With Full Edit, Writefull provides language feedback at the sentence level. This means that beyond grammar, vocabulary, spelling, or style, our new language models tackle the tricky business of fixing the order and wording of entire phrases. In this blog post, we look at Writefull’s feedback on phrasing.

What phrasing means

When putting a sentence together (in either writing or speech), you need to consider two main things: the words you use, and the grammatical rules underlying them. This is what is meant by phrasing.

Broadly speaking, phrasing is the way in which something is put into words. It is related to the concept of phraseology, which can be defined as the way in which words and phrases are organized into larger components (or chunks).

For non-native speakers of English especially, phrasing is a minefield. Knowing ‘the company that words keep’ is an acquired skill, and an incomplete mastery of grammar only makes things harder.

So let’s see how Writefull can help with phrasing in your academic text.

Examples of phrasing feedback from Writefull

Below are two instances of sentences that are grammatically correct, but with awkward wording. In both cases, Writefull’s rewording produces a more idiomatic revised sentence. In the second case, the replacement of the informal phrasal verb brush off by the verb dismiss also contributes to a more register-appropriate sentence.

In the examples below, we see how Writefull’s feedback combines sentence-level grammatical fixes with rewording, resulting in much improved readability in both sentences.

Sentence-level grammatical fixes: lead thousand > leading to thousands; problem to identify > problems in identifying. Rewordings: thousands of people to death > thousands of deaths; besides > in addition to

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