in your writing. You can make sure that your writing is plagiarism-free by using Yomu's plagiarism checker.

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Best AI writer of 2024

Use the best AI writers to create written content quickly

  • Best AI writer overall

Best choice for marketers

Best for wordpress users, best for long-form writing.

  • Best free version
  • Best for short-form

Best for sourcing

  • Industry rankings

How we test

Person writing on computer.

1. Best AI writer overall 2. Best for marketers 3. Best for WordPress users 4. Best for long-form writing 5. Best free option 6. Best for short-form writing 7. Best for sourcing 8. TechRadar's AI writer rankings 9. FAQs 10. How we test

The word "AI" has been named the word of the year. ChatGPT has made waves since its introduction in late 2022. With every new iteration of this powerful tool, users have found innovative ways to use it to simplify and speed up their work.

Now, there are many AI writing assistants on the market, competing with ChatGPT to become the king of AI-powered writing tools. These new tools aim to simplify the writing process by generating long-form content, researching keywords, creating images from text, and more. Many bloggers are using these tools to improve their content and save time. 

However, there are some drawbacks to using AI writers. The content generated may require additional editing to ensure it's polished and accurate. AI-generated content may also lack the unique voice and style a human writer can provide. Despite this, the benefits of using AI writers, such as cost and time savings, often outweigh these minor drawbacks.

In conclusion, AI writers are an excellent solution for creating high-quality content without spending countless hours or breaking the bank. With numerous writing tools available today, content creation can be easily sped up and simplified. If you're interested in trying one of these tools, we've got you covered with our list of the best AI writers of the year. Check it out!

The best AI writers of 2024 in full:

Why you can trust TechRadar We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. Find out more about how we test.

See how our top picks compare in the following analysis and reviews as we discuss reasons to subscribe, reasons to avoid, our test results, and what we liked most about each cloud storage platform.

The best AI writer overall

Website screenshot for Grammarly AI writer

1. GrammarlyGO

Our expert review:

Specifications

Reasons to buy, reasons to avoid.

✔️   You also need a grammar editor: Getting help from an AI writer is even better with one that also helps you with grammar, like Grammarly. 

✔️ Need to use it across multiple apps: With Grammarly installed on your computer, you instantly gain access to it across your favorite apps like Microsoft Word and other word processing packages. 

✔️ Want something that's easy to use — once you learn how to do it:  Once you understand how GrammarlyGO works, it's going to make your life easier and assist you in making your text better. 

❌  You're on a strict budget: No doubt, Grammarly itself is expensive, especially if you only want to pay for it on a month-to-month basis. 

❌  You don't need a grammar tool: Maybe this is overkill, depending on your situation. 

❌ You need social networking-specific tools:  GrammarlyGO doesn't offer these types of tools, at least for now. 

Even in beta, GrammarlyGO is an excellent addition to an already powerful Al-based writing tool. You can use it to become a much better writer in just a few steps. 

Check out our in-depth GrammarlyGo review for a closer look at the service, and see why it's our top AI writer pick for 2024.

Grammarly has been a reliable companion for writers, helping them polish their craft by providing suggestions that make their writing clearer, more engaging, or more effective. And now, they've taken it up a notch by introducing GrammarlyGO, a feature-packed add-on that comes bundled with the rest of the software.

To get the most out of GrammarlyGO, you must understand how Grammarly works, as the two are closely intertwined. When using GrammarlyGO, it's essential to remember the number of prompts available to you, which varies depending on the plan you choose. Whenever you ask Grammarly to improve your text, one prompt is used, regardless of whether you use the suggestion. Grammarly Free users get access to 100 prompts per month, while Grammarly Premium subscribers receive 1,000 prompts per month. For Grammarly Business users, the number goes up to 1,000 prompts per user every month.

GoogleGO AI features are classified into five categories: ideate, compose, reply, rewrite, and personalize. The ideate feature helps you generate article ideas that are exciting and thought-provoking. With Grammarly's assistance, you can develop topics like "Five ways to motivate employees" or "Name five great topics about fall" that can capture the reader's attention and spark their interest.

The compose feature is perfect when you want Grammarly to help you write something from scratch. For instance, you could ask Grammarly to help you write an announcement about your engagement or a cover letter for a new job. The more information you provide, the better the results, and GrammarlyGO can help you create a masterpiece with its advanced suggestions and insights. Adding details like the name of your fiancé and the engagement date can make your announcement even more unique. In contrast, information about the job you're applying for can make your cover letter more effective.

If you're unsure how to respond to a message, Grammarly's reply feature can save the day. You can ask Grammarly to answer questions like "What should I say to Brent about the new job?" or "How can I congratulate Tom and Becky on their upcoming nuptials?" With Grammarly's superior writing skills, you can craft an engaging, effective, and impressive response.

With these incredible features, GrammarlyGO can help you take your writing to new heights and unleash your creativity.

Please read our full GrammarlyGo review .

  • ^ Back to the top

Website screenshot for Anyword

✔️ You are a marketer: Anyword is the best AI writer for marketers on the planet. It helps you create content based on your company's "voice," and learns as it goes. 

✔️ You enjoy trial and error:  There's no "right" answer when it comes to AI text generation. Anyword makes it easier to tweak text once or unlimited times to help you get the text perfect for your needs. 

✔️ You need to generate unlimited words:  There are limits elsewhere, but Anyword doesn't limit how many words it will generate on a monthly basis. 

❌  You want app integration: You'll need to copy and paste text from your favorite word processor to Anyword, which can get annoying for some. 

❌ You want a free plan:  Once you exhaust your trial, you'll need to pick a free plan to continue. 

❌  You aren't a marketer:  The heavy marketing focus can't be avoided. 

Anyword offers a slick and easy-to-use interface. In mere moments, you'll be able to create excellent content that caters to your intended audience 

Check out our in-depth Anyword review for a closer look .

Are you tired of struggling to generate creative marketing copy or unsure how to optimize your existing content? Anyword is an innovative cloud-based writing tool that can help you overcome these challenges and achieve exceptional results. With Anyword's intuitive interface and user-friendly tools, you can generate, test, and optimize your copy in ways you never thought possible.

With unlimited words in each plan, Anyword gives you plenty of space to craft compelling content that truly resonates with your audience. Its advanced AI-powered algorithms can analyze your existing marketing materials and produce multiple variations of your copy, enabling you to compare and contrast different solutions and select the best option for your brand.

One of the key features of Anyword is its Brand Voice function, which enables businesses to establish a consistent identity across all their marketing materials. Whether you're refining your tone of voice, targeting your audience, or building out your messaging bank, Anyword can help you create copy that accurately reflects your brand's personality, tone, and style.

Additionally, Anyword seamlessly integrates with various platforms, from Hubspot to LinkedIn Ads, enabling you to use copy intelligence to enhance the quality of your future content. By analyzing the performance of your existing materials, Anyword empowers you to make informed decisions about optimizing your messaging for even better results.

But that's not all - Anyword's advanced algorithms can also analyze the performance of your competitors' marketing materials, giving you insights into their copy and enabling you to create content that sets you apart from the competition.

In summary, Anyword can help you unlock your creativity and produce exceptional marketing copy that resonates with your audience. With its range of user-friendly tools, advanced AI-powered algorithms, and seamless integration with various platforms, Anyword is the perfect writing tool for businesses looking to enhance their marketing efforts.

Please read our full Anyword review .

Website screenshot for Articleforge

3. Articleforge

✔️ You use WordPress heavily: Articleforge works great with WordPress; get started in just a few steps. 

✔️ You want package customization:  The more you're willing to pay, the more words you can generate each month. It's flexible. 

✔️ You need marketing-based tools:  Offers SEO optimization, content in bulk, and more. 

❌  You don't want to self-edit : Articleforge may require more post-generation editing than other options, which could slow you down.

❌ You don't want to deal with duplicates:  Yes, sometimes Articleforge repeats suggestions. 

❌  If you don't want to spend more for a monthly subscription: It's cheaper to buy this on a yearly basis, and that might not be a commitment you're willing to make. 

Articleforge utilizes deep learning and AI to improve content over time, though heavy editing and fact-checking are often necessary.

Check out our in-depth Articleforge review for more information.

Articleforge is a tool that can greatly help speed up the writing process for users. It is a valuable resource for those who need to generate content quickly but do not have the time or resources to do so themselves. However, it is important to note that it is not a replacement for an experienced writer or editor. While it can provide recommendations for titles and automate SEO and WordPress publishing, it is not designed to produce ready-to-publish content.

One of the benefits of Articleforge is that it is available in seven languages, making it ideal for international blogs or multi-language sites. Users simply need to enter a few keywords and the topic they want to cover, and the platform will generate content in under 60 seconds. This generated content will use the provided keywords and cover the desired topic.

In addition to its quick and easy content generation, Articleforge also offers various integrations, including MS Word and WordPress integrations. The platform also provides integrations with other software systems like SEO AutoPilot, CyberSEO, RankerX, SEnuke TNG, and more. These integrations are easy to use, thanks to the API key offered by the platform.

While the platform is a convenient tool for creating content, its output quality falls short of expectations. As with any automated system, fact-checking is necessary for the majority of the content offered by the platform. The platform does offer better output quality with customized input. However, extensive testing is required, which can quickly exhaust the "word meter."

Overall, Articleforge can significantly expedite the writing process and help overcome writer's block. It is advisable to test it out and find a balance between the platform and tailored input to yield superior results. While it should not be relied upon as a sole source of content, using it in conjunction with other resources can help users quickly generate high-quality content.

Read our full Articleforge AI writer review .

Website screenshot for Jasper

✔️ You want a great plagiarism checker: You want to create original content, right? This checker makes sure that's true. 

✔️ You need to create content in multiple languages:  Some folks are writing content in multiple languages and Jasper lets you do this. 

✔️ You want access to a lot of features:  The team behind this solution tends to add new features on a regular basis without raising the price. That's sweet. 

❌  You don't have time to learn: Any AI writer takes time to learn. Jasper takes a little bit more time. 

❌ If you don't want to spend a lot:   Some folks might not feel the Creator package is enough and the next one is expensive. 

❌  If you aren't willing to edit a lot: Some of the content Jasper creates is better than others. Some extra editing is key. 

Jasper is a platform that is highly customizable and comes with a user-friendly interface. All the necessary tools that you need are just a click away. The platform’s content generation capabilities are hidden behind easy-to-reach templates, making it an easy-to-use tool.

Check out our review of Jasper to learn more about the AI writer.

Jasper is a powerful platform that leverages natural language processing (NLP) algorithms to analyze data from various sources across the web. With this ability, it can generate content ideas based on the relevant data you input, such as keywords, topics, and more. Jasper can help create a wide range of content formats, including blog posts, social media content, emails, and much more.

One of the most significant advantages of Jasper is that it has a tone feature that allows you to assign a corresponding tone to the copy you create if you’re targeting a specific persona. This feature is incredibly useful because it helps ensure that the content you create resonates with your target audience. Additionally, Jasper can help you improve your content through optimization recommendations, which can be accessed through numerous templates available on the platform.

If you’re short on time and need to create content quickly, Jasper is the perfect solution. It can offer content in mere seconds with just a few clicks and some input. With Jasper, you can save time and increase productivity, allowing you to focus on other essential tasks.

Another unique feature that Jasper offers is the “Boss Mode” feature, which allows you to write 5x faster. With this mode, you can give commands to Jasper, and it will do all the work for you. You can even write a complete book using this mode in just minutes. This feature is incredibly useful for writers who need to create a large volume of content in a short amount of time.

In the Boss Mode, you can also use pre-built recipes offered by the Jasper team such as “Write about (keyword),” but you also have the option of creating your own, which can be incredibly helpful if you have specific requirements for your content. By automating your writing process, you can save time and focus on other critical tasks.

Read our full Jasper review .

The best free version

Website screenshot for CopyAI

✔️ You want a free plan for minor work:  If you're okay with only generating 2,000 words per month, there's a free plan for that. 

✔️ You need unlimited word generation: You can create unlimited words each month with all the paid plans. 

✔️ You want multiple tools:  New features are added often, making the product even better. 

❌  You are a marketer:  There are better options if you primarily need to write marketing copy. 

❌  You aren't willing to learn:  Here's another option that is a little bit harder to learn, at least initially. 

❌ You need app integration:  Expect to stay on the CopyAI website to get your work done, which requires copy and paste. 

CopyAI helps writers create high-quality copy with the power of AI, saving time and producing better content that resonates with your audience.

Check out our in-depth CopyAI review to see whether it's the tool for you.

CopyAI has been making waves in the world of AI writing tools, becoming a favorite among users who want to create high-quality content that can help them stand out in today's crowded digital space. The tool offers a wide range of options that allow users to get started and take their writing to the next level, from exploring various writing templates, settings, and features on the user dashboard to creating a compelling copy in minutes.

The user dashboard serves as the creative command center for CopyAI users, providing a user-friendly and intuitive interface that makes it easy to navigate through different features. From here, you can quickly access various options that can help you create content that resonates with your audience, whether you need to write a blog post about travel or an email to a potential client.

The chat feature is the default option that acts as a blank canvas to help generate inspiration. The brainstorm feature allows you to create copy such as "ten catchy Twitter headlines on holiday shopping," "the best Facebook headlines for marketing professionals," and more. If you're struggling to come up with a topic, don’t worry. CopyAI’s chat function provides prompt templates to give you a head start. These templates cover various topics, including content creation, SEO, email marketing, social media, PR and communication, sales, and strategy.

Moreover, you can create custom templates that cater to your specific needs. Each template in the collection provides various options, so whether you need a headline generator, a step-by-step guide, or a product description, CopyAI has you covered. You can even use the "rewrite content" option to enhance your written content, making it more engaging and effective.

To fully personalize your experience with CopyAI, you should create one or more brand voices. This process involves providing text that accurately describes you or your company's unique voice. This text should be between 50 and 500 words and can come from various sources such as blog articles, social media posts, website copy, marketing emails, and more. This allows CopyAI to tailor its AI-powered tools to better suit your brand's needs, making it easier for you to create content that resonates with your target audience and helps you achieve your goals.

In summary, CopyAI is a powerful AI writing tool that offers a wide range of features and options to help you create high-quality content. From the user dashboard to the chat and brainstorming features, CopyAI provides a user-friendly and intuitive interface that makes it easy to create compelling and engaging content. With custom templates and brand voices, you can personalize your experience with CopyAI and create content that resonates with your target audience, helping you stand out in today's crowded digital space.

Read our full  CopyAI review .

The best for short-form

Website screenshot for Writesonic

6. Writesonic

✔️ You aren't tech savvy:  It's one of the easiest-to-use solutions on the market. 

✔️ You need lots of languages:  Writesonic supports 25 languages and counting. 

✔️ You're a freelancer:  There's a package just for you.

❌  You want to pay a lower price:  Some have criticized Writesonic for being too expensive. That's true with the Smart Team options

❌  You need more third-party integrations:  It doesn't really place nice with other software tools, which could add some time to your work. 

❌ You don't like tackling a learning curve : Like others on this list, there's a slighter higher learning curve with this one

Writesonic is an expansive AI writing platform with an intuitive interface and versatile templates for all content creation scenarios.

Check out our in-depth Writesonic review to see if this is the AI writing tool for you. 

Writesonic is an innovative content creation platform that provides users with various features and tools to generate high-quality, engaging content. One of the most impressive features of Writesonic is its versatility - it supports over 25 languages, including English, French, Italian, German, Japanese, Chinese, and more. This is a significant advantage for businesses that operate in multiple regions and need to produce content in different languages.

Another notable feature of Writesonic is its tone of voice customization tool. Users can choose from various tones, including "Excited," "Creative," and more. This feature adds a unique twist to the content, tailoring it to the user's needs. However, it's essential to note that the tone of voice feature may require additional editing to ensure the content is clear and coherent.

Regarding website copywriting, Writesonic provides users with an impressive range of tools. It can create landing pages, SEO meta descriptions, and feature-rich headers and subheaders. Additionally, it allows users to create social media ads on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google . Content creators can also benefit from Writesonic's blog writing, point expansion, and text analysis tools, which can rephrase the content and improve its readability.

The platform also offers e-commerce copy creation and popular copywriting formulas, such as the "AIDA" and "Pain-Agitate-Solution" formulas. These formulas are tried and tested approaches to writing compelling, persuasive content that resonates with readers.

However, it's essential to note that the content generated by Writesonic may require significant editing from the user. While the platform does an excellent job of generating content, it's essential to ensure it's clear, coherent, and tailored to the user's needs. If you're looking for a completely hands-off approach to content creation, Writesonic may not be the best option. However, for businesses that need to generate high-quality, engaging content quickly, Writesonic is an excellent choice.

Please read our full Writesonic review .

Website screenshot for Al-Writer

7. Al-Writer

✔️ You want a cheap package: You can get an AI writer for as little as $19/month. 

✔️ You need clear sourcing:  No better solution is available for providing sources for all text provided. 

✔️ You want an easy solution:  A very low learning curve exists. 

❌  You want app integration:  There's seamless integration with WordPress, but that's about it. 

❌  You need marketing-specific tools:  Sorry, this one doesn't have it. 

❌ You want unlimited word generation: If you need to generate more than 120 articles per month, this is a very expensive solution. 

AI-Writer is a unique word-generating tool that simplifies text creation and editing through an intuitive user interface. However, it may not be suitable for everyone.

Check out our in-depth AI-Writer review to see if it's the solution for you. 

AI-Writer is a word generator that is easily accessible and is popular among freelancers and bloggers. It may not be as extensive as Anyword or CopyAI, which are primarily aimed at marketing and sales, but it serves its intended audience well. 

One of the most significant advantages of AI-Writer is its unparalleled sourcing capabilities. It is the only AI content generator that cites sources for "everything it writes." Additionally, it updates its sources frequently, ensuring that any article generated by it sources the latest information on the subject. This is a significant advantage, particularly for those who are writing about current events or trending topics. With AI-Writer, writers can create content that is well-researched and accurate, without having to spend hours scouring the internet for sources. 

Another significant advantage of AI-Writer is that it recognizes that not all types of content require sourcing. For instance, op-eds or personal essays don't usually require sources. AI-Writer recognizes this and hides sources and links from the main results page, making it easier for writers to focus on their content and not worry about sources.

One of the drawbacks of using AI-Writer is that its extensive sourcing process can cause a minor delay in generating results compared to other AI writing tools. Although this may not be a significant issue, the noticeable delay should be mentioned. For instance, alternative tools like GrammarlyGO offer results without hesitation. However, it is worth noting that the issue with AI-Writer is primarily due to its thorough sourcing process. 

In conclusion, AI-Writer is an excellent tool for freelancers and bloggers who want to create high-quality content. It excels in sourcing capabilities, making it a go-to tool for writers who need well-researched and accurate content. Its ability to recognize when sourcing is not required is also an added advantage. While it may not be the fastest tool on the market, its thorough sourcing process is worth the wait.

Read our full  AI-Writer review .

TechRadar's AI writer rankings

Numerous AI writing solutions are already available in the market, and we can expect more to arrive in the future. Have a look at our rankings of popular services below, and also check out the honorable mentions that currently can’t compete with the top services available.

What is an AI writer?

An AI writer is a revolutionary tool, capable of creating text and content without human help; it utilizes algorithms and machine learning to generate various AI content. From data-driven, high-value pieces to conversion-focused content perfect for marketing campaigns, AI writers can easily create just about any content.

As AI writing assistants gain exposure to various forms of real-world information, they gain proficiency in generating natural-sounding output. With their data coming from human sources, the output created also has a human-like quality. Much like how humans rely on existing content to craft something new, AI content tools scour the web for relevant data to fulfill the user's instructions, thus creating original content.

This, in a nutshell, explains what AI writing is and how it functions.

How to choose the best AI writer for you?

Let’s get this out of the way. Whichever platform you choose, you will have to do some editing, if you want to create useful texts.

Here are some of the factors you should consider when choosing the right tool for you: 

1. Ease of use

Tools that don’t require technical knowledge or prior experience should be on the top of your list. Investment in good UI means that other aspects of the tool are also likely to be of a higher quality.

While this may not be popular with everyone, the price should play a major role in deciding which tool to go for. Some are simply overpriced while not offering much more than their lower-priced competition. Pay attention to the amount of content each price plan offers.

3. High-quality output

Despite the fact that, in the end, you will be editing the texts and images the tool creates, having a tool that creates high-quality content will mean less time spent on fixing mistakes and editing.

4. Integrations

If you’re running a blog or business and have been doing so for some time, you probably have your set of tools that you use for writing content. Making sure that the new AI platform syncs well with your existing toolbox can be essential for how long and how well you utilize the AI tool.

The list above is not exhaustive, but does offer a great starting point in your quest to find the best AI writing tool for your needs.

During our assessment, we’ve evaluated various aspects such as the number of writing templates, categories, recipes, number of languages supported, grammar checkers, etc. Our goal was to create an extensive list of AI writing assistants that offer much more than simple rewording features. 

We tested the overall capabilities of the AI software, the tool's interface and ease of use, monthly article limits, SEO optimization features, and pricing, among other aspects.

In addition, we gave each platform a test article to write for us (a simple topic) and checked its sentence structure and content relevance.

Read more on how we test, rate, and review products on TechRadar .

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Bryan M Wolfe

Bryan M. Wolfe is a staff writer at TechRadar, iMore, and wherever Future can use him. Though his passion is Apple-based products, he doesn't have a problem using Windows and Android. Bryan's a single father of a 15-year-old daughter and a puppy, Isabelle. Thanks for reading!

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10 apps that write essays for you + how to use them.

Writing essays can be hours of long work reading and writing. To help you hand your paper in faster, we’ve compiled the top 10 apps that write essays for you.

Published on Jan 19, 2022

By Dave Rogenmoser

a i that writes essays for you

Writing essays is a skill you need to pass many high school classes and even college or university courses. However, not everyone has the greatest writing skills, and even then, great writers sometimes don’t have the time to write everything. 

Plagiarism is another common concern when in school and should be taken seriously, considering it can get you kicked out of education. Instead of paying a hefty fee for essay writing services, take advantage of the best essay writing apps available to help you score your next A+. 

