It is not enough to use a word processor to write well. To improve your style and enrich your vocabulary, use online services that will help you write letters, reports and your other documents.
Letters, emails, reports or perhaps even novels and short stories for budding authors… Writing is an art! To solve inspiration breakdowns, avoid writing errors or even to type faster on the keyboard, the Web can be of great help. So here are some sites to bookmark for future writing.
Les-abbreviations.com: lrules for writing acronyms and abbreviations
What do the WHO, RATP and ISF have in common? All three are acronyms and their letters are pronounced distinctly. Not to be confused with acronyms that are pronounced like words (like Smic, for example). So much for the oral. But in writing, how to use them well? Should they be systematically explained and written in capitals? Les-abbreviations.com website details rules and tips for using abbreviations, initials and acronyms in French. It also offers several directories of the most common acronyms such as that of the Office for Official Publications of the European Communities.
The CRISCO website: un very comprehensive dictionary of synonyms
There are a plethora of thesaurus on the web, but that of CRISCO (Inter-language Research Center on Meaning in Context) of the University of Caen is one of the best. From a simple word, adjective or verb, the site finds an extremely extensive list of equivalents: no less than 57 synonyms for the word “write”, for example. The terms are classified by relevance and by semantic groups (or cliques), to access even more proposals and enrich your writing.
The Language Portal of Canada: a dictionary of co-occurrences to find words
In linguistics, a co-occurrence designates the presence of several elements in a sentence and the existing relationship between these elements. Not sure which verb to associate with a particular word? It’s there that the dictionary of co-occurrences proposed by the Language Portal of Canada can help you. Just enter a word to get a list of adjectives, verbs and expressions that can be used with that word, depending on the desired context. Ideal for inspiration breakdowns or simply to vary your vocabulary. In addition to this dictionary of co-occurrences, the portal offers other writing assistance tools: a dictionary dedicated to legal terms, linguistic recommendations and conjugations.
DeepL: a artificial intelligence based translator
When writing any text, it can always be useful to have a good translator on hand. There too, there is only the embarrassment of the choice… But Deep L is the one to keep in your favourites! Behind this tool, the Linguee teams and a neural network development project to translate any type of text. The result ? A fast, efficient and reliable translator. Simply copy/paste the text to be translated in the window provided for this purpose and select the desired language to obtain an automatic translation. The proposed text also takes into account the context to avoid errors. By clicking on a word, DeepL also provides its precise translation and several synonyms.
DactyloCours: a tool to improve typing on the keyboard
Writing effectively also means maintaining a good rhythm on the keyboard without making a typo. And it is possible to train there! The DactyloCours website thus offers lessons to improve your typing speed without looking at the keyboard, starting with the initial position of the fingers on the keys. Before starting the lessons, it is possible to take the speed test offered by the site and compete with other users. The fastest in the ranking exceed 600 strikes per minute… and you?
