Lately, I have been developing automatic essay evaluations for IELTS and now for college-level academic writing. I sent an email to colleagues in my department to share my progress, and one colleague wrote back to share his concerns about my new automatically self-scoring film analysis essay writing assignment. I had shared a sample of a
Read on »Features
Check out the New Features on the Virtual Writing Tutor
Hooray! The BRAND NEW version of the (now) award-winning Virtual Writing Tutor is finally here. It has taken almost a year to add new features and update the code, but it is finally ready. It is a whole lot faster, and there are some very cool new features, too. So, what’s new? Self-scoring IELTS Academic
Read on »Feedback and Links Page
Check your feedback and links on the feedback page. Start by clicking on the feedback link on the navigation menu at the top right, under the share icons. Feedback Tab This tab shows the latest text you submitted to the Virtual Writing Tutor grammar checker. Each text is dated. The Virtual Writing Tutor keeps your
Read on »Translate Grammar Checker Feedback to one of 70 Languages
When you create a member’s account on the Virtual Writing Tutor grammar checker website, you can get feedback translated to your native language with the click of a button. We use Google’s translation API to translate feedback to any one of the 70 languages currently available. Membership is 100% free, and we don’t send spam.
Read on »Your Friendly Robotic Grammar Checker
We are in the process of updating the Virtual Writing Tutor.com, so now is our opportunity to make the VWT faster, more powerful, and a little friendlier. In order to make the VWT a little friendlier, I have been working with a designer to create a friendly little robot to accompany the feedback you receive
Read on »Essay Checker
Imagine a website that could help students write better essays with automated feedback. Now imagine the same website but with additional commenting tools to help people record audio comments and rate each other’s essays using IELTS and TOEFL rubrics and comments. There you have it: an essay checker for the Virtual Writing Tutor. That’s what
Read on »Silent Letters: Pronunciation Made Easy
English is semi-phonetic, which means that the way a word is spelled can give clues to its pronunciation but can also be quite misleading. Often, the pronunciation of a word can be very different to what you might predict based on its spelling. One way English is semi-phonetic is the use of silent letters. Silent
Read on »Walk-me-through the Main Features
You may have noticed the latest addition to the Virtual Writing Tutor grammar checker main page. It’s a short little walkthrough of the principal features of the grammar checker for newcomers. You only get to see it twice before it disappears forever. Why did we add it? The Problem One usability issue I see again
Read on »Easy Essay Outliner
Just fill out a form to create your outline. What could be easier? Are Essay Outlines Difficult for You? Not any more. I have broken down essay outlining into a series of easy steps. All you have to do is answer a few questions, make a few choices, and the Virtual Writing Tutor builds your
Read on »How to Create a Pen Pal Exchange on the Virtual Writing Tutor
Click here to start a Pen Pal Exchange Click here to read about the features on the Pen Pal Exchange Step 1: Click on “Templates.” Click “New” to create a template from scratch. Give your template a descriptive name. Pen pals will see the name on their dashboards. If you want to try a ready-made
Read on »Pen Pal Exchange Project
Useful links on the pen pals: Start a Pen Pal Exchange project for students on the Virtual Writing Tutor. For instructions on how to create a pen pal exchange for your students, check out these step-by-step pen pal exchange creation instructions for teachers. Click here for an article on pen pals that students can read to
Read on »Membership advantages
Members can check 3000 words at a time, save text and feedback, translate feedback into 70 languages, create hypertext narratives and essay outlines, send PDFs with voice recordings, track errors, play error correction games, post essays to forums for additional feedback, with more features on their way. Features Non-member *Signed-in Member Price Ad-supported Ad-supported, zero
Read on »Target Structures
What are target structures? Optimal second language pedagogy involves a repeating exchange of meaningful messages with a focus on target structures. By “exchange,” I mean that teachers should provide learners with opportunities to create sentences, paragraphs, stories, essays, blog posts, articles or reports that are meaningful to the learner. Learners should express those messages to
Read on »Word Counter
How to Use the Word Counter on the Virtual Writing Tutor When you want to know how many words are in a particular text, paste the text into the text area and click the “Count Words” button. The system will count your words and sentences, and calculate your average sentence length. The text you enter
Read on »Get Help from the Community on the Grammar Checker Forum
New Grammar Checker Forum The Virtual Writing Tutor has added a community forum to its free grammar checker. Post your text, tell the community what kind of help you need, and benefit from the free proofreading service that the community can provide. You can get help with your grammar, spelling, punctuation, and structure. It costs nothing
Read on »Paraphrase Checker
Students sometimes inadvertently plagiarize because they don’t know how to paraphrase. To remedy this gap in their learning, I created a paraphrase checker for the Virtual Writing Tutor. The concept is simple. The system shows you which words are the same and need to be paraphrased. This feature is very useful for students and for blog
Read on »Numbered Diagram of Virtual Writing Tutor Features
Feature List (The numbers below correspond to the numbers on the image above.) Click on the logo to return to the main page. Update your password, newsletter subscription status. Create a free account and login. For added convenience, you stay logged in until you logout. Use speech recognition for hands free operation or to
Read on »Hypertext Narrative Creator and Grammar Checker
Have you ever read a choose-your-own-adventure story? A hypertext narrative is a branching story just like that but online with hyperlinks. The reader reads a section of the story and then chooses how the story should progress by clicking on a link. See examples of hypertext stories created with the Virtual Writing Tutor. You can
Read on »Switch Layouts of the Grammar Checker
The default layout displays feedback on the errors detected by the grammar checker below your submitted text. This was a pedagogical choice. The idea is that learners must try to remember the feedback long enough to scroll up to the text area and make to the correction. Some users have requested that their text and the
Read on »Check Spelling and Grammar
Anyone can check spelling and grammar for free. Non-members can check 500 words. Members can check up to 3000 words at once. Membership is 100% free and comes with many additional benefits. How to check spelling and grammar Please follow and like us:
Read on »Random Error Checker Game
Have you tried the Random Error Checker Game? The new interactive version of the game is located on the Games page. Please follow and like us:
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