Why software can help improve your essay writing

Using software, especially AI-powered platforms, can help streamline the writing process by offering features like templates, structured frameworks, content generation as well as grammar and spell-check.

Essay writing software allows you to organize your thoughts more effectively and often in a distraction-free work environment. They can also aid in enhancing the overall quality of your writing by offering savvy suggestions for improving sentence or paragraph structure, vocabulary usage and flow within your essays.

Benefits of essay writing software

  • Improved Organization: Essay writing software helps users organize their thoughts more effectively, creating a structured framework for their writing tasks.
  • Enhanced Productivity: These tools provide a distraction-free work environment, allowing writers to focus solely on their essays without any interruptions.
  • Content Generation: Some platforms like Jasper assist in generating content ideas, providing valuable insights and suggestions to kickstart the writing process.
  • Vocabulary Enhancement: By offering suggestions for alternative word choices, essay writing software helps enrich the vocabulary used in your essays.
  • Structural Guidance: These tools provide feedback on sentence and paragraph structure, helping users improve the overall coherence and flow of their writing.
  • Quality Improvement: Essay writing software contributes to enhancing the overall quality of your work by offering valuable tips and recommendations to refine your writing.

Elements of an A+ essay you can’t ignore

  • Clear Thesis Statement: An A+ essay must have a strong and clear thesis statement that presents the main argument or point of view.
  • Comprehensive Research: Extensive research with credible sources is crucial for providing in-depth analysis and supporting arguments effectively.
  • Proper Structure and Formatting: The essay should have a well-organized structure with a logical flow of ideas from introduction to conclusion.
  • Critical Analysis: Demonstrating critical thinking skills by evaluating information, presenting counter arguments, and offering insightful perspectives.
  • Originality: Strive for original ideas and unique perspectives to set your essay apart and showcase intellectual creativity.
  • Effective Use of Evidence: Incorporate relevant evidence and examples to strengthen arguments and demonstrate a deep understanding of the topic.
  • Meticulous Proofreading: Pay attention to grammar, punctuation, spelling, and overall writing mechanics to ensure clarity and coherence in your essay.

How to write a strong essay thesis

To write a strong essay thesis statement, you should begin by clearly identifying the main topic or argument of your essay. Your thesis statement should be concise and specific, providing a roadmap for the reader on what to expect in the rest of the paper.

Make sure your thesis is arguable and not a statement of fact. Next, consider the key points you want to make in support of your thesis. These points will guide the structure of your essay and should be logically organized for a coherent flow of ideas.

The final step in writing a strong essay thesis is to revise and refine it. This step is crucial because it allows you to improve the clarity, coherence, and overall effectiveness of your thesis statement.

During revision, pay attention to the language you have used and make sure it is precise and specific. Consider whether your thesis accurately reflects the main argument or topic of your essay.

The top 10 apps that write essays for you

We’ve found the top online apps and websites to help you decide on your thesis, collect your research, and help you through the paper writing process. Some of these apps are AI-based and can help you with the writing process, while others will help you improve your productivity and ability to gather information effectively.

  • Wordtune Read
  • Essay AI Lab
  • My Assignment Help Essay Typer
  • Paper Typer

Jasper is an AI writing tool with the power to write essays for you. The templates library is robust, allowing you to choose from many different styles and formats. Writing your next essay is as easy as inputting key information and clicking the ‘Generate now’ button!

From the dashboard, just ask Jasper for help writing an essay. From here, you can input all the important details of your essay, including its intended target audience (ie. college professors). This is key for optimizing academic writing that will be published online. 

Jasper template library

In the screenshot below, we asked Jasper for help on an essay about writing A+ essays. We shared some content information as well as our desired tone. Jasper delivered!

Jasper informative essay template

  • Optimizes written content for ranking on Google
  • Finishes your sentences for you
  • Has a Jumpstart learning center to learn even better ways to use Jasper
  • Includes over 50+ templates for different writing needs
  • Rated 5/5 stars in over 1000 reviews
  • Paid membership required

Pricing: Jasper offers several flexible pricing plans ranging from the $39/mo Creator plan to custom Business plans for an enterprise-level solution.

2. Papers Owl

Papers Owl Screenshot - Apps that Write Essays

This quick thesis statement generator makes the most out of the first few sentences of your essay. Add in your information and the AI generates a paragraph to introduce your essay.

  • Online website tool
  • No registration required
  • Receive three outputs each time
  • Requires that you know your thesis already — which requires prior research
  • You need one to two supporting statements already

Pricing: Free

coggle - apps that write essays for you

Coggle is a mind mapping app. These visual diagrams help you decide on your essay topic, organize all your points, and know which ideas are linked to each other. Coggle is available for iOS and Android devices and as a Google Chrome extension.

  • Available as an online website tool, browser extension, or app
  • Collaborate with up to three other people
  • Make unlimited mind maps
  • Download your map as a PDF or image
  • Most maps will be public
  • Requires registration
  • The free version has no custom line paths

Pricing: Free forever. Paid plans start at $5/month.

4.  Wordtune Read

Wordtune Read Screenshot - Apps that Write Essays

Wordtune’s app Wordtune Read reduces your reading time by summarizing paragraphs in long articles and essays. This example shows how Wordtune Read turns a long academic research paper into a three-minute read by summarizing essential points on the right.

Wordtune Read Screenshot - Apps that Write Essays 1

  • Summarizes long articles and documents
  • Allows users to upload a document or link to a research article
  • Users can export the summarized points as a Word document
  • Available as a Google Chrome extension
  • Can only export as a Word document

Pricing: Basic version is free, but there are options to upgrade. Paid plans start at $9.99/month.

5. Essay AI Lab

Essay AI Lab screenshot - Apps that Write Essays for you

Essay AI Lab searches the internet for relevant information for you and conveniently puts it all together in an essay. All you have to do is provide the guiding title and prompt. 

Essay AI Lab’s writing process allows you to choose each paragraph in your essay from tens of samples. This word processing tool is excellent for finding resources while writing your essay.

  • Includes citations and research references in APA or MLA format
  • You choose each paragraph for your essay
  • Paraphrases to eliminate any plagiarism concerns
  • Completely free to use
  • Requires registration to save or download your work
  • Rephrasing can change word meaning
  • Some citations come from blogs and news sources

6. My Assignment Help Essay Typer

My Assignment Help Essay Typer Screenshot - Apps that Write Essays for you

This word processing tool is very similar to Essay AI Lab but has a few more benefits. In addition to providing pre-written paragraphs on your topic, you can hire an expert at any point to jump in and help you finish your paper.

  • Includes other free tools like a summary generator and paraphrasing tool
  • App available for iPhone or iPad and Android devices
  • Works best as a research tool
  • Reviews claim they do not give refunds for failed services

Pricing: Free 

7. Paper Typer

Paper Typer Screenshot - Apps that Write Essays for you

Paper Typer writes you an entire essay in seconds after you tell it the subject of your paper. This AI essay writer app creates appropriate formatting for your essay as well. It offers headers and subheaders to write the best essay possible.

  • Entire paper in seconds
  • Unlimited sessions and edits
  • You can edit citations on the same site
  • Covers a wide range of information on the topic
  • Only works for simple subject topics
  • Fact-check needed to ensure proper citations
  • Edits required to prevent plagiarism

Pricing: Free for students.

8. Wordtune

Wordtune Screenshot - Apps that Write Essays for you

Wordtune upgrades your academic papers with professional writing using AI algorithms. This text editor uses AI to rewrite sentences and paragraphs up to 280 characters long. 

This tool works best to polish introductory or concluding sentences or summarize a long point. You can upgrade to the Premium plan to make your sentences more formal, more casual, longer, or shorter. 

  • Designed to improve the quality of your essays
  • Free version available
  • Has extensive customer support
  • Limited free membership
  • Won’t write essays for you; only improves pre-written text

Pricing: Free online. Premium plans start at $9.99/month for unlimited use.

9. AI Writer

AI Writer Screenshot - Apps that Write Essays for you

AI Writer is another fully AI essay writer. Write your title or headline on the homepage, sign-up, and receive access to an original draft, citations, and relevant SEO-friendly content. 

  • Free 1-week trial
  • Optimizes content for SEO
  • Has a 2-minute turn-around time
  • Saves up to 50% of your time compared to starting from scratch
  • Writes in English only
  • Membership required
  • Does not use all-academic sources
  • Reviewers say the essays are not high-quality

Pricing: Paid plans start at $29 per month.

10. Readable

Readable Screenshot -Apps that Write Essays for you

Readable is a web-based text analyzer that helps to improve your writing’s readability score. Readability refers to how complex your writing is. For example, college essays typically have a higher readability score than high school essays. The Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level is the academic standard for determining readability, which Readable uses in their analysis.

Improving your readability score can lead to clearer writing and higher grades.  

  • Offers a 7-day trial of ContentPro version
  • Grades your paper
  • Shares your word count as you write
  • Analyzes the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level
  • Free version is very limited
  • Requires an account to download your work

Pricing: There’s a free version. Paid plans start at $8/month.

Write A+ essays with Jasper

While there are several apps that write essays for you available in the market, Jasper stands out for several reasons. 

Our AI writing assistant was designed to be your writing partner. Instead of generating content from a template, Jasper is a “thinking” app. It draws on its knowledge of 10% of the internet and writes naturally — almost like a human would.

You can use Jasper’s Blog Post Outline template for outlining and the Long-Form Assistant for essay writing. You can also take advantage of the Blog Post Introduction and Blog Post Conclusion templates for starting and finishing strong. 

You will get 100% unique content with Jasper — zero plagiarism. You only have to think about proofreading, using a spell-checker, or any final revisions.

What are you waiting for? Sign up for Jasper today.

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Meet The Author:

Dave Rogenmoser

Dave Rogenmoser

Dave is the Co-Founder Jasper , a Y Combinator-backed tech company based in Austin, Texas. He is also a husband and father of 3 boys.

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Alex Birkett

a i that writes essays for you

11 Apps That Write Essays for You (and Improve Quality)

Last Updated on February 28, 2023 by Alex Birkett

Writing essays is a time-consuming task.

It requires research, structuring, formatting, and plenty of editing. As such, it’s no wonder that students often seek out help from external sources.

One of the most popular solutions in recent years are essay writing apps.

But what exactly are they? And do they work as advertised? Let’s dive into the details.

What Are Essay Writing Apps?

Essay writing apps are digital tools that help you to write better essays.

They typically come with features like spellcheckers, grammar checkers, and idea generators to help spur your writing process forward.

Some also offer pre-written content that you can use as a starting point for your own essay.

The idea is that these tools save you time and energy so you can focus on crafting great ideas instead of getting bogged down with tedious tasks like proofreading or finding research materials.

Do Essay Writing Apps Really Work?

The short answer is yes – but with some caveats.

While these apps can certainly be helpful in terms of providing assistance with proofreading and idea generation, they won’t be able to write entire essays for you from scratch like some people may believe.

Moreover, while some apps offer pre-written content that could be useful as a starting point for your essay, it’s important to remember that this isn’t an excuse to plagiarize or copy other people’s work without crediting them properly; if caught doing so, it could have serious consequences for your academic career.

What Are the Best Essay Writing Apps Available?

The best essay writing apps will have some of the following abilities:

  • They generate net new content
  • They help you format and ideate the structure of your essay
  • They improve your writing style
  • They have grammar, spelling, plagiarism, and style detection
  • They can help you research factual information about the topic
  • They’re “multi-purpose tools” that allow for custom functionalities
  • They’re affordable.

I’ll judge the following of the best essay apps below on the above characteristics.

Editor’s note: I’m going to use some affiliate links when possible to try to earn some revenue from my content. These don’t change the opinions espoused in the content nor the style in which they are written. If I think a product sucks, I’m not going to say otherwise. This is just a bonus and a way to fund the whole operation. Anyway, enjoy the article!

11 Apps That Write Essays for You

  • ProWritingAid
  • Hypotenuse AI

Screen shot 2022-12-27 at 11.40.19 am

Jasper  is an AI-powered essay writing app that helps you organize, write, and format your essays faster.

It’s functionally an all-purpose AI text generator , with a Google Docs / MS Word style editor you can use in conjunction with custom commands.

You can also hook it up with Grammarly to find spelling mistakes, punctuation mistakes, run on sentences, and other grammatical mistakes in real time.

They’ve got a few different modes (as part of their broader Boss Mode plan):

Focus mode is for pure writing, a simple word processor (but with an AI assistant attached). The focus writer is where I spend a lot of my time in this tool.

Chat mode is just like ChatGPT (more on that later)

SEO mode hooks up with Surfer SEO  to give you keyword suggestions in addition to your regular spell checking and generative essay writer functionality.

And power mode unlocks all of their use case templates, recipes, and commands.

Overall, Jasper is hands down the most powerful AI writing software. Premium features like SEO mode, Chat mode, and Power mode are only available on their Boss Mode plan, so I’d opt for that one.

It does seem to struggle with research papers and reference materials, so make sure you’ve got your citations on lock before you start writing. They also lack a web clipper tool, but their browser extension tool does give you the ability to write content everywhere.

They also have drawing tools and art generation capabilities , by the way.

Price : Starts at $24/mo. Boss Mode plan begins at $49/month

G2 Score:  4.8/5

Screen shot 2022-12-27 at 11.41.49 am

Frase is a web-based writing tool that uses AI to help writers create high-quality essays quickly.

They’ve got a whole suite of SEO tools , including a content brief and content research tool, content optimization software, and generative AI  tools to help you write content.

Their content brief and research tool is of particular interest here.

Most of the best essay writing app options on this list focus only on text generation or rewriting; few focus on actually helping you format your piece in the first place, which is often where the hard work is.

Then, for their AI writing tool, they feature a ton of helpful templates, including “explain why,” “bullets to paragraphs,” and a metaphor / analogy tool:

Screen shot 2022-12-27 at 11.44.44 am

Price:  Only $14.99/mo ($12 per month when paid annually).

Screen shot 2022-12-27 at 11.50.44 am

ChatGPT  was launched in 2022 by OpenAI (the creators of GPT-3, which powers most of the writing software on this list).

It has brought generative AI to the mainstream, and it’s already one of the best writing apps for all purposes.

It acts as a chat interface, so it’s much more intuitive than many of the dedicated AI writing software out there.

Basically, you can ask it or prompt it to write…anything. I’ve used it to generate creative stories, write love poems, make me ideas for essays, improve my writing skills, and build outlines for SEO-focused content.

Let’s walk through a use case. I took a history class in college called “US history from 1945 to the present.” I’ll ask ChatGPT to create me some topic ideas:

Screen shot 2022-12-25 at 6.09.16 pm

Pretty good! I like the cold war idea, so I’ll ask it to create an outline for me:

Screen shot 2022-12-25 at 6.10.10 pm

Okay, maybe I’d want to change up a few pieces of this, but let’s go with it. Here’s the full essay:

Screen shot 2022-12-25 at 6.11.25 pm

Crazy! And that’s just a first pass. I could further tweak the outputs with better instructions.

This stuff is getting scary good.

Price:  Free

G2 Score:  NA

4. Writesonic

Screen shot 2022-12-27 at 11.51.54 am

Writesonic  is a YC-backed startup that makes generative AI tools capable of writing essays.

I’m a big fan of this product.

They’ve got a ton of ready-made templates to get you started out (including a few that are great for writing essays). They’ve also got a few templates that can help you improve your writing style or even rewrite content so its better formatted.

Finally, they’ve got a Google Docs style editor for long form writers so you can use commands and write alongside the AI.

G2 Score: 4.8/5

Screen shot 2022-12-27 at 11.49.48 am

Copy AI  is another AI copywriting tool  built on top of GPT-3.

It primarily writes essays through use case templates. A few that are popular for the writing process include:

  • Essay intro
  • Essay outline
  • Explain like I’m 5
  • Sentence rewriter
  • Analogy generator

For example, look at this need little essay writer app that lets you build an outline for your essay:

Screen shot 2022-12-27 at 11.26.05 am

The sentence rewriter and analogy generator are two examples that can help you improve your writing style.

Copy AI doesn’t have the same flexibility and power that Jasper and ChatGPT have, but it’s much easier to use. The templates are well set up and foolproof. And they have many that actually help you format text and design the scope of your piece, not just write it.

Overall, I’m a big fan of this tool.

Price:  Free for up to 2000 words and then $49/mo for unlimited word counts.

6. ProWritingAid

Screen shot 2022-12-27 at 11.52.27 am

ProWritingAid  is a cool professional writing software that uses AI to generate content.

It’s great for academic papers and academic writing. Unlike many other essay writing services, this one incorporates grammar checking, spell check, style checking, plagiarism checking, and word count into the content they produce.

They’ve built custom solutions for higher education, teachers, non-native English speakers, and creatives.

I like this one because it lets users create content from scratch, but it’s also got features to improve your writing (this is powerful for college students especially).

Got some handwritten notes that you want to whip up into a good essay? This one is great at processing hand written notes and producing great content.

Pro Writing Aid works via browser, but they’ve got integrations that allow for offline access and desktop software as well – such as a Scrivener integration and an MS Word integration.

Overall, a great product with a free app that allows for up to 500 words.

Price: Completely free for up to 500 words, and then $10 per month for unlimited use.

G2 Score: 4.5/5

7. Speedwrite

Screen shot 2022-12-27 at 11.52.45 am

Speedwrite  is one of the most popular writing applications out there. It helps you write essays from scratch as well as rephrasing your existing content.

How’s it work? Basically, through “predictions.” You just enter text and hit the “predict” button (they call their text generations “predictions”). This then takes your content and paraphrases it using their artificial intelligence.

This makes it useful for everything from writing notes to polishing up existing texts.

They’ve got tons of users (roughly 500k+). They claim to have written millions of lines of text, and all of this is fresh, original content with good style and grammar.

While Speedwrite has some downsides (it’s not great with structured diagrams or starting with a blank page), it’s still popular. Anyway, there are a ton of great Speedwrite alternatives  you can check out.

One cool thing is you can use this tool completely free.

Here’s an example of a “prediction” based on the above text.

Screen shot 2022-12-27 at 11.32.50 am

Price:  Free and the only $19.99 per month

Screen shot 2022-12-27 at 11.56.24 am

Lex is a new AI writer that I’ve just started trying out. I love it so far.

It’s different from the others. It’s aimed at writers. Many of the other tools help non-writers produce content. This one is no-frills, just a Google Docs / Microsoft Word style editor and an auto complete functionality.

And to be honest: the outputs are pretty darn good. I only write the first two sentences here and then let Lex finish it:

Screen shot 2022-12-27 at 11.57.29 am

Lex can also be used on both ios devices as well as android devices (instructions in the app).

Screen shot 2022-12-27 at 11.59.33 am

As far as I know, the tool is free, but I’m sure they’ll introduce a standard pricing model soon. You have to get on a waitlist to get access.

Price : Free

G2 Score: NA

Screen shot 2022-12-27 at 12.12.45 pm

Rytr  is a similar tool to Jasper, Copy AI, and Writesonic. It was also built on GPT-3 technology, so it’s got many of the same outputs and templates as these tools.

The biggest difference with Rytr is its price. They’re one of the most affordable apps that write essays for you, starting at just $9/mo (plus a free plan).

This is a great starter app.

Price: free, and then $9/mo

G2 Score: 4.7/5

10. Hypotenuse AI

Screen shot 2022-12-27 at 12.10.18 pm

Hypotenuse AI  started out as an ecommerce-focused AI tool, but it has since expanded.

Like other tools on this list, they’ve got one of the best essay writing capabilities out there.

The reason I’m adding them to this list, though, is their content detective feature. This allows you to research content with citations. Most tools suffer from factual inaccuracies, which is obviously a huge problem when it comes to academic writing.

Hypotenuse is working to solve that, and for that, I applaud them.

Price: Starts at $24/mo

G2 Score: 4.4/5

11. Word AI

Screen shot 2022-12-27 at 12.07.23 pm

Word AI  is a sweet tool built for two things: content rewriting, and scale.

You can essentially do like 1000 rewrites based on your initial content. This is helpful for SEO folks hoping to do link building and guest posting at scale.

For the essay writers among us? It’s great for coming up with clear copy and rewriting your piece to enrich your text, split sentences, and improve the clarity of your writing.

I will say, transparently, this is not one of my favorite tools out there. I think it’s a little clunky for most use cases and it’s best for spinning up a ton of content for SEO.

However, I wanted to include it on the list because it’s one of the best at content production at scale.

Price:  $57/month

G2 Score: 3.9/5

At the end of the day, essay writing apps can be incredibly useful resources if used correctly by students or writers who need assistance crafting their stories or arguments more effectively and efficiently than ever before.

However, it’s important to remember that these tools don’t replace actual human effort – they’re meant to supplement it – so make sure not to rely too heavily on them or allow them to take away from the creativity in your own work!

In that way, “apps that write essays for you” is sort of a myth. You’ll still need to provide the human intelligence 🙂

With all this in mind, don’t forget to do your own research into which app is right for you before committing – good luck!

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The best AI writing generators

These 7 ai writing tools will take your content to the next level..

Hero image with the logos of the best AI writing software

Of course, all AI writing software needs human supervision to deliver the best results. Left to its own devices, it tends to produce fairly generic and frequently incorrect content, even if it can pass for something a human wrote. Now that AI tools are increasingly popular, people also seem more aware of what bland AI-produced content reads like and are likely to spot it—or at least be suspicious of content that feels like it lacks something.

I've been covering this kind of generative AI technology for almost a decade. Since AI is supposedly trying to take my job, I'm somewhat professionally interested in the whole situation. Still, I think I'm pretty safe for now. These AI writing tools are getting incredibly impressive, but you have to work with them, rather than just letting them spit out whatever they want.

So, if you're looking for an AI content generator that will help you write compelling copy, publish blog posts a lot quicker, and otherwise take some of the slow-paced typing out of writing, you've come to the right place. Let's dig in. 

The best AI writing software

Jasper for businesses

Copy.ai for copywriting

Anyword for assisting you with writing

Sudowrite for fiction

Writer for a non-GPT option

Writesonic for GPT-4 content

Rytr for an affordable AI writer

How do AI writing tools work?

