This is Written at a 4th Grade Reading Level

AKA: Are you smarter than a fourth grader? An overview of the Hemingway Editor, written using the Hemingway Editor.

Photo by Crew on Unsplash

I assume everyone has heard of Ernest Hemingway. What you may not have heard of is the free online editor named after him.

I used the Hemingway Editor for school assignments. In these assignments, the professors preferred plain language. In this way, it was a valuable tool for me.

But, when it comes to writing to publish, I like including all the frills that Hemingway seems to reject. I understand the concept to an extent. Sometimes a writer crafts a sentence that they have poured their soul into. Then, the editor tells them to dumb it down. This can feel heartbreaking.

This is not to say that the editor is bad. But, it’s not always the best tool when it comes to more creative writing. I will test the Hemingway Editor by using it on this article, in which I review the Hemingway Editor.

Thus, I am typing this in the editor, and I plan to take all its suggestions. All the while, I will give an overview of what it does.

Does concision always make for better writing? That is the question I now strive to answer, in as simple a way as possible.