Joseph Lapin.
From the Workbench  ·  Tool

Measure a draft against your own hand

Paste something you wrote by yourself, then something a tool helped draft. The page counts eight things in both, the same way, and lays the numbers side by side. There is no detector in it. The baseline is you.

The method, and every mistake I made building it, is in the field guide.

Nothing you paste leaves this page. The counting happens in your browser, and closing the tab erases it.

Writing you did by yourself: something from before the tool, or a dictation you never cleaned up. A few hundred words will show a shape, and more is steadier.

Something you made with the tool in the loop. Keep to one kind of writing at a time, because posts, letters, and emails drift at different speeds.

The eight counts

The shape of the sentences

Your own handThe draft
Share of sentences at each length, in words. An average hides this: two pieces can share an average and one can mix short and long while the other keeps nearly every sentence the same length.

Three questions

The sentences behind the counts

Every one of these is a real sentence that real writers use. Read them, and compare the rate to your own hand.

Measure, quote, and then decide for yourself. Nothing in this should ever block you from sending.

The Human in the Loop

One essay a week, on Sunday morning.

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