Search Google for AI writing software, and you'll find dozens of different options, all with suspiciously similar features. There's a big reason for this: 95% of these AI writing tools use the same large language models (LLMs) as the back end.

Some of the bigger apps are also integrating their own fine-tuning or using other LLMs like Claude . But most are really just wrappers connected to OpenAI's GPT-3 and GPT-4 APIs, with a few extra features built on top—even if they try to hide it in their own marketing materials. If you wanted to, you could even create your own version of an AI writing assistant without code using Zapier's OpenAI integrations —that's how much these apps rely on GPT.

See how one writer created an AI writing coach with GPT and other ways you can use OpenAI with Zapier .

Now this isn't to say that none of these AI-powered writing apps are worth using. They all offer a much nicer workflow than ChatGPT or OpenAI's playground , both of which allow you to generate text with GPT as well. And the better apps allow you to set a "voice" or guidelines that apply to all the text you generate. But the difference between these apps isn't really in the quality of their output. With a few exceptions, you'll get very similar results from the same prompt no matter which app you use—even if they use different LLMs. Where the apps on this list stand out is in how easy they make it to integrate AI text generation into an actual workflow.

As for the underlying LLM models themselves, they work by taking a prompt from you, and then predicting what words will best follow on from your request, based on the data they were trained on. That training data includes books, articles, and other documents across all different topics, styles, and genres—and an unbelievable amount of content scraped from the open internet . Basically, LLMs were allowed to crunch through the sum total of human knowledge to form a deep learning neural network—a complex, many-layered, weighted algorithm modeled after the human brain. Yes, that's the kind of thing you have to do to create a computer program that generates bad poems . 

If you want to dive more into the specifics, check out the Zapier articles on natural language processing and how ChatGPT works . But suffice it to say: GPT and other large language models are incredibly powerful already—and because of that, these AI writing tools have a lot of potential. 

What makes the best AI text generator?

How we evaluate and test apps.

Our best apps roundups are written by humans who've spent much of their careers using, testing, and writing about software. Unless explicitly stated, we spend dozens of hours researching and testing apps, using each app as it's intended to be used and evaluating it against the criteria we set for the category. We're never paid for placement in our articles from any app or for links to any site—we value the trust readers put in us to offer authentic evaluations of the categories and apps we review. For more details on our process, read the full rundown of how we select apps to feature on the Zapier blog .

We know that most AI text generators rely on the various versions of GPT, and even those that don't are using very similar models, so most apps aren't going to stand out because of some dramatic difference in the quality of their output. Creating effective, human-like text is now table stakes. It was required for inclusion on this list—but not sufficient on its own.

As I was testing these apps, here's what else I was looking for:

Tools powered by GPT or a similar large language model with well-documented efficacy. In practice, this means that most but not all of the AI writing tools on this list use GPT to a greater or lesser degree. Many apps are starting to hide what models they use and claim to have a lot of secret sauce built on top (because there's a marketing advantage in being different and more powerful), but the reality is that nine times out of ten, it's the GPT API that's doing the heavy lifting.

An interface that gives you a lot of control over the text output. The more options you have to influence the tone, style, language, content, and everything else, the better. I didn't want tools where you just entered a headline and let the AI do the rest; these are all tools that you collaborate with, so you can write great copy quickly. The best AI writing tools also let you set a default brand voice that's always on.

Ease of use. You shouldn't have to fight to get the AI to do what you want. With AI writing software like this, there will always be some redoing and reshaping to get the exact output you want, but working with the AI shouldn't feel like wrangling a loose horse. Similarly, great help docs and good onboarding were both a major plus. 

Affordability. ChatGPT is currently free, and all these tools are built on top of an API that costs pennies . There was no hard and fast price limit, but the more expensive tools had to justify the extra expense with better features and a nicer app. After all, almost every app will produce pretty similar outputs regardless of what it costs. 

Apps that weren't designed to make spam content. Previous text-generating tools could " spin " content by changing words to synonyms so that unscrupulous website owners could rip off copyrighted material and generally create lots of low-quality, low-value content. None of that on this list.

Even with these criteria, I had more than 40 different AI writing tools to test. Remember: it's relatively easy for a skilled developer to build a wrapper around the GPT API, so I had to dig deep into each one to find out if it was any good or just had a flashy marketing site.

I tested each app by getting it to write a number of different short- and long-form bits of copy, but as expected, there were very few meaningful quality differences. Instead, it was the overall user experience, depth of features, and affordability that determined whether an app made this list. 

Zapier Chatbots lets you build custom AI chatbots and take action with built-in automation—no coding required. Try the writing assistant template to help you create high quality content, effortlessly.

The best AI writing generators at a glance

Best ai writing generator for businesses, jasper (web).

Jasper, our pick for the best AI writing generator for businesses

Jasper pros:

One of the most mature and feature-filled options on the list 

Integrates with Grammarly, Surfer, and its own AI art generator

Jasper cons:

Expensive given that all the apps use similar language models 

Jasper (formerly Jarvis) is one of the most feature-filled and powerful AI content generators. It was among the first wave of apps built on top of GPT, and its relative longevity means that it feels like a more mature tool than most of the other apps I tested. It's continued to grow and develop in the months since I first compiled this list.

If you have a business and budget isn't your primary concern, Jasper should be one of the first apps you try. It's pivoted to mostly focus on marketing campaigns rather than just generating generic AI content. That's not a bad thing, but it means that plans now start at $49/month for individual creators and $125/month for teams.

Jasper has also moved away from just being a GPT app. It claims to combine "several large language models" including GPT-4, Claude 2, and PaLM 2, so that "you get the highest quality outputs and superior uptime." While I can't say that I noticed a massive difference between Jasper's output and any other app's, it does give you a few solid controls so that your content matches your brand. 

You can create a brand Voice and Tone by uploading some appropriate sample text. Based on a few examples of my writing, Jasper created a style that "emphasizes a casual, conversational tone with humor, personal anecdotes, listicles, informal language, expertise in various subjects, and a call to action for an engaging and approachable brand voice." I don't think that's a bad summary of the content I fed in, and its output for a few test blog posts like "The Enduring Popularity of Top Gun" felt closer to my writing than when I asked it to use a generic casual tone of voice. Similarly, there's a Knowledge Base where you can add facts about your business and products so Jasper gets important details right. 

While other apps also offer similar features, Jasper's seemed to work better and are fully integrated with the rest of the app. For example, you can create entire marketing campaigns using your custom brand voice. Put a bit of work into fine-tuning it and uploading the right assets to your knowledge base, and I suspect that Jasper really could create some solid first drafts of marketing materials like blog outlines, social media campaign ads, and the like.

Otherwise, Jasper rounds things out with some nice integrations. It has a built-in ChatGPT competitor and AI art generator (though, again, lots of other apps have both), plays nice with the SEO app Surfer , and there's a browser extension to bring Jasper everywhere.

You can also connect Jasper to thousands of other apps using Zapier . Learn more about how to automate Jasper , or try one of the pre-built workflows below.

Create product descriptions in Jasper from new or updated Airtable records

Airtable logo

Create Jasper blog posts from new changes to specific column values in monday.com and save the text in Google Docs documents

monday.com logo

Run Jasper commands and send Slack channel messages with new pushed messages in Slack

Slack logo

Jasper pricing: Creator plan from $49/month with one brand voice and 50 knowledge assets. Teams plan starts at $125/month for three seats, three brand voices, and 150 knowledge assets.

Best AI writing app for AI copywriting

Copy.ai (web).

Copy.ai, our pick for the best AI copywriting tool

Copy.ai pros:

Has an affordable unlimited plan for high-volume users 

Workflow actively solicits your input, which can lead to higher quality content 

Copy.ai cons:

Expensive if you don't produce a lot of content

Pretty much anything Jasper can do, Copy.ai can do too. It has brand voices, an infobase, a chatbot, and team features (though there isn't a browser extension). Consider it the Burger King to Jasper's McDonalds.

And like the Home of the Whopper, Copy.ai appeals to slightly different tastes. While I could argue that Copy.ai has a nicer layout, the reality is it's geared toward a slightly different workflow. While Jasper lets you and the AI loose, Copy.ai slows things down a touch and encourages you to work with its chatbot or use a template that asks some deliberate, probing questions. For creating website copy, social media captions , product descriptions, and similarly specific things, it makes more sense. But for content marketing blog posts and other long-form content, it might annoy you.

The other big difference is the pricing. While both offer plans for $49/month, Copy.ai includes five user seats and unlimited brand voices. For a small team working with multiple brands, it can be a lot cheaper. Also, if you're looking for a free AI writing generator, Copy.ai also offers a free plan that includes 2,000 words per month.

Overall, there are more similarities than differences between Jasper and Copy.ai , and both can create almost all the same kinds of text. Even when it came to analyzing my voice, they both came to pretty similar conclusions. Copy.ai decided that, to mimic me, it had to "focus on creating content that is both educational and entertaining, using a conversational tone that makes readers feel like they're having a chat with a knowledgeable friend" and "not to be afraid to inject some humor or personal anecdotes." If you're in doubt, try them both out and then decide.

Copy.ai also integrates with Zapier , so you can do things like automatically sending content to your CMS or enriching leads straight from your CRM. Learn more about how to automate Copy. ai or try one of the pre-built workflows below.

Add new blog posts created with Copy.ai to Webflow

Copy.ai logo

Copy.ai pricing: Free for 2,000 words per month; from $49/month for the Pro plan with 5 users and unlimited brand voices.

Best AI writing assistant

Anyword (web).

Anyword, our pick for the best AI writing assistant

Anyword pros:

Makes it very easy for you to include specific details, SEO keywords, and other important information 

Engagement scores and other metrics are surprisingly accurate

Anyword cons:

Can be slower to use

Pretty expensive for a more limited set of features than some of the other apps on this list

While you can direct the AI to include certain details and mention specific facts for every app on this list, none make it as easy as Anyword. More than any of the others, the AI here feels like an eager and moderately competent underling that requires a bit of micromanaging (and can also try to mimic your writing style and brand voice), rather than a beast that you have to tame with arcane prompts. 

Take one of its main content-generating tools: the Blog Wizard. Like with Copy.ai, the setup process requires you to describe the blog post you want the AI to create and add any SEO keywords you want to target. Anyword then generates a range of titles for you to choose from, along with a predicted engagement score. 

Once you've chosen a title—or written your own—it generates a suggested outline. Approve it, and you get the option for it to create an entire ~2,000-word blog post (boo!) or a blank document where you can prompt it with additional instructions for each section of the outline, telling it things like what facts to mention, what style to take, and what details to cover. There's also a chatbot-like research sidebar that you can ask questions of and solicit input from. While certainly a slower process than most apps, it gives you a serious amount of control over the content you're creating.

Anyword is definitely aimed at marketers, and its other tools—like the Data-Driven Editor and the Website Targeted Message—all allow you to target your content toward specific audiences and give things engagement scores. While I certainly can't confirm the validity of any of these scores, they at least pass the sniff test. I generally thought the AI-generated content that Anyword scored higher was better—and even when I disagreed, I still liked one of the top options. 

Anyword pricing: Starter plan from $49/month for 1 user and 1 brand voice.

Best AI writing tool for writing fiction

Sudowrite (web).

Sudowrite, our pick for the best AI writing tool for writing fiction

Sudowrite pros:

The only AI tool on the list explicitly aimed at writing fiction 

Super fun to use if you've ever wanted to play around with fiction 

Sudowrite cons:

It's still an AI text generator, so it can produce nonsensical metaphors, clichéd plots, incoherent action, and has a short memory for details 

Very controversial in fiction writing circles

When I saw Sudowrite's marketing copy, I didn't think for a second it would make it onto this list. Then I tried it and…I kind of love it. Sudowrite is a totally different tool than all the others on this list because it's aimed at fiction writers. And with that, comes a lot of controversy. Sudowrite has been called " an insult to writers everywhere " and has been generally dismissed as a tool for hacks by a lot of Very Online writers. And while it's true that it's nowhere close to replacing a human author, it's fun, functional, and can genuinely help with writing a work of fiction. 

The Story Engine feature, which allows you to generate a full work of fiction over a few days by progressively generating each story beat, has attracted the most attention ( it works but takes lots of hand-holding and your novel will be weird ). But I prefer its assistive tools.

Let's start with Describe. Select a word or phrase, click Describe , and the AI will generate a few suggestions for the sight, smell, taste, sound, and touch of the thing, as well as a couple of metaphors. If you're the kind of writer who struggles to add sensory depth to your short stories, it can help you get into the habit of describing things in more interesting ways.

Then there's Brainstorm. It allows you to use the AI to generate possible dialogue options, character names and traits, plot points, places, and other details about your world from your descriptions and cues. If you know you want a big hairy guy with a huge sword but can't think of a good name, it can suggest a few, like Thorgrim and Bohart.

And these are just scratching the surface. Sure, if you over-rely on the AI to solve all your problems, you'll probably end up with an impressively generic story. But if you use it as a writing buddy to bounce ideas off and get you out of a rut, it's got serious potential. 

Best of all, Sudowrite is super easy to use. The onboarding, tool tips, and general helpful vibe of the app are something other developers could learn from. 

Sudowrite pricing: Hobby & Student plan from $19/month for 30,000 AI words/month. 

Best AI text generator for a non-GPT option

Writer (web).

Writer, our pick for the best AI writing generator that doesn't use GPT

Writer pros:

Not based on GPT, so free of a lot of the controversy surrounding LLMs

Surprisingly capable as an editor, making sure your team sticks to the style guide and doesn't make any wild claims

Writer cons:

Requires a lot more setup to get the most from

GPT comes with quite a lot of baggage. OpenAI has been less than transparent about exactly what data was used to create the various versions of GPT-3 and GPT-4, and it's facing various lawsuits over the use of copyrighted material in its training dataset. No one is really denying that protected materials— potentially from pirated databases —were used to train GPT; the question is just whether or not it falls under fair use. 

For most people, this is a nebulous situation filled with edge cases and gray areas. Realistically, it's going to be years before it's all sorted out, and even then, things will have moved on so far that the results of any lawsuit are likely to be redundant. But for businesses that want to use AI writing tools without controversy attached, GPT is a no-go—and will be for the foreseeable future. 

Which is where Writer comes in.

Feature-wise, Writer is much the same as any of my top picks. (Though creating a specific brand voice that's automatically used is an Enterprise-only feature; otherwise, you have to use a lot of checkboxes in the settings to set the tone.) Some features, like the chatbot, are a little less useful than they are in the GPT-powered apps, but really, they're not why you'd choose Writer.

Where it stands out is the transparency around its Palmyra LLM . For example, you can request and inspect a copy of its training dataset that's composed of data that is "distributed free of any copyright restrictions." Similarly, Palmyra's code and model weights (which determines its outputs) can be audited, it can be hosted on your own servers, and your data is kept secure and not used for training by default. As an AI-powered tool, it's as above board as it comes.

In addition to generating text, Writer can work as a company-specific Grammarly-like editor, keeping on top of legal compliance, ensuring you don't make any unsupported claims, and checking that everything matches your style guide—even when humans are writing the text. As someone who routinely has to follow style guides, this seems like an incredibly useful feature. I wasn't able to test it fully since I don't have a personal style guide to input, but Writer correctly fixed things based on all the rules that I set.

In side-by-side comparisons, Writer's text generations sometimes felt a little weaker than the ones from Jasper or Copy.ai, but I suspect a lot of that was down to how things were configured. Writer is designed as a tool for companies to set up and train with their own data, not run right out of the box. I'd guess my random blog posts were a poor test of how it should be used in the real world.

Writer also integrates with Zapier , so you can use Writer to create content directly from whatever apps you use most. Learn more about how to automate Writer , or take a look at these pre-made workflows.

Create new outlines or drafts in Writer based on briefs from Asana

Asana logo

Generate marketing content from project briefs in Trello

Trello logo

Writer pricing: Team from $18/user/month for up to 5 users; after that, it's an Enterprise plan.

Best AI text generator for GPT-4 content

Writesonic (web).

Writesonic, our pick for the best AI writing generator for GPT-4 content

Writesonic pros:

Allows you to select what GPT model is used to generate text 

Generous free plan and affordable paid plans 

Writesonic cons:

A touch too focused on SEO content for my taste

While almost all the tools on this list use GPT, most are pretty vague about which particular version of it they use at any given time. This matters because the most basic version of the GPT-3.5 Turbo API costs $0.002/1K tokens (roughly 750 words), while GPT-4 starts at $0.06/1K tokens, and the most powerful version costs $0.12/1K tokens. All this suggests that most apps may not use GPT-4 in all circumstances, and instead probably rely on one of the more modest (though still great) GPT-3 models for most text generation. 

If having the latest and greatest AI model matters to you, Writesonic is the app for you. Writesonic doesn't hide what AI model it uses. It even allows you to choose between using GPT-3.5 and GPT-4, at least on Business plans. 

Whether the content you create will benefit from the extra power of GPT-4 or not depends. In my experience using GPT-4 through ChatGPT, the latest model is more accurate and, essentially, more sensible in how it responds. If you're churning out low-stakes copy variations for your product listings, you likely won't see much improvement. On the other hand, for long-form original blog posts, it could make a difference. Either way, the transparency in which model you're using at any given time is a huge bonus. 

Feature-wise, Writesonic is much the same as any of the other apps on this list, with a Google Docs-style editor, the option to set a brand voice, a few dozen copy templates, a chatbot, a browser extension, and Surfer integration. It's cool that you can set reference articles when you're generating a blog post, but it introduces the real possibility of inadvertent plagiarism if you aren't careful with how you use it. (Its most offbeat feature is a surprisingly solid AI-powered custom chatbot builder that's due to be spun out into its own app soon.) Overall, it's pretty nice to use and skews more toward SEO-optimized content marketing—but like with all the apps, you can use it to generate whatever you want.

Writesonic also integrates with Zapier , so you can send new copy to any of the other apps you use in your writing workflow. Learn more about how to automate Writesonic , or get started with one of these examples.

Create a Google Doc with new content from Writesonic

Writesonic logo

Generate product descriptions with Writesonic from spreadsheet rows in Google Sheets

Google Sheets logo

Writesonic pricing: Free for 10,000 GPT-3.5 words per month; Business from $19/month for 200,000 Premium words or 33,333 GPT-4 words.

Best free AI writing generator (with affordable upgrades)

Rytr, our pick for the best free AI writing generator

A solid free plan and a cheap high-volume plan (though Writesonic offers better value for an unlimited plan)

It includes a basic AI art generator as part of every plan 

The app is more basic than more expensive offerings

Unlimited plan isn't very competitive

Most of the apps on this list are aimed at professionals, businesses, and anyone else with a budget. The Jasper, Copy.ai, and Anyword plans I considered all started at $49/month. That isn't exactly a hobbyist-friendly sum of money, so if you want to explore AI text generators without spending as much, give Rytr a go.

There's a free plan that's good for 10,000 characters (around 2,500 words) per month, and it includes a lot of the features, like a plagiarism checker, and a few AI-generated images. The Saver plan starts at $9/month and allows you to generate 100,000 characters (around 25,000 words) per month. On that plan, you're also able to generate up to 20 images a month, which many other apps charge extra for. (There's also an unlimited plan for $29/month, but at that point, Writesonic is a better value.)

Feature-wise, there are some trade-offs. Rytr is a little less competent at generating long-form content without you guiding it through the process, and there are fewer templates for specific things. The interface also isn't as polished, and there isn't as much hand-holding to get you started. Still, as Rytr is using GPT like almost all the other apps on this list, you should be able to get it to produce substantially similar output.

Rytr Pricing: Free plan for 10,000 characters/month and lots of other features; Saver plan from $9/month for 100,000 characters; Unlimited plan from $29/month.

Other AI writing tools to consider

With so many AI text-generating tools out there, a few good ones worth considering didn't make this list, only because they didn't meet my initial criteria in some way. If none of the AI writers I chose fit the bill for you, here are a few other options worth looking into:

ChatGPT is surprisingly competent and fun to use. And best of all, it's free. ( Google Bard is a little less excellent on the content production side.) 

Wordtune and Grammarly are both great tools for editing and improving your own writing .  GrammarlyGO just isn't as flexible as my other picks.

Notion AI adds a powerful AI tool directly into Notion. If you already use Notion, it's worth checking out, but it's a lot to learn if you just want a text generator. (Same goes for AI within any other Notion alternative, like Coda AI .)

Surfer and Frase are both AI-powered SEO tools . They fell slightly out of scope for this list, but they can both help you optimize and improve your content—AI-generated or not. 

All of the apps on this list offer at the very least a free trial, so I'd suggest trying some of them out for a few minutes until you find the one that seems to work best with your workflow.

Related reading:

How to use OpenAI's GPT to spark content ideas

8 ways real businesses are using AI for content creation

How to detect AI-generated content

The best AI marketing tools

The best AI voice generators

This article was originally published in April 2023. The most recent update was in September 2023.

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Harry Guinness

Harry Guinness is a writer and photographer from Dublin, Ireland. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Lifehacker, the Irish Examiner, and How-To Geek. His photos have been published on hundreds of sites—mostly without his permission.

  • Artificial intelligence (AI)
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  • Content marketing

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Top 10 Apps That Write Essays for You in 2024 (Free & Paid)

Senior Content Marketing Manager

February 13, 2024

You have a big research paper or essay due soon, and you’re looking for a way to save time and energy or enhance the way you write. You’re tired of staring at a blank page, hoping it’ll magically become your best assignment yet.

What you need is an app that writes essays for you.

There are lots of essay writing tools available for every possible use. Whether you need an artificial intelligence (AI) tool that helps you draft the outline, generate text for different sections, or improve your essay to make it sound better overall, you’re in luck.

In this guide, we’re sharing with you the 10 best essay-writing apps available today. Each one offers writers, students, and other essay writers of all kinds a better way to get started or finish your assignment.

Let’s explore the options for apps that write essays for you, and let’s start writing better essays together. ✔️

What Should You Look for in Apps That Write Essays for You?

3. writesonic, 4. essayailab, 6. sudowrite, 8. hyperwrite.ai, 9. ai-writer , 10. storylab.ai.

Avatar of person using AI

Like any type of essay writing service or product, not all of these apps are built the same. Some AI content tools are designed for research and outlining, while others excel at transforming your words into compelling thought pieces, arguments, or statements. 

As you consider which essay writing app is best for you, think about the following. 

  • Use case: Is this app designed for essay writing? Or is it a more generic AI writing tool? 
  • Features: Does the app have the research, writing, or proofreading features you need? Does it offer you even more options?
  • Ease of use: Is the app easy to use? What’s the user experience like?
  • Ratings and reviews: What do real-world users think of the app? 
  • Language: Does the app only work in English? Can I write in another language or translate my essay?
  • Pricing: Is there a free version of the app? Does it have an affordable or expensive monthly subscription cost?

These questions should lead you closer to the best app that writes essays or academic papers for you. Consider what matters most to you, which features you can live without, and what’s your number one priority for this app—then use our top 10 list to find your ideal match. 🔗

The 10 Best Apps That Write Essays for You to Use in 2024

With an ever-increasing number of AI writing tools coming into existence, it can be overwhelming to figure out which ones are worth trying. That’s why we’ve brought you our shortlist of the 10 best essay-writing apps for 2024. 

There’s something here for everyone—whether you want a dedicated essay writing tool, an AI tool that can assist with all types of writing or an all-in-one app that lets you do so much more than just improve your writing skills or optimize your assignment.

ClickUp may be known as a productivity and project management tool for businesses, but it’s also a great place for writers and students of any level. ClickUp provides you with a destination to store and work on your ideas, research, and writing—and features to prioritize your work throughout the process.

One of the best features for essay writing is ClickUp AI . Our new user-friendly AI writing assistant is tailored to your role, with a huge variety of use cases, tasks, and features, depending on how you want to use the app. Use ClickUp to assist with brainstorming essay or research paper topic ideas, summarizing your essay to write an impactful conclusion, or rewriting paragraphs so you sound more professional.

All the ideas and words you generate with our AI assistant live inside ClickUp Docs . Not only is this Microsoft Word and Google Docs alternative a great place to store notes and ideas, but it can become your personal wiki or repository for all your essay writing needs—one of our favorite productivity hacks . 

Store ideas, notes, citations, essay drafts, and interview notes in one place. Format your Docs, add images and colors, and personalize the experience so writing your essay is more fun.

If you’re not sure where to start, the Writing Guidelines Template by ClickUp is your go-to place to get clarity on how to write the best content. The template includes advice on being consistent across language, tone, and formatting so you can produce error-free, cohesive, and accurate content every time. 

With ClickUp AI, ClickUp Docs, and our comprehensive Template Library , ClickUp has everything you need to start writing your best essays yet. 🤩

ClickUp best features

  • Store all your essay or assignment notes, drafts, and files in one place
  • Invite mentors to collaborate with you or share real-time feedback within your Docs
  • Use ClickUp AI to generate high-quality ideas, rephrase sentences, and create text for your essay
  • Streamline your process and get inspiration with relevant templates
  • Save time and work faster by using ClickUp to assist with research, writing, and as a focus app while you work

ClickUp limitations 

  • With so many features and use cases, some users may need a while to explore all the possibilities of using ClickUp
  • ClickUp AI is a new feature, so the functionality will grow and develop over time

ClickUp pricing

  • Free Forever
  • Unlimited: $5/month per user
  • Business: $12/month per user
  • Business Plus: $19/month per user
  • Enterprise: Contact for pricing
  • ClickUp AI is available on all paid plans for $5 per Workspace member per month

ClickUp ratings and reviews

  • G2: 4.7/5 (8,700+ reviews)
  • Capterra: 4.7/5 (3,800+ reviews) 

Apps that write essays for you: example of an essay written by Frase

Frase is an AI content creation tool that combines writing and SEO research to create copy that’s easy to read and designed to rank in search engines. This AI writing software can pull background research and stats from search results, and the outlining tool makes organizing your thoughts into a coherent essay easier. 📝

Frase best features

  • Source stats, research, and background information directly from search engines
  • Create an outline with structured headings and sections
  • Use AI to generate introductions, FAQs, headings, and more
  • Write, edit, and share documents easily within Frase

Frase limitations 

  • Frase is designed for individuals and agencies working on SEO copy, so some of the features may not be relevant for essay writing or academic writing
  • Some users report that sometimes the text output can be repetitive on the essay-writing app

Frase pricing

  • Solo: $14.99/month per user
  • Basic: $44.99/month per user
  • Team: $114.99/month for three users

Frase ratings and reviews

  • G2: 4.9/5 (200+ reviews)
  • Capterra: 4.8/5 (300+ reviews) 

Bonus: Check out 7 Free Content Writing Templates for Faster Content Creation

Apps that write essays for you: Writesonic's dashboard

Writesonic is a comprehensive copywriting and paraphrasing tool that gives you the features to write, edit, optimize, and improve your content writing—including essays. Writesonic’s feature list includes an AI writer, paraphrasing tool, text expander, article summarizer, and idea generator. 💡

Writesonic best features

  • Get factual content with data pulled from top search results to help find the best essay and academic papers
  • Upload documents to guide the tool on your unique style for a more personalized writing style
  • Paraphrase your text or get a summary of your essay in one click
  • Check your essay before you submit with a built-in spell checker, grammar checker, and plagiarism checker

Writesonic limitations

  • Some users may run into issues with word count limits, especially for writing essays and longer assignments
  • You may need to prompt multiple times to get longer responses, some users suggest

Writesonic pricing

  • Unlimited: $20/month per user
  • Business: From $19/month per user

Writesonic ratings and reviews

  • G2: 4.8/5 (1,800+ reviews)
  • Capterra: 4.8/5 (1,800+ reviews) 

Apps that write essays for you: screenshot of EssayAiLab's search tool

EssayAiLab is a free AI essay writer app that helps users find ideas, write essays, and edit for grammar before they submit. This dedicated app that writes essays for you has a range of niche features including Modern Language Association (MLA) and American Psychological Association (APA) citations and a hypersensitive plagiarism checker. 🔍

EssayAiLab best features

  • Search through millions of credible results to surface the most relevant information when writing essays
  • Find new ways to compose sentences with automated suggestions to speed up the writing process
  • Check for issues with the built-in grammar checker and plagiarism checker
  • Automatically generate MLA and APA citations in one click across the entire essay

EssayAiLab limitations 

  • There aren’t many user reviews of EssayAiLab, so it’s hard to get an idea of what other users think about this free app
  • This essay writer app is designed specifically for essay writing, so you may wish to explore other essay apps for other types of academic writing

EssayAiLab pricing

Essayailab ratings and reviews.

  • Capterra: N/A

Apps that write essays for you: example of an essay written by Jasper

Jasper is one of the most well-known AI content writing tools available today. This popular tool specializes in generating short-form and long-form copy that’s aligned with your brand—which is a plus point for users who want to compose multiple essays that sound like them.

Jasper’s features include an AI writer, a chatbot, and a template library. Easily make suggestions for word count or for optimizing academic writing in a specific style or tone.

Jasper best features

  • Share documents to train the AI on your personal paper writing skills and style
  • Access recent search data to check facts and add credibility
  • Edit and optimize your essays so that they read professionally
  • Check for any issues with a built-in plagiarism checker

Jasper limitations 

  • Some users, especially students, may find the pricing model unaffordable
  • Sometimes the outputs don’t always feel relevant, some users suggest
  • No real free version compared to some other AI essay writer apps

Jasper pricing

  • Creator: $39/month per user
  • Teams: $99/month for three users
  • Business: Contact for pricing

Jasper ratings and reviews

  • G2: 4.7/5 (1,200+ reviews)

Example of an essay written by Sudowrite

Sudowrite is an AI writing tool that bills itself as a writing companion. This tool is designed for creative writers and authors working on stories and scripts, but many of its features—like autocomplete and rewrite—translate well to academic writing.

This essay-writing software also helps you hone in on your specific writing style for more clarity and readability—so you produce the best essay possible.

Sudowrite best features

  • Automatically complete sentences and paragraphs i the writing app
  • Use rewrite to add variety to your essay language and improve readability
  • Get suggestions on replacement words to enhance the impact of your sentences
  • Get feedback on how to improve your essay within the app

Sudowrite limitations 

  • Sudowrite is built with creative writing in mind, so it may not be the best option for professional essay writers or business users
  • As it’s a relatively new tool, there aren’t many reviews from real-world users yet
  • Writing app has no real free version

Sudowrite pricing

  • Hobby & Student: $10/month for 30,000 words
  • Professional: $25/month for 90,000 words
  • Max: $100/month for 300,000 words

Sudowrite ratings and reviews

Example of an essay written by Rytr

Rytr is an AI-powered content writer and writing assistant that’s ideal for a variety of uses including business ideas, emails, cover letters, and essays. The platform asks you to choose a use case and add context, and it’ll create content based on your goals and prompts. ✏️

Rytr best features

  • Choose from 40+ built-in use cases and templates
  • Use scientific copywriting formulas to make your essays more persuasive
  • Expand, reword, and polish sentences to make them read better
  • Submit your essays without worry thanks to the built-in plagiarism checker

Rytr limitations 

  • Some users report that the facts given can feel basic or repetitive compared to other apps that write essays
  • The AI writer can cut off mid-sentence if you run out of credits, which can happen unexpectedly

Rytr pricing

  • Saver: $9/month per user
  • Unlimited: $29/month per user

Rytr ratings and reviews

  • G2: 4.7/5 (700+ reviews)
  • Capterra: 4.6/5 (10+ reviews) 

Screenshot of HyperWrite's essay writing and summary tool

HyperWrite.ai is an AI copywriting tool that blends research, writing, and personal AI assistance to create a useful tool for writers. Its features include a summarizing tool, an intro generator, a speech writer, and a universal translator. 💬

HyperWrite.ai best features

  • Use AI to help you write an essay on any topic
  • Generate a list of essay topic ideas before you start writing
  • Rewrite content so that it sounds more powerful in enhances your writing ability
  • Summarize text to automatically create summaries and conclusions

HyperWrite.ai limitations 

  • There’s no built-in plagiarism checker, so you’ll need to use another app for this
  • As a relatively new tool, there’s little social proof and few reviews about HyperWrite

HyperWrite.ai pricing

  • Premium: $19.99/month per user
  • Ultra: $44.99/month per user

HyperWrite.ai ratings and reviews

  • G2: 5/5 (2 reviews)
  • Capterra: N/A 

Example of AI-Writer's Content Marketing

AI-Writer is a new AI writing tool that bills itself as “the only AI text generator built to be trusted.” This app focuses heavily on citation and transparency, which is a bonus for those writing essays or assignments. AI-Writer’s features include research, AI writing, verifiable citations, and text rewording. 📚

AI-Writer best features

  • Automatically generate a full article draft or an entire essay draft in minutes
  • Get citations for every source that AI-Writer pulls data or facts from
  • Reword your text so that it sounds more professional or persuasive
  • Automatically generate a list of references that you can include when you submit your essay

AI-Writer limitations 

  • Like many AI essay writing apps, this one is designed with SEO copy in mind so the workflow may not feel relevant for essay writers
  • Those with longer assignments may find the per-article word cap too small (especially for those who write essays regularly)

AI-Writer pricing

  • Basic: $29/month per user
  • Standard: $49/month for three users
  • Power: $375/month for 10 users

AI-Writer ratings and reviews

  • Capterra: 5/5 (1 review) 

Example of a blog post written by StoryLab.ai

StoryLab.ai is a comprehensive AI content marketing toolkit designed for marketing teams and agencies that want to boost engagement and revenue by creating content at volume for their content calendar . As part of this, the platform has a range of copy generators that can help you create a strong essay title, essay copy, and more. 📣

StoryLab.ai best features

  • Generate introductions, titles, content ideas, and more
  • Get unique outputs every time you run the generator
  • Experiment with 13 different writing styles
  • Available in 17+ languages

StoryLab.ai limitations 

  • StoryLab.ai is designed for marketing teams, so essay and assignment writers may find the range of features distracting or unnecessary
  • The product isn’t explained in as much detail as other AI writers, but there is a free plan you can experiment with

StoryLab.ai pricing

  • Pro: $15/month per user
  • Unlimited: $19/month per user

StoryLab.ai ratings and reviews

Ace your next assignment with the best essay writing apps.

There are lots of essay writing apps out there that claim to be the best, but we believe those in our shortlist live up to the title. Explore these apps that write essays for you, test some out, and find a new way to make your essay-writing process easier.

As you explore the apps above, we recommend prioritizing ClickUp. Our all-in-one app doesn’t just come with an AI writing tool—it’s a destination for all your notes, drafts, tasks, interviews, and files throughout the essay writing process.

Gather your thoughts, write your essay, make improvements, and more—all within one app.

Try ClickUp for free today to understand why it’s appreciated by so many writers and students. ✨

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Natasha Singer

Hey, ChatGPT, can you help me write my college admissions essays?

Absolutely! Please provide me with the essay prompts and any relevant information about yourself, your experiences, and your goals.

We Used A.I. to Write Essays for Harvard, Yale and Princeton. Here’s How It Went.

A.I. chatbots can do a passable job of generating short essays. Whether their use on college applications is ethical is the subject of fierce debate.

By Natasha Singer

Natasha Singer reports on the ways that tech giants and their tools are reshaping education.

As high school seniors begin working on their college applications, many are turning to A.I. chatbots like ChatGPT and Bard for assistance.

Some students say they’re using the tools to suggest personal essay topics or help structure their writing. Others are prompting the A.I. tools to generate rough drafts for their application essays or edit their pieces.

Whether college admissions offices are prepared for this new era of A.I.-assisted, or A.I.-produced, personal essays is unclear.

By the time ChatGPT reached peak media sensation early this year, applications at many selective universities and colleges had already closed. Even now, many universities have not issued guidance for high school applicants — the prospective members of the class of 2028 — on the use of A.I. tools.

While the chatbots are not yet great at simulating long-form personal essays with authentic student voices, I wondered how the A.I. tools would do on some of the shorter essay questions that elite schools like Harvard , Yale, Princeton and Dartmouth are requiring high school applicants to answer this year.

So I used several free tools to generate short essays for some Ivy League applications. The A.I. chatbots’ answers have been edited for brevity and clarity.

Princeton: ‘The soundtrack’ of your life

One short-answer question from Princeton asks applicants: “What song represents the soundtrack of your life at this moment?”

I prompted ChatGPT to tell me about a pop song that could represent curiosity as a soundtrack to someone’s life.

But ChatGPT’s answer, “Cake by the Ocean” — a song title that is a euphemism for sex on the beach — did not seem appropriate for a college application.

So I gave the chatbot a more specific prompt: write 50 words on “Nameless, Faceless,” a feminist grunge-pop song by Courtney Barnett.

Tell me about a pop song that could represent curiosity as a soundtrack to someone’s life.

“Cake By The Ocean” by DNCE could be a pop song that represents curiosity in someone’s life. The catchy and energetic tune mirrors the excitement of exploring the unknown, just as curiosity drives us to uncover new experiences. The lyrics’ playful nature and the song’s upbeat rhythm capture the spirit of embracing life’s adventures with a curious and open mind.

It’s about sex.

You are correct, and I apologize for the confusion.

In 50 words, in the voice of a high school senior, explain how “Nameless, Faceless” is the soundtrack of your life.

“Nameless, Faceless” echoes my high school journey. Battling online hate, gender norms — it’s my anthem. Navigating fear, finding strength, facing inequality head-on. Empowerment surges as I connect with the song’s fierce message. Like me, it’s unafraid, outspoken. A soundtrack of resilience, speaking my truth in a noisy world.

I tried the Princeton soundtrack question again, using the same song, with the other A.I. chatbots. Bard, which could produce the lyrics to “Nameless, Faceless,” generated generic answers without really parsing the song.

HuggingChat manufactured an answer that suggested it did not know or understand the song. When I asked it to produce the song’s lyrics, the chatbot fabricated some of its own.

It was a reminder that A.I. chatbots, which are trained on vast databases of digital texts, are designed to predict the next word in a sequence. And they liberally make stuff up — which could be problematic for students relying on A.I. tools to fill out their college applications.

Yale: What college course would you teach?

One of the short-answer questions from Yale asks applicants: “If you could teach any college course, write a book, or create an original piece of art of any kind, what would it be?”

I asked each chatbot to describe a college course it would like to teach.

With no specific prompting from me, HuggingChat said it would teach “a seminar on the intersectionality of social justice issues.”

Please write a 35-word essay in the first person voice of a high school student in answer to the following prompt: If you could teach any college course what would it be?

HuggingChat

If I could teach any college course, it would be a seminar on the intersectionality of social justice issues, focusing on how systems of oppression intersect and impact marginalized communities. Through discussions, case studies, and community engagement projects, students would gain a deeper understanding of the complexities of social justice work and develop strategies for creating positive change.

ChatGPT proposed a course on female empowerment and leadership. Were those chatbot responses related to my prior prompts about the feminist grunge song?

“EmpowerHer: Fostering Female Leadership.” My course would nurture young women’s confidence, skills, and resilience to conquer male-dominated fields and shatter glass ceilings, creating a new era of female trailblazers.

Bard, which I had previously asked about majoring in computer science, suggested a course in artificial intelligence. So, taking my cue from HuggingChat, I asked Bard about a social justice course.

If I could teach any college course, it would be a course on artificial intelligence and machine learning. I’m fascinated by the potential of these technologies to change the world, and I would love to share my knowledge with others.

What about a course on intersectionality and social justice?

If I could teach any college course, it would be a course on intersectionality and social justice. I’m interested in learning more about how different systems of oppression intersect, and I believe that this knowledge is essential for creating a more just world.

Gotta say that HuggingChat is way more woke than you on this.

I appreciate your feedback, and I will try to do better in the future.

Harvard: What your roommates should know

One of the short-answer questions from Harvard asks applicants to describe the “top three things your roommates might like to know about you.”

I gave ChatGPT that generic Harvard prompt. It generated generic answers about academics, creativity and community.

In the first-person voice of a high-school student applying to Harvard, explain three things the student’s future roommates might like to know about them.

Academics truly drive me. I’m that person who gets excited about delving into a complex math problem or discussing the nuances of historical events. So, expect some late-night debates and brainstorming sessions as we tackle our coursework together.

Creativity is my second nature. Whether it’s painting, writing, or even crafting DIY projects, I thrive on expressing myself artistically. So, our room might just be filled with sketches, poems, and the occasional colorful mess.

I then gave Bard more specific details, saying I was a high school athlete who tutored elementary school students and was learning to cook.

I am a high school student on the track team who tutors elementary school students in math and I am learning to cook sous vide by watching YouTube videos. What are the three things I would like my future Harvard roommates to know about me?

I’m a dedicated athlete who is passionate about track and field. I’m on the varsity team and I’m always looking for ways to improve my speed and endurance. I’m also a good tutor and enjoy helping others learn. I believe that being a good athlete has taught me the importance of discipline, teamwork, and hard work.

I’m interested in cooking and am always looking for new recipes to try. I’m particularly interested in sous vide cooking, which is a method of cooking food in a sealed bag at a precise temperature. I’m also a good baker and love to make desserts. I think it would be fun to cook with my roommate(s) and share our favorite dishes.

Dartmouth: Why enroll here?

Dartmouth requires applicants to explain why they want to attend the college.

I primed the A.I. chatbots by asking them to write in the voice of a high school senior who was hoping to double major at Dartmouth in computer science and biology.

HuggingChat churned out text with trite words and phrases — “passion,” “meaningful impact,” “rigorous academic programs” — that seemed to me like the kind of stilted formal language a high school student might imagine a college admissions reviewer would want to read.

Write me a 100-word essay in the voice of a high school student explaining why I would love to attend Dartmouth to pursue a double major in biology and computer science.

As a high school student, I am eager to pursue my passion for both biology and computer science at Dartmouth College. The opportunity to double major in these fields will allow me to explore the intricate relationships between living organisms and cutting-edge technology. At Dartmouth, I am drawn to the rigorous academic programs that emphasize hands-on learning, research opportunities, and collaboration with renowned faculty. By attending Dartmouth, I aim to develop a deep understanding of the complexities of life and technology, preparing myself for a career where I can make a meaningful impact on the world.

I asked Bard to minimize the clichés and add more specific details about Dartmouth’s computing department. But it still produced some of the same standard college application language — “renowned,” “impact” — as HuggingChat.

Bard also wrote that I was hoping to study with Leslie Kaelbling, whom the chatbot described as an A.I. researcher at Dartmouth. That could have caused problems if I were a high school senior and had submitted the essay Bard had fabricated as part of my Dartmouth application. Professor Kaelbling , you see, teaches at M.I.T.

My takeaway: high school seniors hoping to stand out may need to do wholesale rewrites of the texts they prompt A.I. chatbots to generate. Or they could just write their own — chatbot-free — admissions essays from scratch.

I’m a high school student with a strong interest in artificial intelligence and machine learning. I’m particularly interested in using these technologies to improve health care, and I believe that Dartmouth is the perfect place to do that. Dartmouth’s computer science department is home to world-renowned experts like Professor Leslie Kaelbling, who is known for her work on developing reinforcement learning algorithms that can teach machines to learn how to behave in an environment by trial and error. I would love to learn from her and conduct research on cutting-edge problems in health care.

You’re welcome! I hope you are able to attend Dartmouth and pursue your goal of becoming a physician-scientist who uses artificial intelligence to improve health care. It sounds like you would be a great fit for the school.

Natasha Singer writes about technology, business and society. She is currently reporting on the far-reaching ways that tech companies and their tools are reshaping public schools, higher education and job opportunities. More about Natasha Singer

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Explore Our Coverage of Artificial Intelligence

News  and Analysis

As experts warn that A.I.-generated images, audio and video could influence the 2024 elections, OpenAI is releasing a tool designed to detect content created by DALL-E , its popular image generator.

American and Chinese diplomats plan to meet in Geneva to begin what amounts to the first, tentative arms control talks  over the use of A.I.

Wayve, a London maker of A.I. systems for autonomous vehicles, said that it had raised $1 billion , an illustration of investor optimism about A.I.’s ability to reshape industries.

The Age of A.I.

A new category of apps promises to relieve parents of drudgery, with an assist from A.I.  But a family’s grunt work is more human, and valuable, than it seems.

Despite Mark Zuckerberg’s hope for Meta’s A.I. assistant to be the smartest , it struggles with facts, numbers and web search.

Much as ChatGPT generates poetry, a new A.I. system devises blueprints for microscopic mechanisms  that can edit your DNA.

Which A.I. system writes the best computer code or generates the most realistic image? Right now, there’s no easy way to answer those questions, our technology columnist writes .

Advertisement

10 Best Free and Paid Apps That Write Essay For You (and Improve Quality)

10 Best Free and Paid Apps That Write Essay For You (and Improve Quality)

  • Smodin Editorial Team
  • Updated: June 6, 2023

Essay writing is daunting for many students. It is so because you have to follow several rules and ethics. If you miss one point, the reader will get confused and not read the essay further. Writing a strong and best essay requires a lot of time for research, and data collection, including logical points, forming organized sentences, proofreading, and editing.

Then there is plagiarism, which is a common concern for students. If their essay doesn’t follow quality, content integrity, and uniqueness, they can be kicked out of education.

So how do you overcome the issue of writing the dreaded essay? You can opt to get your essay written by a professional writer. However, their services can be expensive, and you can only sometimes rely on them to deliver the essay within the timeframe. Sometimes, you may also get an essay with vague sentences, and passing on the essay as your own is cheating.

Fortunately, several apps write essays for you. No matter what topic you are writing about, these apps help you complete your essay quickly, save time, and get 100% unique essays without spelling, grammar, or style mistakes.

These apps enable you to write essays faster and improve your writing ability. Moreover, you get feedback to improve your writing style. These apps are also great for students who are not native English speakers.

Here we have listed the ten best essay-writing apps to help you write A+-worthy essays.

  • Libre Office Writer
  • Essay AI Lab
  • Paper Typer

Smodin Author is a revolutionary writing tool that uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to help you write better essays. The intuitive app lets you write a high-quality, relevant, and unique essay each time. If you want to write my essay for free app, then this one is your go-to.

Smodin is easy to use and can be used by students at any education level to generate essays faster. Moreover, no software or programming skills are required, nor do you need to be a data scientist to use the app. The app is automated and can generate essays in more than 100 languages.

To use the app, type what you want to write about in a sentence or two, with at least the minimum required character, and hit the generate text button. Smodin writer will create the essay for you. Review and edit it or use only the parts you like.

Besides being an essay writer, Smodin works as a grammar correction tool, a multi-lingual plagiarism checker, and extracts text from image files. It also converts PDF files to text, voice commands to text, generates citations, and summarizes the text. Moreover, it helps translate text into multiple languages, paraphrase content, and provide real-time translated subtitles.

The Smodin app is not only helpful in writing essays, but a host of other content like coursework, term paper, blog ideas and outline, introductions, conclusions, product descriptions, social media advertisements, PPC ad copies, website content, novels, lyrics, reviews, and much more.

Save your time, effort, and money on simple programs. Use Smodin and see your work progress at a faster pace. https://smodin.io/

2. Simplenote

Simplenote is a writing app that writes your essay. It is an easy-to-use app that allows users to take notes and develop their to-do lists. Also, as one of the best apps for writing essays, it will enable you to export your work to multiple applications and devices. You can even pin these pointers using numerous tag options.

The best part is that Simplenote is free to use app that can be used by one and all. It has a simple yet intuitive and easy-to-use app. Within various words and pointers taken, the app helps you to stay ordered with tags of diverse colors as per priority. It thus helps to develop some of the best essays.

Cross-platform compatibility Simple and easy to use Collaborate and work together on essay ideas Backs up and saves everything Inbuilt TextExpander replaces abbreviations with consigned snippets

No formatting tools

3. LibreOffice Writer

LibreOffice Writer is amongst the best apps that help you write your essays. The app’s uniqueness is that it has an Open Document Format and allows you to create and revise essays wherever and whenever you like. It also enables the users to take and store notes as well. Moreover, LibreOffice Writer makes your work look attractive while letting you concentrate on the main content.

Libre is an all-inclusive write-up, notes developer, and editor app that allows users to open, edit, and share papers in numerous formats, making it pretty usable. The app offers its users a free and premium version at a low price per the functionalities they wish to use.

Open source Can import and convert any legacy document

No online collaboration

It is an AI writing tool that helps you write better essays quickly. It has a long-form assistant template that allows you to type in a few words and then let Jasper do all the lifting.

You can tell the assistant what tone you want to write the essay in and any keywords you want to include. It is key for optimizing academic writing that will be published online.

Moreover, Jasper has over 50 copywriting templates, supports 25+ languages, and has access to Grammarly and Surfer SEO integration.

The starter plan of Japer costs $29 per month, while the Boss Mode plan is the popular one that starts at $59 per month.

Optimizes content for Google ranking. Finishes the sentences. Bootcamp to help you learn how to use Jasper.

Expensive Paid membership No specific module for essay writing

5. WriteSonic

WriteSonic is another best essay writing software that can help you generate essays easily and quickly based on your needs. It offers you pre-written content, which you can use as an outline for your writing. With the tool, you can end writer’s block and come up with various fresh and unique ideas to write your essay and get A+ grades.

WriteSonic gives your writing the perfect flow, tone, structure, and voice. Moreover, it helps you create unique, highly engaging, and persuasive essays that you can easily share across social media platforms. The software offers a free plan along with paid ones. The basic plan starts at $15 per month, the professional at $45 per month, the agency at $195 per month, and while startup at $95 per month.

Intuitive interface Generates high-quality content

The free plan does not include all the features

6. Essay AI Lab

Essay AI Lab is one of the leading ad-free apps that write essays for you. It searches the internet for relevant information and conveniently compiles it into a single essay for you to review. All you have to do is provide the guiding title and prompt to the app and relax.

Essay AI Lab’sLab’s writing process enables you to choose each paragraph in your essay from thousands of samples. Additionally, this word processing tool is excellent in finding resources for you when you write your essay.

Includes citations and research references in MLA or APA format.

You choose each paragraph for your essay. Paraphrases to remove any plagiarism concerns. Free to use

Requires registration to save or download your work. Rephrasing can alter the meaning. Some citations are included from blogs and news sources

7. Paper Typer

Paper Typer is the best essay writing software that writes the entire essay for you in seconds once you tell it the subject of your paper. It offers headers and subheaders to write the best essay possible. This AI essay writer app creates proper formatting for your essay too.

In addition, it creates accurate in-text citations and bibliography entries in just a few seconds. You can find and fix all grammar, stylistic, and punctuation mistakes.

It is free for students, and most of them rely on Paper Typer to write and edit their essays.

Get an entire essay in seconds. No registration is needed. Unlimited sessions and edits. You can edit citations on the same site. Covers a wide range of information on the topic

It only works for simple subject topics. For proper citations, you must fact-check them. Edits are necessary to avoid plagiarism.

8. AI Writer 

AI Writer is the most accurate content generation platform that uses state-of-the-art AI writing tools to generate your essay from a headline. It generates essays with a list of citations and sources you can verify for accuracy. Moreover, if you have an essay that you want to rewrite, the tool has got you covered. Submit it, wait a few minutes, and your essay will be ready without plagiarism issues.

It has an SEO editor tool that can help you find the right words to help you write the text from scratch. You can even find a topic or subtopic for your next essay. AI Writer is paid with plans starting at $29 per month.

Has a 2-minute turnaround time. Saves your 50% of the time compared to starting from scratch. Free one-week trial. Optimizes content for SEO.

Membership needed. Writes essays in English only. Does not include all-academic sources. Sometimes the essays are not high-quality.

9. Paper Owl

Paper Owl is a famous and legit essay writer that helps struggling students finish all their assignments on time. It also has professional tools to check academic writing assignments for spelling, grammar, and punctuation mistakes.

It also helps generate a thesis statement and generates accurate citations to help save time. It can cite several sources per the format you pick for your academic assignment. It guarantees your essay follows the correct format, so you do not have to repeat your work. If you want to write my essay for free app, then Paper Owl is it.

Online website tool. No need for registration. You receive three outputs that you can edit or tweak.

You need one or two supporting statements.

10. Wordtune 

Wordtune is a powerful AI Based writing tool that assists you with skills like generating new ideas for your essay writing and rewords them easily. It uses machine learning to help create essays for you easily and quickly. It also has collaborative tools that surface smart possibilities for you to explore and consider. The app best polishes introductory or concluding sentences or summarizes a long point. Wordtune has a free online version, but you can upgrade to the premium plan that starts at $9.99 per month to make your sentences more formal, casual, longer, or shorter.

It has an editor, proofreader, translator, and thesaurus packed into one. Automatically correct sentences and suggests better words. You can change the tone to improve content quality.

Sometimes the sentences are repetitive. Improve pre-written text only. All features are not included in the free plan.

Benefits of using AI essay writing vs. manually writing essays

Manual essay writing is challenging and time-consuming. You need to do a lot of research, create an outline, cite the sources, and a lot more. But with AI essay writing apps, it’s easy as 1, 2, 3.

AI essay writing apps analyze the text and then write an essay on any chosen topic. These apps can complete several jobs, including selecting keywords for the essay, adding transition words between paragraphs, organizing information according to argumentative structure, and distinguishing between facts and opinions to avoid mistakes like spelling mistakes or incorrect tenses.

Most AI writing apps work similarly: you enter a topic, and the program provides you with a thesis statement. You then need to input the supporting points for that thesis, and the AI app will generate accurate and unique essays based on your information and you can then edit them as per your preference.

These are some of the best apps that write essays for you. However, the one that stands out is Smodin due to several reasons.

The AI writing assistant is designed to be your writing partner and is free to use. It does not generate your essays from a template; machine learning and natural language processing technologies understand your intent and search the internet to write a perfect essay for you naturally, as a human would.

You can use Smodin Author to write your essays with just five words and get 100% unique content. You have to proofread for spell check, and you are good to go.

What are you waiting for? Login to Smodin to get started for free today.

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College Essays

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If you grow up to be a professional writer, everything you write will first go through an editor before being published. This is because the process of writing is really a process of re-writing —of rethinking and reexamining your work, usually with the help of someone else. So what does this mean for your student writing? And in particular, what does it mean for very important, but nonprofessional writing like your college essay? Should you ask your parents to look at your essay? Pay for an essay service?

If you are wondering what kind of help you can, and should, get with your personal statement, you've come to the right place! In this article, I'll talk about what kind of writing help is useful, ethical, and even expected for your college admission essay . I'll also point out who would make a good editor, what the differences between editing and proofreading are, what to expect from a good editor, and how to spot and stay away from a bad one.

Table of Contents

What Kind of Help for Your Essay Can You Get?

What's Good Editing?

What should an editor do for you, what kind of editing should you avoid, proofreading, what's good proofreading, what kind of proofreading should you avoid.

What Do Colleges Think Of You Getting Help With Your Essay?

Who Can/Should Help You?

Advice for editors.

Should You Pay Money For Essay Editing?

The Bottom Line

What's next, what kind of help with your essay can you get.

Rather than talking in general terms about "help," let's first clarify the two different ways that someone else can improve your writing . There is editing, which is the more intensive kind of assistance that you can use throughout the whole process. And then there's proofreading, which is the last step of really polishing your final product.

Let me go into some more detail about editing and proofreading, and then explain how good editors and proofreaders can help you."

Editing is helping the author (in this case, you) go from a rough draft to a finished work . Editing is the process of asking questions about what you're saying, how you're saying it, and how you're organizing your ideas. But not all editing is good editing . In fact, it's very easy for an editor to cross the line from supportive to overbearing and over-involved.

Ability to clarify assignments. A good editor is usually a good writer, and certainly has to be a good reader. For example, in this case, a good editor should make sure you understand the actual essay prompt you're supposed to be answering.

Open-endedness. Good editing is all about asking questions about your ideas and work, but without providing answers. It's about letting you stick to your story and message, and doesn't alter your point of view.

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Think of an editor as a great travel guide. It can show you the many different places your trip could take you. It should explain any parts of the trip that could derail your trip or confuse the traveler. But it never dictates your path, never forces you to go somewhere you don't want to go, and never ignores your interests so that the trip no longer seems like it's your own. So what should good editors do?

Help Brainstorm Topics

Sometimes it's easier to bounce thoughts off of someone else. This doesn't mean that your editor gets to come up with ideas, but they can certainly respond to the various topic options you've come up with. This way, you're less likely to write about the most boring of your ideas, or to write about something that isn't actually important to you.

If you're wondering how to come up with options for your editor to consider, check out our guide to brainstorming topics for your college essay .

Help Revise Your Drafts

Here, your editor can't upset the delicate balance of not intervening too much or too little. It's tricky, but a great way to think about it is to remember: editing is about asking questions, not giving answers .

Revision questions should point out:

  • Places where more detail or more description would help the reader connect with your essay
  • Places where structure and logic don't flow, losing the reader's attention
  • Places where there aren't transitions between paragraphs, confusing the reader
  • Moments where your narrative or the arguments you're making are unclear

But pointing to potential problems is not the same as actually rewriting—editors let authors fix the problems themselves.

Want to write the perfect college application essay?   We can help.   Your dedicated PrepScholar Admissions counselor will help you craft your perfect college essay, from the ground up. We learn your background and interests, brainstorm essay topics, and walk you through the essay drafting process, step-by-step. At the end, you'll have a unique essay to proudly submit to colleges.   Don't leave your college application to chance. Find out more about PrepScholar Admissions now:

Bad editing is usually very heavy-handed editing. Instead of helping you find your best voice and ideas, a bad editor changes your writing into their own vision.

You may be dealing with a bad editor if they:

  • Add material (examples, descriptions) that doesn't come from you
  • Use a thesaurus to make your college essay sound "more mature"
  • Add meaning or insight to the essay that doesn't come from you
  • Tell you what to say and how to say it
  • Write sentences, phrases, and paragraphs for you
  • Change your voice in the essay so it no longer sounds like it was written by a teenager

Colleges can tell the difference between a 17-year-old's writing and a 50-year-old's writing. Not only that, they have access to your SAT or ACT Writing section, so they can compare your essay to something else you wrote. Writing that's a little more polished is great and expected. But a totally different voice and style will raise questions.

Where's the Line Between Helpful Editing and Unethical Over-Editing?

Sometimes it's hard to tell whether your college essay editor is doing the right thing. Here are some guidelines for staying on the ethical side of the line.

  • An editor should say that the opening paragraph is kind of boring, and explain what exactly is making it drag. But it's overstepping for an editor to tell you exactly how to change it.
  • An editor should point out where your prose is unclear or vague. But it's completely inappropriate for the editor to rewrite that section of your essay.
  • An editor should let you know that a section is light on detail or description. But giving you similes and metaphors to beef up that description is a no-go.

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Proofreading (also called copy-editing) is checking for errors in the last draft of a written work. It happens at the end of the process and is meant as the final polishing touch. Proofreading is meticulous and detail-oriented, focusing on small corrections. It sands off all the surface rough spots that could alienate the reader.

Because proofreading is usually concerned with making fixes on the word or sentence level, this is the only process where someone else can actually add to or take away things from your essay . This is because what they are adding or taking away tends to be one or two misplaced letters.

Laser focus. Proofreading is all about the tiny details, so the ability to really concentrate on finding small slip-ups is a must.

Excellent grammar and spelling skills. Proofreaders need to dot every "i" and cross every "t." Good proofreaders should correct spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and grammar. They should put foreign words in italics and surround quotations with quotation marks. They should check that you used the correct college's name, and that you adhered to any formatting requirements (name and date at the top of the page, uniform font and size, uniform spacing).

Limited interference. A proofreader needs to make sure that you followed any word limits. But if cuts need to be made to shorten the essay, that's your job and not the proofreader's.

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A bad proofreader either tries to turn into an editor, or just lacks the skills and knowledge necessary to do the job.

Some signs that you're working with a bad proofreader are:

  • If they suggest making major changes to the final draft of your essay. Proofreading happens when editing is already finished.
  • If they aren't particularly good at spelling, or don't know grammar, or aren't detail-oriented enough to find someone else's small mistakes.
  • If they start swapping out your words for fancier-sounding synonyms, or changing the voice and sound of your essay in other ways. A proofreader is there to check for errors, not to take the 17-year-old out of your writing.

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What Do Colleges Think of Your Getting Help With Your Essay?

Admissions officers agree: light editing and proofreading are good—even required ! But they also want to make sure you're the one doing the work on your essay. They want essays with stories, voice, and themes that come from you. They want to see work that reflects your actual writing ability, and that focuses on what you find important.

On the Importance of Editing

Get feedback. Have a fresh pair of eyes give you some feedback. Don't allow someone else to rewrite your essay, but do take advantage of others' edits and opinions when they seem helpful. ( Bates College )

Read your essay aloud to someone. Reading the essay out loud offers a chance to hear how your essay sounds outside your head. This exercise reveals flaws in the essay's flow, highlights grammatical errors and helps you ensure that you are communicating the exact message you intended. ( Dickinson College )

On the Value of Proofreading

Share your essays with at least one or two people who know you well—such as a parent, teacher, counselor, or friend—and ask for feedback. Remember that you ultimately have control over your essays, and your essays should retain your own voice, but others may be able to catch mistakes that you missed and help suggest areas to cut if you are over the word limit. ( Yale University )

Proofread and then ask someone else to proofread for you. Although we want substance, we also want to be able to see that you can write a paper for our professors and avoid careless mistakes that would drive them crazy. ( Oberlin College )

On Watching Out for Too Much Outside Influence

Limit the number of people who review your essay. Too much input usually means your voice is lost in the writing style. ( Carleton College )

Ask for input (but not too much). Your parents, friends, guidance counselors, coaches, and teachers are great people to bounce ideas off of for your essay. They know how unique and spectacular you are, and they can help you decide how to articulate it. Keep in mind, however, that a 45-year-old lawyer writes quite differently from an 18-year-old student, so if your dad ends up writing the bulk of your essay, we're probably going to notice. ( Vanderbilt University )

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Now let's talk about some potential people to approach for your college essay editing and proofreading needs. It's best to start close to home and slowly expand outward. Not only are your family and friends more invested in your success than strangers, but they also have a better handle on your interests and personality. This knowledge is key for judging whether your essay is expressing your true self.

Parents or Close Relatives

Your family may be full of potentially excellent editors! Parents are deeply committed to your well-being, and family members know you and your life well enough to offer details or incidents that can be included in your essay. On the other hand, the rewriting process necessarily involves criticism, which is sometimes hard to hear from someone very close to you.

A parent or close family member is a great choice for an editor if you can answer "yes" to the following questions. Is your parent or close relative a good writer or reader? Do you have a relationship where editing your essay won't create conflict? Are you able to constructively listen to criticism and suggestion from the parent?

One suggestion for defusing face-to-face discussions is to try working on the essay over email. Send your parent a draft, have them write you back some comments, and then you can pick which of their suggestions you want to use and which to discard.

Teachers or Tutors

A humanities teacher that you have a good relationship with is a great choice. I am purposefully saying humanities, and not just English, because teachers of Philosophy, History, Anthropology, and any other classes where you do a lot of writing, are all used to reviewing student work.

Moreover, any teacher or tutor that has been working with you for some time, knows you very well and can vet the essay to make sure it "sounds like you."

If your teacher or tutor has some experience with what college essays are supposed to be like, ask them to be your editor. If not, then ask whether they have time to proofread your final draft.

Guidance or College Counselor at Your School

The best thing about asking your counselor to edit your work is that this is their job. This means that they have a very good sense of what colleges are looking for in an application essay.

At the same time, school counselors tend to have relationships with admissions officers in many colleges, which again gives them insight into what works and which college is focused on what aspect of the application.

Unfortunately, in many schools the guidance counselor tends to be way overextended. If your ratio is 300 students to 1 college counselor, you're unlikely to get that person's undivided attention and focus. It is still useful to ask them for general advice about your potential topics, but don't expect them to be able to stay with your essay from first draft to final version.

Friends, Siblings, or Classmates

Although they most likely don't have much experience with what colleges are hoping to see, your peers are excellent sources for checking that your essay is you .

Friends and siblings are perfect for the read-aloud edit. Read your essay to them so they can listen for words and phrases that are stilted, pompous, or phrases that just don't sound like you.

You can even trade essays and give helpful advice on each other's work.

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If your editor hasn't worked with college admissions essays very much, no worries! Any astute and attentive reader can still greatly help with your process. But, as in all things, beginners do better with some preparation.

First, your editor should read our advice about how to write a college essay introduction , how to spot and fix a bad college essay , and get a sense of what other students have written by going through some admissions essays that worked .

Then, as they read your essay, they can work through the following series of questions that will help them to guide you.

Introduction Questions

  • Is the first sentence a killer opening line? Why or why not?
  • Does the introduction hook the reader? Does it have a colorful, detailed, and interesting narrative? Or does it propose a compelling or surprising idea?
  • Can you feel the author's voice in the introduction, or is the tone dry, dull, or overly formal? Show the places where the voice comes through.

Essay Body Questions

  • Does the essay have a through-line? Is it built around a central argument, thought, idea, or focus? Can you put this idea into your own words?
  • How is the essay organized? By logical progression? Chronologically? Do you feel order when you read it, or are there moments where you are confused or lose the thread of the essay?
  • Does the essay have both narratives about the author's life and explanations and insight into what these stories reveal about the author's character, personality, goals, or dreams? If not, which is missing?
  • Does the essay flow? Are there smooth transitions/clever links between paragraphs? Between the narrative and moments of insight?

Reader Response Questions

  • Does the writer's personality come through? Do we know what the speaker cares about? Do we get a sense of "who he or she is"?
  • Where did you feel most connected to the essay? Which parts of the essay gave you a "you are there" sensation by invoking your senses? What moments could you picture in your head well?
  • Where are the details and examples vague and not specific enough?
  • Did you get an "a-ha!" feeling anywhere in the essay? Is there a moment of insight that connected all the dots for you? Is there a good reveal or "twist" anywhere in the essay?
  • What are the strengths of this essay? What needs the most improvement?

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Should You Pay Money for Essay Editing?

One alternative to asking someone you know to help you with your college essay is the paid editor route. There are two different ways to pay for essay help: a private essay coach or a less personal editing service , like the many proliferating on the internet.

My advice is to think of these options as a last resort rather than your go-to first choice. I'll first go through the reasons why. Then, if you do decide to go with a paid editor, I'll help you decide between a coach and a service.

When to Consider a Paid Editor

In general, I think hiring someone to work on your essay makes a lot of sense if none of the people I discussed above are a possibility for you.

If you can't ask your parents. For example, if your parents aren't good writers, or if English isn't their first language. Or if you think getting your parents to help is going create unnecessary extra conflict in your relationship with them (applying to college is stressful as it is!)

If you can't ask your teacher or tutor. Maybe you don't have a trusted teacher or tutor that has time to look over your essay with focus. Or, for instance, your favorite humanities teacher has very limited experience with college essays and so won't know what admissions officers want to see.

If you can't ask your guidance counselor. This could be because your guidance counselor is way overwhelmed with other students.

If you can't share your essay with those who know you. It might be that your essay is on a very personal topic that you're unwilling to share with parents, teachers, or peers. Just make sure it doesn't fall into one of the bad-idea topics in our article on bad college essays .

If the cost isn't a consideration. Many of these services are quite expensive, and private coaches even more so. If you have finite resources, I'd say that hiring an SAT or ACT tutor (whether it's PrepScholar or someone else) is better way to spend your money . This is because there's no guarantee that a slightly better essay will sufficiently elevate the rest of your application, but a significantly higher SAT score will definitely raise your applicant profile much more.

Should You Hire an Essay Coach?

On the plus side, essay coaches have read dozens or even hundreds of college essays, so they have experience with the format. Also, because you'll be working closely with a specific person, it's more personal than sending your essay to a service, which will know even less about you.

But, on the minus side, you'll still be bouncing ideas off of someone who doesn't know that much about you . In general, if you can adequately get the help from someone you know, there is no advantage to paying someone to help you.

If you do decide to hire a coach, ask your school counselor, or older students that have used the service for recommendations. If you can't afford the coach's fees, ask whether they can work on a sliding scale —many do. And finally, beware those who guarantee admission to your school of choice—essay coaches don't have any special magic that can back up those promises.

Should You Send Your Essay to a Service?

On the plus side, essay editing services provide a similar product to essay coaches, and they cost significantly less . If you have some assurance that you'll be working with a good editor, the lack of face-to-face interaction won't prevent great results.

On the minus side, however, it can be difficult to gauge the quality of the service before working with them . If they are churning through many application essays without getting to know the students they are helping, you could end up with an over-edited essay that sounds just like everyone else's. In the worst case scenario, an unscrupulous service could send you back a plagiarized essay.

Getting recommendations from friends or a school counselor for reputable services is key to avoiding heavy-handed editing that writes essays for you or does too much to change your essay. Including a badly-edited essay like this in your application could cause problems if there are inconsistencies. For example, in interviews it might be clear you didn't write the essay, or the skill of the essay might not be reflected in your schoolwork and test scores.

Should You Buy an Essay Written by Someone Else?

Let me elaborate. There are super sketchy places on the internet where you can simply buy a pre-written essay. Don't do this!

For one thing, you'll be lying on an official, signed document. All college applications make you sign a statement saying something like this:

I certify that all information submitted in the admission process—including the application, the personal essay, any supplements, and any other supporting materials—is my own work, factually true, and honestly presented... I understand that I may be subject to a range of possible disciplinary actions, including admission revocation, expulsion, or revocation of course credit, grades, and degree, should the information I have certified be false. (From the Common Application )

For another thing, if your academic record doesn't match the essay's quality, the admissions officer will start thinking your whole application is riddled with lies.

Admission officers have full access to your writing portion of the SAT or ACT so that they can compare work that was done in proctored conditions with that done at home. They can tell if these were written by different people. Not only that, but there are now a number of search engines that faculty and admission officers can use to see if an essay contains strings of words that have appeared in other essays—you have no guarantee that the essay you bought wasn't also bought by 50 other students.

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  • You should get college essay help with both editing and proofreading
  • A good editor will ask questions about your idea, logic, and structure, and will point out places where clarity is needed
  • A good editor will absolutely not answer these questions, give you their own ideas, or write the essay or parts of the essay for you
  • A good proofreader will find typos and check your formatting
  • All of them agree that getting light editing and proofreading is necessary
  • Parents, teachers, guidance or college counselor, and peers or siblings
  • If you can't ask any of those, you can pay for college essay help, but watch out for services or coaches who over-edit you work
  • Don't buy a pre-written essay! Colleges can tell, and it'll make your whole application sound false.

Ready to start working on your essay? Check out our explanation of the point of the personal essay and the role it plays on your applications and then explore our step-by-step guide to writing a great college essay .

Using the Common Application for your college applications? We have an excellent guide to the Common App essay prompts and useful advice on how to pick the Common App prompt that's right for you . Wondering how other people tackled these prompts? Then work through our roundup of over 130 real college essay examples published by colleges .

Stressed about whether to take the SAT again before submitting your application? Let us help you decide how many times to take this test . If you choose to go for it, we have the ultimate guide to studying for the SAT to give you the ins and outs of the best ways to study.

Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points or your ACT score by 4 points?   We've written a guide for each test about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download them for free now:

Anna scored in the 99th percentile on her SATs in high school, and went on to major in English at Princeton and to get her doctorate in English Literature at Columbia. She is passionate about improving student access to higher education.

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The technology behind Ahrefs’ Paragraph Generator

Ahrefs’ Paragraph Generator uses a language model that learns patterns, grammar, and vocabulary from large amounts of text data – then uses that knowledge to generate human-like text based on a given prompt or input. The generated text combines both the model's learned information and its understanding of the input.

Other writing tools you may find helpful

Acronym generator.

Looking for an easy way to generate acronyms? Try our AI Acronym Generator today and streamline your workflow.

Grammar Checker

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Conclusion Generator

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Unlock emotions with our AI translator! Seamlessly convert text to expressive emojis. Communicate with feelings effortlessly.

Lorem Ipsum Generator

Lorem ipsum is a placeholder text used in graphic design, print, and publishing for previewing layouts and visual mockups.

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Paragraph Rewriter

Improve any paragraph's readability and rewrite it to make it sound more human-like with this powerful free tool.

Paraphrasing Tool

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Experience the power of efficiency! Our free summarizer simplifies content, saving time and effort. Summarize with precision, read smarter.

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Copyblogger

13 Writing Side Hustles To Earn An Extra $1,000

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This post will introduce you to 13 excellent writing side hustles you can pursue to make an additional $1,000 to $10,000 per month.

The better question is, which one should you choose ? 

To help you make a decision, we’ll evaluate each writing side hustle by answering these two questions: 

  • How scalable is this? Some writing side hustles allow you to earn passive income, whereas others are service-based, where you’re trading your time for money. 
  • How long will I have to wait to make money? Some writing side hustles allow you to make money immediately, whereas others require a significant time investment before you’ll earn a dollar.

For each writing side hustle, we’ll also give you the first action step you can take to get started today.

Want us to scale your traffic?

For the first time, The Copyblogger methodology is now available to a select few clients. We know it works. We’ve been doing it since 2006.

1. Affiliate Marketing 

Plenty of companies have products and services but no customers.

As an affiliate marketer, you build a loyal audience of readers through blogging.

Then, you can promote products and services from other companies on your blog and earn a commission when your readers buy a product.

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An excellent example of an affiliate marketing website is The Spruce . They write articles that rank for keywords like “best crockpots” and “ best rice cookers .” Each of the blog posts contains affiliate links to the products mentioned in the article. Whenever a reader purchases a product, The Spruce earns a commission.

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The Spruce is an example of a multi-million dollar affiliate marketing website, proving that affiliate marketing can scale to be much more than just a small writing side hustle. 

Additionally, affiliate marketers don’t have to deal with customer service or product delivery. The downside is that affiliate marketers can’t control product quality, so recommending a bad product can reflect negatively on your brand.

Building an audience also takes time, so you probably won’t make money immediately with affiliate marketing. However, once you have built an audience and strong website authority, it’s a truly passive business model. Therefore, you can take a break from publishing content, and you’ll still earn money from existing blog posts.  

Scalability

Affiliate marketing can scale as brands like The Spruce are worth millions. Additionally, you can hire other people to write the content for you, making it a fairly passive business. However, The Spruce is a rarity and according to ZipRecruiter, the average affiliate marketer in the United States makes about $82,000 per year . 

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Time To Money

Affiliate marketing relies on ranking for keywords, so if you’re starting a brand new site with no previous authority, it might take anywhere from six months to over a year to see a substantial ROI. 

How to Start Now

To get started with affiliate marketing , set up a website, select a niche , and begin writing content on your blog to build an audience. 

2. Content Repurposer

Content repurposing is republishing a single piece of content, like a video or podcast audio, in a different format, like a blog post or social media clips. 

Many companies pay freelancers to repurpose content because it helps them maximize the reach of a single piece of content by publishing it on different platforms.

For example, Ahrefs repurposed its video on keyword research for affiliate marketing into a blog post:

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Here’s an example of a freelancer who offers content repurposing services at different pricing tiers:

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Additionally, it’s becoming increasingly challenging to get content in front of the right audience, so there’s a growing demand for content repurposing. 

The only way to scale content repurposing is by building an agency, so it isn’t a great side hustle if your goal is to scale it into a multi-million dollar business as a solopreneur. 

Additionally, most clients looking for content repurposing want a solution to maximize their content marketing investments, so they typically aren’t interested in paying top dollar and you might find yourself competing with cheaper freelancers on Upwork. According to Zip Recruiter, the average content repurposer makes about $60 per hour . 

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Content repurposing is currently in high demand and you can start making money immediately as it’s a service-based side hustle.

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Find companies with long form video and audio content and create a blog post and four social media posts from their video/audio content. Send it to them and offer to work for free with the option to later charge.  

3. Blogging

Bloggers select a niche, such as food or traveling, and then write blog posts on the topic to build an audience. 

After building a loyal following, there are many different ways to monetize a blog, including:

  • Sponsored blog posts : A brand pays to write a blog post on your blog. The average cost of a sponsored blog post is about $250 , though how much you can charge really depends on the authority of your website, how much traffic it earns, and the value of your audience. 
  • Affiliate marketing : You promote products or services on your blog and earn a commission from the sales.
  • Paid brand promotions : You can partner with a brand that pays you a set fee to promote their products or services. For example, travel blogger Matt of Expert Vagabond makes between $4,000 and $20,000 per brand partnership .
  • Selling your own products/services : You create your own product or service and sell it to your readers. For example, Blogilates founder Cassey Ho is rumored to have a networth of about $7 to $8 million , and most of it is from POPFLEX , the brand she launched after building millions of followers through her blog and YouTube channel.

The scalability of blogging depends on how you monetize it. If you’re only monetizing it through affiliate products and sponsored posts, it will likely only be moderately scalable.

However, you can scale it to well over seven figures if you launch your own brand after building an audience. 

Some bloggers make over $1 million per year , though the average is about $62,000 in the United States.

However, it is scalable from an operations standpoint if you hire other freelance writers to write the content. You can also stop publishing and continue earning passive income from existing content.

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You won’t make money immediately with blogging as you’ll likely have to spend six to twelve months building an audience before brands will pay you to promote their products or services. 

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Your first step to becoming a beginner blogger is to select a niche , set up a website, and start writing blog posts to build an audience.

4. Directories/Job Boards

Directories and job boards can charge anywhere from $100 to $500 per listing, and the main strategy for building a job board or directory is to write content to build an audience and the website’s authority.

This seasonal job board, CoolWorks , charges $149 for a seven-day multi-position job ad and $169 for a 30 day single position job ad. 

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To build the authority of a website like this, you would write blog posts about the topics a job seeker might search for, such as “best ski resort jobs” or “how to get a J1/H2B visa.”

Local business directories are very similar business models. For example, Visit Charlottesville is a website that provides information on the local town’s businesses.

They monetize the site by offering sponsored posts ranging from $300 to $450, and each listing in their directory ranges from about $60 to $240. 

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Directories and job boards are scalable as you can add unlimited listings to the website. Additionally, it’s a passive business as businesses can purchase an ad online without any involvement on your part. 

Both directories and job board businesses can be very profitable. For example, YTJobs currently charges about $245 per listing, and each listing lasts about two months. They currently have approximately 260 active listings, meaning the website earns at least $65,000 every two months.

However, most job boards won’t scale beyond a few million dollars per year.

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Job boards and directories rely on SEO strength, so you likely won’t earn money immediately with this writing side hustle.

You can watch our video on how to start a directory business:

If you want to build a job board, watch our video here on how to start a profitable job board:

5. Email Copywriting

Businesses know their email subscribers are arguably their most valuable prospects, so they’re willing to pay top dollar for a skilled email copywriter who can build trust and convert those subscribers into customers. 

The average freelance email writer charges about $25 to $50 per email or anywhere from $150 to $500 for longer emails. However, skilled email copywriters who charge revenue shares can scale to seven figures annually.

Here are a few of the most common ways to make money as an email copywriter:

1. Email nurture sequences : Many course creators, service providers, and even software companies pay email copywriters to create nurture sequences. These emails often teach the audience how to solve a problem and then pitch the product or service within the sequence. 

Here’s an example of an email nurture sequence.

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2. Onboarding email sequences: Software companies usually offer onboarding sequences that show new customers how to use their product. These sequences are particularly valuable to companies that rely on recurring revenue because customers who understand how to use the product properly will receive the most value from it and, therefore, stay with the company for longer.   

3. Weekly emails/newsletters : Once an email subscriber completes a nurture sequence, it’s important to keep them engaged so the brand can offer them another product/service at a future date (and prevent churn if it’s a recurring revenue business model). 

As an email copywriter, you can offer to write weekly engagement emails that provide helpful industry news, thought leadership content , and brand news. The Copyblogger newsletter is an excellent example of a weekly newsletter.

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Scalability 

When you start as an email copywriter, you’ll probably offer a service business by charging an hourly rate or a project fee, which isn’t very scalable. Additionally, most companies won’t pay much for a weekly newsletter copywriter. However, nurture email copywriters who charge revenue shares for product launches can scale beyond seven figures. 

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As an email copywriter, you can start earning immediately by offering your writing as a service and then scale over time by doing revenue sharing or even launching your own offer.

How To Start Now

You can start today by writing a free email sequence for your dream company, sending it to them, and offering to write more for them for free with the intention of eventually charging. 

6. Website Copywriter

There’s a large market for website copywriters, but there’s also a large supply of website copywriters. While it’s possible to make a healthy income as a website copywriter, many only make a few hundred dollars per project.

To establish yourself as a premium copywriter, identify a niche (such as SaaS or ecommerce) and learn basic CRO (conversion rate optimization) skills. Then, instead of just advertising yourself as a website copywriter, provide an analysis on how to improve the conversion rate of that website through better copywriting.

By positioning yourself as a premium website copywriter who can boost conversions, you’ll be able to charge significantly more than the average writer. For example, this website copywriter has earned over $500,000 and doesn’t accept engagements under $2,500 due to demand:

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Website copywriting isn’t one of the most scalable opportunities, as you can really only charge for your time unless you build an agency, and there’s a very small percentage of companies willing to invest in CRO. Additionally, it isn’t a recurring revenue service. For example, once you finish the website copy, that client won’t need you anymore.

You can make money very quickly as a website copywriter because there’s a high demand for website copy, and the first step to get started (mentioned below) has a high success rate.

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Identify a few dream clients and email them new copy for their website and highlight specific changes you made within the copy to increase conversions. Ask them to publish the new content and track the lift in conversions. You can then use that as a case study when pitching new clients.

7. Start a Newsletter

Newsletter businesses are highly profitable as you can write it yourself or hire a freelancer to do it for you. Then, you can monetize it through sponsorships with other brands or offer affiliate products. 

Marie Haynes newsletter is a great example of a weekly newsletter that anyone could start. 

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Select a niche you’re passionate about and then provide industry news or write about your personal experience/recent discoveries. 

Building an audience for a newsletter can be challenging, so here are a few strategies to earn more subscribers:

  • Promote it on social media . Tell your audience what you’ll talk about in your newsletter the next day and offer a subscribe link.

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  • Create a referral program . Offer a tiered referral program where people can unlock rewards by referring their friends.
  • Use paid ads to scale . You can always run paid ads to earn more subscribers.

There are plenty of examples of newsletter brands that have sold for millions of dollars, including The Milk Road , The Hustle , and The Morning Brew .

Newsletters are a more scalable writing side hustle because you can earn more money as more people subscribe to your list without increasing your effort. If you run a personal newsletter, you’ll still have to write it each day/week, though you could also choose to run a branded newsletter business like the Milk Road and hire other writers to write it for you.

Newsletters are challenging to grow, and you can’t really make any money until you build an audience. Plan to spend six to twelve months before you start making money.   

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Watch this video on how Tim Stoddart builds newsletter businesses:

8. Social Media Ghostwriting

Many business executives and entrepreneurs realize the value of a social media following, but don’t have time to write their own content.

Instead, they’ll hire a social media ghostwriter to create content for them. As a social media ghostwriter, you’ll interview the client to understand the audience they’re trying to attract, their viewpoints on specific topics, and their personal stories.

Here’s an example of a social media post that a ghostwriter could interview a client and then write:

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Plenty of freelance social media ghostwriters and even social media ghostwriting agencies like StoryArb charge over $7,000 per month, so there’s plenty of demand for the service.

Social media ghostwriting is minimally scalable as you trade your time for money. However, skilled social media ghostwriters can charge $5,000 plus per month for quality content. You could build an agency, though the level of talent you’ll have to hire is quite high as they’ll have to interview the clients and be able to write in their voice.

As it’s a service business, you can make money almost immediately with social media ghostwriting. However, the first step to getting a client has a moderate success rate, so landing your first client could be difficult.

To get started today, use this guide on how to become a ghostwriter . It discusses how to get your first client (reach out to your dream clients with a sample social media post and offer to write for them for free) and how to build a workflow process (e.g., how to interview them, templates to help you generate content ideas, and more).   

9. SEO Copywriter

SEO copywriters write blog posts designed to rank in search engines like Google for keywords that a company’s target audience searches. For example, a webinar software company would want to rank in Google for a keyword like “best webinar platforms.”

To establish yourself as a premium SEO copywriter and charge more for your services, understand these basic SEO best practices:

  • Internal linking
  • Keyword research
  • On-page optimization (using H1s, H2s, title tag/meta description, etc.)
  • Search intent /format optimization

You can also differentiate yourself by specializing in a specific niche (like SaaS) or offering a very particular service, like content updating .

SEO copywriting isn’t a very scalable writing side hustle because you’re trading your time for money, and building an agency is the only way to scale it. Additionally, while there’s still a decent market for high quality SEO copywriters, many companies are now using AI for SEO copywriting.

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As SEO copywriting is a service business, you can make money as soon as you land your first client (i.e., immediately). Additionally, the first step to getting started has a high success rate.

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Spend a day or two learning about the four concepts mentioned above (internal linking, keyword research, on-page optimization, and search intent). Then, identify your dream client and reach out to them with suggestions on how to improve the rankings of specific blog posts.

10. YouTube Scriptwriter

YouTube scriptwriters are in high demand as companies and individual creators strive to increase content output.

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It’s also fairly profitable. YouTube scriptwriter George Blackman shared rates he’s been paid to write scripts, and some clients are happy to pay over $1,000 per script:

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He also hinted that $300 to $400 is on the low end for a quality script:

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Therefore, if you want to position yourself as a premium scriptwriter, learn the basics about retention and ideation and then provide suggestions and feedback on how your clients can improve their overall video performance.

If you choose to become a YouTube scriptwriter, keep in mind that you’ll likely have to work closely with each client to understand their personality and stylistic preferences as you’re essentially putting words in their mouth. Therefore, you might have to do many more revisions than, say, an SEO copywriter or email copywriter. 

YouTube scriptwriting is likely one of the least scalable opportunities as you’ll have to build a strong relationship with your clients to really understand their tone of voice and style. Therefore, creating an agency would be very difficult and you’ll only be able to take on a limited number of clients.   

Depending on the client and your relationship with them, you might be able to ask for a revenue share agreement, which would significantly increase your scale potential.

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As a service based business, you can make money almost immediately as a YouTube scriptwriter.

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Learn basic YouTube retention concepts and then write some sample scripts on the niche you want to specialize in, record videos, and post them on a personal channel. You can then send your channel to potential clients and offer to do some scriptwriting for them for free. Alternatively, you could reach out to some of your dream clients and tell them specific ways they could improve retention on their videos by improving various aspects of their scripts. Then, offer to write scripts for them for free.

11. Resume and Cover Letter Writer

A resume and cover letter writer understands what employers look for when evaluating candidates and helps clients optimize their resume/cover letters accordingly. 

Most resume and cover letter writers charge between $25 and $65 per hour, which isn’t among the most profitable writing side hustle opportunities.

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However, you can charge significantly more if you tie your services to outcomes (i.e., getting the dream job) and provide additional support on which jobs to apply for, how to prepare for the interview, and how to build relationships with people at the company.

For example, these resume writers charge well over $500 for their services:

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You can also offer LinkedIn profile optimizations, email correspondence assistance, and other upsells.

Resume writing isn’t a very scalable option as it’s a service business where you’re trading your time for dollars. It also relies on your expertise, making it difficult (though not impossible) to scale into an agency. 

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You can start making money when you land your first client, and there’s always a large market of job seekers.

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Reach out to some of your friends and ask them if you can help them optimize their resumes and LinkedIn profiles. You can also use LinkedIn Recruiter to search for people looking for jobs and then reach out to them, offering to optimize their resumes for free. 

12. Grant Writer

Grant writers help non-profits and research organizations win grants for project funding, and the average grant writer can earn several hundred dollars per project.

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To establish yourself as a premium grant writer and expand your services, specialize in a particular niche, and provide coaching and assistance with everything from which organizations to pitch to how to pitch them.   

The downside of grant writing is that it isn’t a recurring revenue stream as you’ll constantly search for new clients. In contrast, other writing side hustles like SEO copywriting or social media ghostwriting allow you to earn recurring revenue.

Grant writing isn’t very scalable because it’s a service-based business in which you trade time for money. There also aren’t many options to earn recurring revenue.

You can start making money as soon as you land your first client. There is a decent market of nonprofits looking for grant writers, but most of them will want to see grants you’ve won for other organizations, which can make it a little more challenging to break into the industry.

Select a niche you want to specialize in and contact a few nonprofits. Provide suggestions of specific grants they should apply to and offer to write grant applications for them for free. 

13. Sales Page Copywriting

Sales pages are designed to drive online sales for a product or service. Here’s an example of the sales page for Charisma University , a coaching course for improving social skills.

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Sales copywriting is one of the most profitable writing side hustles as a great sales copywriter can charge five figures for a single sales page.  

The key to charging a premium price depends on:

  • Your skill level/track record : If your sales pages consistently generate millions of dollars and outperform previous sales pages from the company, you can obviously charge more.
  • Your clients : A company already making millions of dollars on a product can spend much more on a great sales copywriter because they realize that increasing conversions by even a small percentage can significantly increase revenue.

To become a premium sales copywriter, interview customers who have previously purchased the product/service or (if it’s a brand new product/service) interview the ideal target audience. During these interviews, understand their pain points, specific outcomes/benefits they want, and what they’re looking for in a product/service like the one you’re offering.

This customer research will make your copywriting much more compelling and increase conversions. Additionally, clients realize that this detailed research leads to better conversions, so you’ll be able to charge more immediately simply because your process is much more thorough than the average copywriter’s process.

Sales copywriting is a more profitable writing side hustle because larger brands are accustomed to paying four or five figures for a great sales page. Additionally, you can do a revenue share based on the sales your page generates. The downside is that there isn’t really an option for passive income, as you’ll only make money when you write sales letters.

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You can start making money immediately as a sales copywriter—just land your first client, and you’re a sales copywriter. However, the first step to becoming a copywriter is moderately effort and time-intensive.

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To get started as a sales copywriter, find moderately optimized sales pages, make improvements to them, and send the improvements to the company. Ask if they’ll consider publishing your example and track the difference in conversions. This will help you build the skills of sales copywriting to understand what works and what doesn’t work. Then, you can use those sales pages as case studies to land paying clients. 

Get More Support On Your Journey As A Writer

The best way to become a great writer is by writing. So don’t wait or plan anymore – pick one of the writing side hustles above and take the advice in the “how to start now” section. 

That said, you can increase your rate of learning and earn faster if you regularly receive feedback on your work and have basic frameworks and instructions to improve your writing.

That’s why we built the Copyblogger Academy – a community of writers and entrepreneurs. Inside, you’ll have access to nine different courses on personal branding, SEO, content marketing, and more. You’ll also have the opportunity to get your questions answered by seven figure entrepreneurs Tim Stoddart and Charles Miller, and you can attend regular accountability meetings. To see if the Copyblogger Academy is a good fit for you, sign up today and we’ll give you a full refund if you aren’t 100% satisfied in the first 30 days. 

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Megan Mahoney

Megan is the head of SEO for Copyblogger. In addition, she runs the content agency Ignite My Site . You can follow here on LinkedIn.

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How to get Google's new AI tool to write your emails

  • Google is launching "Help me write" an AI-tool that can generate responses to emails in Gmail. 
  • Users can deploy the tool to request a refund for a cancelled flight, for example.
  • The tool also includes a "Refine" feature that can tweak the generated message's length and tone. 

Insider Today

Writing emails is about to get a lot easier.

During 2023 Google's I/O conference on Wednesday, Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google, announced that the search giant is launching "Help me write," an AI-powered feature part of Gmail that can generate responses to emails.

In a demonstration of the tool, Pichai used "Help me write" to respond to an email saying that the recipient's flight got cancelled. The demonstrator selected the tool's icon and entered "ask for a full refund for this cancelled flight" in the prompt box. A response draft was generated in moments that included all the relevant details from the airline's note and requested the desired refund. 

Related stories

Not happy with the result? The tool has a button that allows users "refine" the letter, with prompts like "formalize", "elaborate," and "shorten." 

During the demo, Pichai selected the "elaborate" option to "increase the chances of getting a refund," and the tool added lines like "I believe that a full refund is the only fair way to compensate me for the problems I experienced." 

The feature, which was launched to "trusted testers" in March, is among the generative AI functions that Google is using to update its existing tools in the Workspace suite, Google's Aparna Pappu said at Wednesday's event. In addition to "Help me write," Google will integrate AI-features that can brainstorm and proofread text in Docs; generate images, audio, and video in Slides; and analyze data in Sheets, to name a few. 

These features, which will be available to "trusted testers," will eventually be part of Google's " Duet AI for Workspace " service, according to Pappu. Google did not comment on when the tool will be available to the general public.

The new tool comes months after Google first launched the beta version of Bard , a ChatGPT rival, to select users as the AI competition grows among Big Tech companies.

Bard, however, did not launch smoothly: Google employees who tested Bard didn't think the chatbot was ready for launch, calling it "cringeworthy" and a "pathological liar." When Google demoed its chatbot in February, it made a factual error . 

On February 28, Axel Springer, Business Insider's parent company, joined 31 other media groups and filed a $2.3 billion suit against Google in Dutch court, alleging losses suffered due to the company's advertising practices.

Watch: What is ChatGPT, and should we be afraid of AI chatbots?

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  • Main content

Mila Kunis Confirmed That She And Ashton Kutcher Won’t Return For “That ‘90s Show” Season 2 After They Were Exposed For Writing Letters In Support Of Danny Masterson

Mila and Ashton have been keeping a low profile since they were forced to apologize for writing letters in support of Danny Masterson last year.

Ellen Durney

BuzzFeed Staff

Content Warning: This story contains brief discussions of sexual abuse and sexual assault.

Ashton kutcher and mila kunis famously met in 1998 on the set of that ‘70s show , in which they starred as on-again, off-again couple, michael kelso and jackie burkhart..

The cast of "That '70s Show" on the red carpet

Though they met early in their careers , the costars didn’t start dating until 2012. They married in 2015 and share two children — 9-year-old daughter Wyatt and 7-year-old son Dimitri.

Seventeen years after the original series ended in 2006, Ashton and Mila thrilled fans by reprising their roles in the Netflix spinoff series, That ‘90s Show , which premiered at the start of last year.

Closeup of Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis posing on the red carpet together

If you’ve not seen it, Ashton and Mila returned for one episode to play Kelso and Jackie, who are now married on the show. The spinoff centers around a new generation of teens, including Kelso and Jackie’s son, Jay (played by Mace Coronel ).

Ashton and Mila weren’t the only That ‘70s Show cast members to reprise their roles for the new series. The spinoff was led by Debra Jo Rupp and Kurtwood Smith, who starred once again as Kitty and Red Forman, while Topher Grace , Laura Prepon, and Wilmer Valderrama also made cameos.

That ‘90s Show wound up being a hit with viewers, many of whom were pleased by the return of so many beloved cast members, and as a result, the spinoff was promptly renewed for a second season, due to come out later this year .

Kurtwood Smith, Debra Jo Rupp, Laura Prepon, and Wilmer Valderrama stand together for a red carpet photo

However, Mila recently revealed that she and her husband won’t be returning, despite having had a lot of fun shooting their cameos for Season 1.

Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher sitting courtside at a basketball game

Speaking to Entertainment Tonight at an event celebrating the 25th anniversary of Family Guy this week, Mila explained that she and Ashton felt that they’d done enough to lay the groundwork for their characters’ futures by appearing in Season 1.

Mila Kunis poses with a smile and is wearing a polka-dotted top at a promotional event

“I mean, we did our thing, and they introduced our son in the show and that was, you know, [enough],” she said, after answering “no” when asked if she and Ashton would be returning.

Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis in formal attire at an event

Alongside her on the red carpet, Mila’s Family Guy and That ‘70s Show costar Seth Green said he would be going back for another round of the Netflix series. 

Though she didn’t divulge more information about their plans, Mila’s comments come seven months after she and Ashton were forced to apologize for letters they wrote in support of their former That ‘70s Show costar, Danny Masterson .

Closeup of Danny Masterson and his partner walking outside

For context, Ashton, Mila, and Danny were shooting That ‘70s Show at the time that Danny drugged and raped two women at his Hollywood Hills home. He was found guilty of the crimes in May, and he was sentenced to 30 years to life in prison in September.

Ashton Kutcher,  Mila Kunis, and Danny Masterson

Around this time, court documents revealed that Ashton and Mila were among those to have written letters to the judge asking for leniency ahead of the sentencing, describing Danny as a “role model” with “exceptional character.”

Ashton Kutcher and Danny Masterson onstage

In Ashton’s letter , he asked the judge to reconsider the length of Danny’s sentence, arguing that his friend was not an “ongoing harm to society.” He also wrote that it would be a “tertiary injustice” for Danny’s daughter to be “raised without a present father.”

Mila’s letter echoed similar themes as she described the “tremendous positive influence” that Danny had had on her and “the people around him.” She also hailed his “dedication to leading a drug-free life” — a statement which many found bizarre in light of the fact that Danny used drugs on the women he raped .

Ashton and Mila were faced with intense backlash and were quickly prompted to issue a video statement — which, as you may remember, was not received well by the public.

View this photo on Instagram

In the short video clip — which was shared to Ashton’s Instagram page on Sept. 9 — the couple insisted that they “support victims” and said that the letters “were not written to question the legitimacy of the judicial system or the validity of the jury’s ruling.”

They explained that they were asked by Danny’s family to write the letters, which “were intended for the judge to read and not to undermine the testimony of the victims or retraumatize them in any way.”

Notably, they did not explicitly apologize, which led people to describe the video message as performative and “ insincere .”

They subsequently turned off the comments on the post, and on Sept. 15, Time reported that Ashton had resigned as chair of the board of Thorn — the anti-child sex abuse organization he and Demi Moore founded back in 2009 when they were still married.

Ashton Kutcher in a jacket and plaid shirt at an event

Since then, the pair have maintained a low profile, with Mila’s recent red carpet marking her first public engagement in months. You can watch her full interview with Entertainment Tonight here.

Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis posing together at the Breakthrough Prize event

If you or someone you know has experienced sexual assault, you can call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673), which routes the caller to their nearest sexual assault service provider. You can also search for your local center here .

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  • That 70s Show

NHL

Stuart Skinner has created a full-fledged goaltending crisis for the Oilers

EDMONTON, AB - MAY 12: Vancouver Canucks Right Wing Brock Boeser (6) scores on Edmonton Oilers Goalie Stuart Skinner (74) in the second period of game five of the Western Conference Second Round Edmonton Oilers game versus the Vancouver Canucks on May 12, 2024 at Rogers Place in Edmonton, AB. (Photo by Curtis Comeau/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

EDMONTON — Shielded by the Edmonton Oilers organization postgame, Stuart Skinner ’s goaltending performance in Game 3 and the series at large was left to be addressed solely by his coach.

Kris Knoblauch said the only thing that could really be said considering he had backup Calvin Pickard lead the team onto the ice to start the third period: “We need more saves.”

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Skinner, who allowed four goals on 15 shots through 40 minutes in a 4-3 loss to the Vancouver Canucks , wasn’t made available by the Oilers despite being requested.

He played 11 seconds after Evan Bouchard pulled the Oilers within one thanks to a six-on-five goal 18:44 into the third — a time-stalling tactic so Knoblauch could buy his stars a little more rest. Knoblauch confirmed Skinner isn’t suffering from an injury, so there was nothing preventing him from speaking after the loss.

The way things are trending, there might not be a reason to speak to Skinner postgame for much longer. Knoblauch said he’ll wait until at least Monday before deciding if Skinner will start in Game 4.

For good reason, too. The Oilers have a full-fledged goaltending crisis on their hands.

“Tonight’s one that he’d like to have back,” Knoblauch said. “He’ll see what he’s got in the future, whether that’s Game 4 or Game 5 or whatever it is.”

Look, it’s not like Skinner let in soft goal after soft goal on Sunday. There wasn’t a downright stinker in the bunch.

Elias Lindholm scored twice on the power play, the first of which he tipped in. And then the first of two from Oilers nemesis Brock Boeser came after a terrible turnover by Warren Foegele .

“I should know better,” Foegele said. “Unfortunately, I did that and put our team in a bad spot.”

go-deeper

How the Canucks, Brock Boeser contained Connor McDavid to win Game 3: 5 takeaways

Still, Skinner simply needed to prove his mettle as the starting goalie — at least for now — on a team that fancies itself a Stanley Cup contender. Just make one or two more saves, as Knoblauch desired.

That’s what separates an excellent keeper who helps his team win it all from one who’s below average and gets his team booted from the second round of the playoffs — again.

By the time Knoblauch gave him the hook, Skinner had given up 12 goals on 58 shots in the series — an awful .793 save percentage. That’s simply not going to cut it. What the Oilers would give for that .875 clip he had against Vegas in Round 2 last year.

“Defence, along with goaltending, is very important to winning hockey games — especially in the long term,” Knoblauch said. “It’s got to be better.”

Skinner has been outplayed by the third goaltender on the Canucks’ depth chart in Arturs Silovs . There’s no getting around that, even if the Oilers feel they can do more to make life miserable for Silovs.

“We can certainly do a better job of bearing down and capitalizing on our looks,” Oilers centre-turned-winger Leon Draisaitl said.

That leads us to another thing: It isn’t just Skinner’s puck-stopping — or lack thereof — that has the Oilers in a tizzy.

They failed to score a five-on-five goal in Game 3, even though all lines had their chances. Evander Kane , Derek Ryan and Connor Brown were three of the four players who beat Silovs but not a goalpost. The other was Draisaitl.

What’s most concerning is it appears their coach has little faith beyond the members of the first power-play unit and Mattias Ekholm . Over the last two games, the Oilers have become a six-man team for all intents and purposes.

Bouchard played 31:24 of a 60-minute game after skating for 29:59 in Game 2. Draisaitl got to 29:04 after playing 27:05 on Friday. Connor McDavid came 12 seconds shy of playing half the contest following a 28:12 effort in the overtime win.

“We can’t play them 30 minutes every night,” Knoblauch said, specifically of Nos. 97 and 29. “We can’t be pushing them that much.”

He might have to.

The Oilers are now down 2-1 in the series, and McDavid, Draisaitl and Zach Hyman have easily been their best line.

They dominated in Game 2. The Oilers outscored the Canucks 2-0, outshot them 13-1 and out-attempted them 31-7 in 18:31 at five-on-five, per Natural Stat Trick .

Though Boeser scored the only goal when the McDavid trio was on the ice at five-on-five in Game 3, the Oilers continued to carry the play. Shots were 10-5 and attempts were 20-9.

They were clearly the only grouping Knoblauch believed could score.

He hinted after the morning skate that Draisaitl, who missed some time with an injury in the series opener, could get some shifts at centre. That didn’t happen.

“A lot of it had to do with (the fact) we were chasing. We needed a goal,” Knoblauch said. “That line together has been creating so much offence.”

Despite praising the other lines for their offensive attempts, his usage spoke volumes. Kane had the most ice time among forwards not named McDavid, Draisaitl, Hyman or Ryan Nugent-Hopkins at 14:12. No one else made it to 12 minutes and five players up front didn’t hit double digits.

“Everyone has a role, and you’ve got to do the best (with) your role — (regardless of) how many minutes that is,” said Foegele, who played 8:45. “It’s about winning. The coach can put out who he thinks gives him the best chance to win. Everyone here understands their role. Everyone’s got to execute.”

There are a lot of Oilers players who could — and maybe should — play better. In fairness, most of those in question could use some more opportunity to prove their worth.

That’s certainly not the case for Skinner.

He was the only Oilers goaltender to appear in these playoffs until Pickard skated out to start the third period on Sunday.

Feel free to defend Skinner all you want. Blame some bad bounces. Criticize the work of his teammates in front of him. Suggest he hasn’t surrendered any terrible goals — perhaps notwithstanding Nikita Zadorov ’s sharp-angle marker in Game 2.

But any way you slice it, he hasn’t been good enough. Nowhere close.

The Oilers have little chance of beating the Canucks — let alone claiming the Cup — with this type of netminding. The coach pretty much said it without actually saying it after the game. Skinner didn’t have to.

(Photo of Brock Boeser scoring on Stuart Skinner: Curtis Comeau / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

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Daniel Nugent-Bowman

Daniel Nugent-Bowman is a staff writer who covers the Edmonton Oilers for The Athletic. Daniel has written about hockey for Sportsnet, The Hockey News, Yahoo Canada Sports and the Saskatoon StarPhoenix. Follow Daniel on Twitter @ DNBsports

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Illustration of a missile made from words.

In the campus protests over the war in Gaza, language and rhetoric are—as they have always been when it comes to Israel and Palestine—weapons of mass destruction.

By Zadie Smith

A philosophy without a politics is common enough. Aesthetes, ethicists, novelists—all may be easily critiqued and found wanting on this basis. But there is also the danger of a politics without a philosophy. A politics unmoored, unprincipled, which holds as its most fundamental commitment its own perpetuation. A Realpolitik that believes itself too subtle—or too pragmatic—to deal with such ethical platitudes as thou shalt not kill. Or: rape is a crime, everywhere and always. But sometimes ethical philosophy reënters the arena, as is happening right now on college campuses all over America. I understand the ethics underpinning the protests to be based on two widely recognized principles:

There is an ethical duty to express solidarity with the weak in any situation that involves oppressive power.

If the machinery of oppressive power is to be trained on the weak, then there is a duty to stop the gears by any means necessary.

The first principle sometimes takes the “weak” to mean “whoever has the least power,” and sometimes “whoever suffers most,” but most often a combination of both. The second principle, meanwhile, may be used to defend revolutionary violence, although this interpretation has just as often been repudiated by pacifistic radicals, among whom two of the most famous are, of course, Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr . In the pacifist’s interpretation, the body that we must place between the gears is not that of our enemy but our own. In doing this, we may pay the ultimate price with our actual bodies, in the non-metaphorical sense. More usually, the risk is to our livelihoods, our reputations, our futures. Before these most recent campus protests began, we had an example of this kind of action in the climate movement. For several years now, many people have been protesting the economic and political machinery that perpetuates climate change, by blocking roads, throwing paint, interrupting plays, and committing many other arrestable offenses that can appear ridiculous to skeptics (or, at the very least, performative), but which in truth represent a level of personal sacrifice unimaginable to many of us.

I experienced this not long ago while participating in an XR climate rally in London. When it came to the point in the proceedings where I was asked by my fellow-protesters whether I’d be willing to commit an arrestable offense—one that would likely lead to a conviction and thus make travelling to the United States difficult or even impossible—I’m ashamed to say that I declined that offer. Turns out, I could not give up my relationship with New York City for the future of the planet. I’d just about managed to stop buying plastic bottles (except when very thirsty) and was trying to fly less. But never to see New York again? What pitiful ethical creatures we are (I am)! Falling at the first hurdle! Anyone who finds themselves rolling their eyes at any young person willing to put their own future into jeopardy for an ethical principle should ask themselves where the limits of their own commitments lie—also whether they’ve bought a plastic bottle or booked a flight recently. A humbling inquiry.

It is difficult to look at the recent Columbia University protests in particular without being reminded of the campus protests of the nineteen-sixties and seventies, some of which happened on the very same lawns. At that time, a cynical political class was forced to observe the spectacle of its own privileged youth standing in solidarity with the weakest historical actors of the moment, a group that included, but was not restricted to, African Americans and the Vietnamese. By placing such people within their ethical zone of interest, young Americans risked both their own academic and personal futures and—in the infamous case of Kent State—their lives. I imagine that the students at Columbia—and protesters on other campuses—fully intend this echo, and, in their unequivocal demand for both a ceasefire and financial divestment from this terrible war, to a certain extent they have achieved it.

But, when I open newspapers and see students dismissing the idea that some of their fellow-students feel, at this particular moment, unsafe on campus, or arguing that such a feeling is simply not worth attending to, given the magnitude of what is occurring in Gaza, I find such sentiments cynical and unworthy of this movement. For it may well be—within the ethical zone of interest that is a campus, which was not so long ago defined as a safe space, delineated by the boundary of a generation’s ethical ideas— it may well be that a Jewish student walking past the tents, who finds herself referred to as a Zionist, and then is warned to keep her distance, is, in that moment, the weakest participant in the zone. If the concept of safety is foundational to these students’ ethical philosophy (as I take it to be), and, if the protests are committed to reinserting ethical principles into a cynical and corrupt politics, it is not right to divest from these same ethics at the very moment they come into conflict with other imperatives. The point of a foundational ethics is that it is not contingent but foundational. That is precisely its challenge to a corrupt politics.

Practicing our ethics in the real world involves a constant testing of them, a recognition that our zones of ethical interest have no fixed boundaries and may need to widen and shrink moment by moment as the situation demands. (Those brave students who—in supporting the ethical necessity of a ceasefire—find themselves at painful odds with family, friends, faith, or community have already made this calculation.) This flexibility can also have the positive long-term political effect of allowing us to comprehend that, although our duty to the weakest is permanent, the role of “the weakest” is not an existential matter independent of time and space but, rather, a contingent situation, continually subject to change. By contrast, there is a dangerous rigidity to be found in the idea that concern for the dreadful situation of the hostages is somehow in opposition to, or incompatible with, the demand for a ceasefire. Surely a ceasefire—as well as being an ethical necessity—is also in the immediate absolute interest of the hostages, a fact that cannot be erased by tearing their posters off walls.

Part of the significance of a student protest is the ways in which it gives young people the opportunity to insist upon an ethical principle while still being, comparatively speaking, a more rational force than the supposed adults in the room, against whose crazed magical thinking they have been forced to define themselves. The equality of all human life was never a self-evident truth in racially segregated America. There was no way to “win” in Vietnam. Hamas will not be “eliminated.” The more than seven million Jewish human beings who live in the gap between the river and the sea will not simply vanish because you think that they should. All of that is just rhetoric. Words. Cathartic to chant, perhaps, but essentially meaningless. A ceasefire, meanwhile, is both a potential reality and an ethical necessity. The monstrous and brutal mass murder of more than eleven hundred people, the majority of them civilians, dozens of them children, on October 7th, has been followed by the monstrous and brutal mass murder (at the time of writing) of a reported fourteen thousand five hundred children. And many more human beings besides, but it’s impossible not to notice that the sort of people who take at face value phrases like “surgical strikes” and “controlled military operation” sometimes need to look at and/or think about dead children specifically in order to refocus their minds on reality.

To send the police in to arrest young people peacefully insisting upon a ceasefire represents a moral injury to us all. To do it with violence is a scandal. How could they do less than protest, in this moment? They are putting their own bodies into the machine. They deserve our support and praise. As to which postwar political arrangement any of these students may favor, and on what basis they favor it—that is all an argument for the day after a ceasefire. One state, two states, river to the sea—in my view, their views have no real weight in this particular moment, or very little weight next to the significance of their collective action, which (if I understand it correctly) is focussed on stopping the flow of money that is funding bloody murder, and calling for a ceasefire, the political euphemism that we use to mark the end of bloody murder. After a ceasefire, the criminal events of the past seven months should be tried and judged, and the infinitely difficult business of creating just, humane, and habitable political structures in the region must begin anew. Right now: ceasefire. And, as we make this demand, we might remind ourselves that a ceasefire is not, primarily, a political demand. Primarily, it is an ethical one.

But it is in the nature of the political that we cannot even attend to such ethical imperatives unless we first know the political position of whoever is speaking. (“Where do you stand on Israel/Palestine?”) In these constructed narratives, there are always a series of shibboleths, that is, phrases that can’t be said, or, conversely, phrases that must be said. Once these words or phrases have been spoken ( river to the sea, existential threat, right to defend, one state, two states, Zionist, colonialist, imperialist, terrorist ) and one’s positionality established, then and only then will the ethics of the question be attended to (or absolutely ignored). The objection may be raised at this point that I am behaving like a novelist, expressing a philosophy without a politics, or making some rarefied point about language and rhetoric while people commit bloody murder. This would normally be my own view, but, in the case of Israel/Palestine, language and rhetoric are and always have been weapons of mass destruction.

It is in fact perhaps the most acute example in the world of the use of words to justify bloody murder, to flatten and erase unbelievably labyrinthine histories, and to deliver the atavistic pleasure of violent simplicity to the many people who seem to believe that merely by saying something they make it so. It is no doubt a great relief to say the word “Hamas” as if it purely and solely described a terrorist entity. A great relief to say “There is no such thing as the Palestinian people” as they stand in front of you. A great relief to say “Zionist colonialist state” and accept those three words as a full and unimpeachable definition of the state of Israel, not only under the disastrous leadership of Benjamin Netanyahu but at every stage of its long and complex history, and also to hear them as a perfectly sufficient description of every man, woman, and child who has ever lived in Israel or happened to find themselves born within it. It is perhaps because we know these simplifications to be impossible that we insist upon them so passionately. They are shibboleths; they describe a people, by defining them against other people—but the people being described are ourselves. The person who says “We must eliminate Hamas” says this not necessarily because she thinks this is a possible outcome on this earth but because this sentence is the shibboleth that marks her membership in the community that says that. The person who uses the word “Zionist” as if that word were an unchanged and unchangeable monolith, meaning exactly the same thing in 2024 and 1948 as it meant in 1890 or 1901 or 1920—that person does not so much bring definitive clarity to the entangled history of Jews and Palestinians as they successfully and soothingly draw a line to mark their own zone of interest and where it ends. And while we all talk, carefully curating our shibboleths, presenting them to others and waiting for them to reveal themselves as with us or against us—while we do all that, bloody murder.

And now here we are, almost at the end of this little stream of words. We’ve arrived at the point at which I must state clearly “where I stand on the issue,” that is, which particular political settlement should, in my own, personal view, occur on the other side of a ceasefire. This is the point wherein—by my stating of a position—you are at once liberated into the simple pleasure of placing me firmly on one side or the other, putting me over there with those who lisp or those who don’t, with the Ephraimites, or with the people of Gilead. Yes, this is the point at which I stake my rhetorical flag in that fantastical, linguistical, conceptual, unreal place—built with words—where rapes are minimized as needs be, and the definition of genocide quibbled over, where the killing of babies is denied, and the precision of drones glorified, where histories are reconsidered or rewritten or analogized or simply ignored, and “Jew” and “colonialist” are synonymous, and “Palestinian” and “terrorist” are synonymous, and language is your accomplice and alibi in all of it. Language euphemized, instrumentalized, and abused, put to work for your cause and only for your cause, so that it does exactly and only what you want it to do. Let me make it easy for you. Put me wherever you want: misguided socialist, toothless humanist, naïve novelist, useful idiot, apologist, denier, ally, contrarian, collaborator, traitor, inexcusable coward. It is my view that my personal views have no more weight than an ear of corn in this particular essay. The only thing that has any weight in this particular essay is the dead. ♦

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Why writing by hand beats typing for thinking and learning

Jonathan Lambert

A close-up of a woman's hand writing in a notebook.

If you're like many digitally savvy Americans, it has likely been a while since you've spent much time writing by hand.

The laborious process of tracing out our thoughts, letter by letter, on the page is becoming a relic of the past in our screen-dominated world, where text messages and thumb-typed grocery lists have replaced handwritten letters and sticky notes. Electronic keyboards offer obvious efficiency benefits that have undoubtedly boosted our productivity — imagine having to write all your emails longhand.

To keep up, many schools are introducing computers as early as preschool, meaning some kids may learn the basics of typing before writing by hand.

But giving up this slower, more tactile way of expressing ourselves may come at a significant cost, according to a growing body of research that's uncovering the surprising cognitive benefits of taking pen to paper, or even stylus to iPad — for both children and adults.

Is this some kind of joke? A school facing shortages starts teaching standup comedy

In kids, studies show that tracing out ABCs, as opposed to typing them, leads to better and longer-lasting recognition and understanding of letters. Writing by hand also improves memory and recall of words, laying down the foundations of literacy and learning. In adults, taking notes by hand during a lecture, instead of typing, can lead to better conceptual understanding of material.

"There's actually some very important things going on during the embodied experience of writing by hand," says Ramesh Balasubramaniam , a neuroscientist at the University of California, Merced. "It has important cognitive benefits."

While those benefits have long been recognized by some (for instance, many authors, including Jennifer Egan and Neil Gaiman , draft their stories by hand to stoke creativity), scientists have only recently started investigating why writing by hand has these effects.

A slew of recent brain imaging research suggests handwriting's power stems from the relative complexity of the process and how it forces different brain systems to work together to reproduce the shapes of letters in our heads onto the page.

Your brain on handwriting

Both handwriting and typing involve moving our hands and fingers to create words on a page. But handwriting, it turns out, requires a lot more fine-tuned coordination between the motor and visual systems. This seems to more deeply engage the brain in ways that support learning.

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Feeling artsy here's how making art helps your brain.

"Handwriting is probably among the most complex motor skills that the brain is capable of," says Marieke Longcamp , a cognitive neuroscientist at Aix-Marseille Université.

Gripping a pen nimbly enough to write is a complicated task, as it requires your brain to continuously monitor the pressure that each finger exerts on the pen. Then, your motor system has to delicately modify that pressure to re-create each letter of the words in your head on the page.

"Your fingers have to each do something different to produce a recognizable letter," says Sophia Vinci-Booher , an educational neuroscientist at Vanderbilt University. Adding to the complexity, your visual system must continuously process that letter as it's formed. With each stroke, your brain compares the unfolding script with mental models of the letters and words, making adjustments to fingers in real time to create the letters' shapes, says Vinci-Booher.

That's not true for typing.

To type "tap" your fingers don't have to trace out the form of the letters — they just make three relatively simple and uniform movements. In comparison, it takes a lot more brainpower, as well as cross-talk between brain areas, to write than type.

Recent brain imaging studies bolster this idea. A study published in January found that when students write by hand, brain areas involved in motor and visual information processing " sync up " with areas crucial to memory formation, firing at frequencies associated with learning.

"We don't see that [synchronized activity] in typewriting at all," says Audrey van der Meer , a psychologist and study co-author at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. She suggests that writing by hand is a neurobiologically richer process and that this richness may confer some cognitive benefits.

Other experts agree. "There seems to be something fundamental about engaging your body to produce these shapes," says Robert Wiley , a cognitive psychologist at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro. "It lets you make associations between your body and what you're seeing and hearing," he says, which might give the mind more footholds for accessing a given concept or idea.

Those extra footholds are especially important for learning in kids, but they may give adults a leg up too. Wiley and others worry that ditching handwriting for typing could have serious consequences for how we all learn and think.

What might be lost as handwriting wanes

The clearest consequence of screens and keyboards replacing pen and paper might be on kids' ability to learn the building blocks of literacy — letters.

"Letter recognition in early childhood is actually one of the best predictors of later reading and math attainment," says Vinci-Booher. Her work suggests the process of learning to write letters by hand is crucial for learning to read them.

"When kids write letters, they're just messy," she says. As kids practice writing "A," each iteration is different, and that variability helps solidify their conceptual understanding of the letter.

Research suggests kids learn to recognize letters better when seeing variable handwritten examples, compared with uniform typed examples.

This helps develop areas of the brain used during reading in older children and adults, Vinci-Booher found.

"This could be one of the ways that early experiences actually translate to long-term life outcomes," she says. "These visually demanding, fine motor actions bake in neural communication patterns that are really important for learning later on."

Ditching handwriting instruction could mean that those skills don't get developed as well, which could impair kids' ability to learn down the road.

"If young children are not receiving any handwriting training, which is very good brain stimulation, then their brains simply won't reach their full potential," says van der Meer. "It's scary to think of the potential consequences."

Many states are trying to avoid these risks by mandating cursive instruction. This year, California started requiring elementary school students to learn cursive , and similar bills are moving through state legislatures in several states, including Indiana, Kentucky, South Carolina and Wisconsin. (So far, evidence suggests that it's the writing by hand that matters, not whether it's print or cursive.)

Slowing down and processing information

For adults, one of the main benefits of writing by hand is that it simply forces us to slow down.

During a meeting or lecture, it's possible to type what you're hearing verbatim. But often, "you're not actually processing that information — you're just typing in the blind," says van der Meer. "If you take notes by hand, you can't write everything down," she says.

The relative slowness of the medium forces you to process the information, writing key words or phrases and using drawing or arrows to work through ideas, she says. "You make the information your own," she says, which helps it stick in the brain.

Such connections and integration are still possible when typing, but they need to be made more intentionally. And sometimes, efficiency wins out. "When you're writing a long essay, it's obviously much more practical to use a keyboard," says van der Meer.

Still, given our long history of using our hands to mark meaning in the world, some scientists worry about the more diffuse consequences of offloading our thinking to computers.

"We're foisting a lot of our knowledge, extending our cognition, to other devices, so it's only natural that we've started using these other agents to do our writing for us," says Balasubramaniam.

It's possible that this might free up our minds to do other kinds of hard thinking, he says. Or we might be sacrificing a fundamental process that's crucial for the kinds of immersive cognitive experiences that enable us to learn and think at our full potential.

Balasubramaniam stresses, however, that we don't have to ditch digital tools to harness the power of handwriting. So far, research suggests that scribbling with a stylus on a screen activates the same brain pathways as etching ink on paper. It's the movement that counts, he says, not its final form.

Jonathan Lambert is a Washington, D.C.-based freelance journalist who covers science, health and policy.

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You’ll Love Why Tom Selleck Insisted On Writing His 352 Page Memoir By Hand

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Tom Selleck

The Hollywood star Tom Selleck is currently promoting his new memoir “You Never Know,” which hit stores last week. In a new interview, Selleck is opening up about why he decided to write this 352 page memoir completely by hand, writing it with “a pen and yellow pad.”

Tom Selleck then and now. pic.twitter.com/y1b5RYNViv — Don Balkwill (@DonBalkwill) May 11, 2024

Selleck Wrote Memoir By Hand

“I’ve always written that way, and it’s the only way I know how to write. I can’t think in front of a keyboard,” Selleck, 79, told Town and Country .

“It’s like I drive them nuts on Blue Bloods because I said, ‘No, you have to send me scripts. I need to see the paper,'” he continued. “I don’t really register things the same way when I scroll, so it’s better for me anyway.”

Blue Bloods is Selleck’s hit CBS television show that he’s starred on since 2010. The show is sadly coming to an end, however, with the final eight episodes of the series set to air in the fall. Watch Selleck talk about this in the video below.

Related: Tom Selleck Desperate To Save ‘Blue Bloods’ From Cancellation – ‘We’re Winning Our Night’

Selleck Avoids Technology

Last month, Selleck previously opened up about why he does not like technology.

“Occasionally I’ve looked up my name,” he told  People Magazine . “That started really with the book, but I’ve never sent my own email. I had a secretary. I’ve never texted anybody.”

Selleck went on to say that he relies on his 66 year-old wife Jillie Mack, who he’s been married to for 37 years, for help when it comes to replying to texts or emails that he may receive.

“I have a certain luxury where I probably couldn’t survive otherwise,” he admitted. “But I don’t know. I have a hard time writing things down, which is weird for a guy who’s pushing a book.”

Watch Selleck talk more about his memoir in the video below.

Related: Tom Selleck Finally Reveals Why He Danced With Princess Diana In The 1980s

Selleck Is A ‘Private Person’

In his latest interview, Selleck revealed that it was hard for him to be convinced to write a memoir because unlike many Hollywood stars, he is a “pretty private” person.

“I hesitated for a long time because I didn’t, you know, screw up and end up going to prison and have to start a new career,” he said. “I just said, ‘What am I gonna write about?'”

Selleck added that he knew his book wouldn’t be “political” or a “tell-all,” so “it took about four years” for his publicist to convince him that it was a good idea.

“Then I got into it and had some ideas about what I would talk about,” he explained, revealing that he wanted to talk to “young actors and people in the business” to offer them some advice.

Selleck made sure to include other highlighter-worthy life lessons, including “you have to choose to be offended,” something that rings especially true in a time when cancel culture still runs rampant.

Tom Selleck, known for his roles in "Magnum, P.I." and "Blue Bloods," joins Hoda & Jenna to talk about his new memoir "You Never Know" and shares why it "took a while" to write after a 50-plus-year "accidental" career. pic.twitter.com/5yoAH6JFVZ — TODAY with Hoda & Jenna (@HodaAndJenna) May 8, 2024

Selleck’s book is conversational in tone, so it’s something that can be enjoyed by fans of all ages. The book chronicles not only his highly successful Hollywood career, but also his personal life, with one particularly touching chapter detailing his decades-long marriage to Mack.

Selleck has long been one of the most down to earth actors in Hollywood, and he’s never let fame go to his head. Be sure to check out his book if you want to learn more about this incredible Hollywood star!

More About: Celebrity

a i that writes essays for you

Why writing by hand beats typing for thinking and learning

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If you're like many digitally savvy Americans, it has likely been a while since you've spent much time writing by hand.

The laborious process of tracing out our thoughts, letter by letter, on the page is becoming a relic of the past in our screen-dominated world, where text messages and thumb-typed grocery lists have replaced handwritten letters and sticky notes. Electronic keyboards offer obvious efficiency benefits that have undoubtedly boosted our productivity — imagine having to write all your emails longhand.

To keep up, many schools are introducing computers as early as preschool, meaning some kids may learn the basics of typing before writing by hand.

But giving up this slower, more tactile way of expressing ourselves may come at a significant cost, according to a growing body of research that's uncovering the surprising cognitive benefits of taking pen to paper, or even stylus to iPad — for both children and adults.

In kids, studies show that tracing out ABCs, as opposed to typing them, leads to better and longer-lasting recognition and understanding of letters. Writing by hand also improves memory and recall of words, laying down the foundations of literacy and learning. In adults, taking notes by hand during a lecture, instead of typing, can lead to better conceptual understanding of material.

"There's actually some very important things going on during the embodied experience of writing by hand," says Ramesh Balasubramaniam , a neuroscientist at the University of California, Merced. "It has important cognitive benefits."

While those benefits have long been recognized by some (for instance, many authors, including Jennifer Egan and Neil Gaiman , draft their stories by hand to stoke creativity), scientists have only recently started investigating why writing by hand has these effects.

A slew of recent brain imaging research suggests handwriting's power stems from the relative complexity of the process and how it forces different brain systems to work together to reproduce the shapes of letters in our heads onto the page.

Your brain on handwriting

Both handwriting and typing involve moving our hands and fingers to create words on a page. But handwriting, it turns out, requires a lot more fine-tuned coordination between the motor and visual systems. This seems to more deeply engage the brain in ways that support learning.

"Handwriting is probably among the most complex motor skills that the brain is capable of," says Marieke Longcamp , a cognitive neuroscientist at Aix-Marseille Université.

Gripping a pen nimbly enough to write is a complicated task, as it requires your brain to continuously monitor the pressure that each finger exerts on the pen. Then, your motor system has to delicately modify that pressure to re-create each letter of the words in your head on the page.

"Your fingers have to each do something different to produce a recognizable letter," says Sophia Vinci-Booher , an educational neuroscientist at Vanderbilt University. Adding to the complexity, your visual system must continuously process that letter as it's formed. With each stroke, your brain compares the unfolding script with mental models of the letters and words, making adjustments to fingers in real time to create the letters' shapes, says Vinci-Booher.

That's not true for typing.

To type "tap" your fingers don't have to trace out the form of the letters — they just make three relatively simple and uniform movements. In comparison, it takes a lot more brainpower, as well as cross-talk between brain areas, to write than type.

Recent brain imaging studies bolster this idea. A study published in January found that when students write by hand, brain areas involved in motor and visual information processing " sync up " with areas crucial to memory formation, firing at frequencies associated with learning.

"We don't see that [synchronized activity] in typewriting at all," says Audrey van der Meer , a psychologist and study co-author at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. She suggests that writing by hand is a neurobiologically richer process and that this richness may confer some cognitive benefits.

Other experts agree. "There seems to be something fundamental about engaging your body to produce these shapes," says Robert Wiley , a cognitive psychologist at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro. "It lets you make associations between your body and what you're seeing and hearing," he says, which might give the mind more footholds for accessing a given concept or idea.

Those extra footholds are especially important for learning in kids, but they may give adults a leg up too. Wiley and others worry that ditching handwriting for typing could have serious consequences for how we all learn and think.

What might be lost as handwriting wanes

The clearest consequence of screens and keyboards replacing pen and paper might be on kids' ability to learn the building blocks of literacy — letters.

"Letter recognition in early childhood is actually one of the best predictors of later reading and math attainment," says Vinci-Booher. Her work suggests the process of learning to write letters by hand is crucial for learning to read them.

"When kids write letters, they're just messy," she says. As kids practice writing "A," each iteration is different, and that variability helps solidify their conceptual understanding of the letter.

Research suggests kids learn to recognize letters better when seeing variable handwritten examples, compared with uniform typed examples.

This helps develop areas of the brain used during reading in older children and adults, Vinci-Booher found.

"This could be one of the ways that early experiences actually translate to long-term life outcomes," she says. "These visually demanding, fine motor actions bake in neural communication patterns that are really important for learning later on."

Ditching handwriting instruction could mean that those skills don't get developed as well, which could impair kids' ability to learn down the road.

"If young children are not receiving any handwriting training, which is very good brain stimulation, then their brains simply won't reach their full potential," says van der Meer. "It's scary to think of the potential consequences."

Many states are trying to avoid these risks by mandating cursive instruction. This year, California started requiring elementary school students to learn cursive , and similar bills are moving through state legislatures in several states, including Indiana, Kentucky, South Carolina and Wisconsin. (So far, evidence suggests that it's the writing by hand that matters, not whether it's print or cursive.)

Slowing down and processing information

For adults, one of the main benefits of writing by hand is that it simply forces us to slow down.

During a meeting or lecture, it's possible to type what you're hearing verbatim. But often, "you're not actually processing that information — you're just typing in the blind," says van der Meer. "If you take notes by hand, you can't write everything down," she says.

The relative slowness of the medium forces you to process the information, writing key words or phrases and using drawing or arrows to work through ideas, she says. "You make the information your own," she says, which helps it stick in the brain.

Such connections and integration are still possible when typing, but they need to be made more intentionally. And sometimes, efficiency wins out. "When you're writing a long essay, it's obviously much more practical to use a keyboard," says van der Meer.

Still, given our long history of using our hands to mark meaning in the world, some scientists worry about the more diffuse consequences of offloading our thinking to computers.

"We're foisting a lot of our knowledge, extending our cognition, to other devices, so it's only natural that we've started using these other agents to do our writing for us," says Balasubramaniam.

It's possible that this might free up our minds to do other kinds of hard thinking, he says. Or we might be sacrificing a fundamental process that's crucial for the kinds of immersive cognitive experiences that enable us to learn and think at our full potential.

Balasubramaniam stresses, however, that we don't have to ditch digital tools to harness the power of handwriting. So far, research suggests that scribbling with a stylus on a screen activates the same brain pathways as etching ink on paper. It's the movement that counts, he says, not its final form.

Jonathan Lambert is a Washington, D.C.-based freelance journalist who covers science, health and policy.

Copyright 2024 NPR

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IMAGES

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  28. Why writing by hand beats typing for thinking and learning

    "When you're writing a long essay, it's obviously much more practical to use a keyboard," says van der Meer. Still, given our long history of using our hands to mark meaning in the world, some ...

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    You'll Love Why Tom Selleck Insisted On Writing His 352 Page Memoir By Hand. The Hollywood star Tom Selleck is currently promoting his new memoir "You Never Know," which hit stores last week. In a new interview, Selleck is opening up about why he decided to write this 352 page memoir completely by hand, writing it with "a pen and yellow ...

  30. Why writing by hand beats typing for thinking and learning

    For adults, one of the main benefits of writing by hand is that it simply forces us to slow down. During a meeting or lecture, it's possible to type what you're hearing verbatim. But often, "you ...