Essay writing is a fundamental skill needed for academic success. Writing high-quality essays can take a significant amount of time and effort. Thankfully, there are now a variety of essay writing apps available to help students write and structure their essays more efficiently. These apps can serve as helpful writing tools to assist with brainstorming, outlining, drafting, and revising essays.
Some of the top essay writing apps for students include:
Grammarly: Grammarly is one of the most well-known writing apps on the market. The free version checks for grammar, plagiarism, punctuation, spelling, word choice, and much more. Paid versions offer additional features like tone detection, advanced grammar checks, and more comprehensive plagiarism detection. Grammarly integrates with Google Docs, Microsoft Word, and over 30 other writing apps and browsers. It’s a very useful tool for cleaning up writing mistakes and improving writing style.
Revision Assistant: Developed at Carnegie Mellon University, Revision Assistant analyzes writing style, word choice, organization, tone, and more to provide natural language feedback. It does not check for grammar or spelling like Grammarly. This app focuses more on higher-level writing concerns through detailed reports and suggestions. Revision Assistant works best for academic, argument-based writing. Users can upload text files or paste writing directly into the app for analysis.
Writefull: Writefull takes a unique approach by utilizing artificial intelligence and natural language generation to provide outline and draft writing suggestions. Users simply type in a prompt and Writefull will suggest potential thesis statements, topic sentences, supporting points, and full outlines or drafts based on the prompt. This app is aimed at helping generate initial content for essays rather than editing existing writing. The AI-assisted approach makes Writefull very different than traditional editing tools.
Criterion: Developed by Educational Testing Service, Criterion is an AI writing assistant for writing centers, tutors, and individual learners. It provides on-going writing support from brainstorming to final drafts by analyzing key aspects of writing like domain knowledge, use of evidence, and writing style. Criterion gives specific, actionable feedback and can suggest revisions directly within Google Docs. While very powerful, Criterion is primarily intended for use by educators rather than individual students.
Quillbot: Quillbot uses AI to rewrite and rephrase sentences, paragraphs, and full written works while maintaining the original meaning. This allows users to significantly expand or modify existing written content with just a few clicks. The app identifies complex sentences and breaks them down into simpler language. It can also suggest synonyms to improve word variety. Quillbot is useful for editing drafts, generating more material for essays, and putting content into your own words to avoid plagiarism.
EssaySoft: EssaySoft focuses on outlining, writing, and structuring full essays from start to finish. Users choose an essay type like argumentative, compare/contrast, etc and the app walks through a step-by-step process. It helps brainstorm topics, develop thesis statements, create basic outlines, writes introductions and conclusions, and even fills out body paragraphs with relevant points. While rough, the generated content provides a strong foundation to build upon. EssaySoft aims to simplify the entire essay writing process.
WriteAngle: WriteAngle streamlines organization and idea development through mind-mapping and concept mapping tools. Users can visually map out key essay elements like main topics, supporting ideas, counterarguments and how they connect. This allows for flexible outlining outside of rigid templates. WriteAngle fosters exploration and refinement of topics and outlines in a very intuitive way. The mind maps can also be used alongside writing to keep core ideas in view.
EasyBib: While not focused solely on essays, Easybib remains one of the top choices for citation management. It generates MLA, APA, and Chicago style citations for research papers. Users can search sources, save bibliographic data, and insert in-text citations directly into Google Docs or Word files. EasyBib eliminates the tedious work of tracking down citation details manually. The in-app plagiarism checker can also provide originality reports on written works.
Zoho Writer: Part of the fully-featured Zoho productivity suite, Zoho Writer is free online word processing and collaboration software. Beyond basic word processing, Writer offers extensive outlining tools, research modules, automatic citations, reference managers, and revision tracking – making it a powerful all-in-one writing hub. Essays and reports can be written, organized, researched, and revised in one cohesive space. Users can also co-edit documents with teammates or instructors in real-time.
When evaluating which app suits individual needs for essay writing, consider the following factors:
Your needs – Do you need help with grammar/structure, mind-mapping concepts, generating initial content or citations? Tailor your choice to your key areas of focus.
Device compatibility – Check if apps work cross-platform on laptops, phones, tablets to support writing anywhere. Web-based options ensure access from any device.
Learning style – Some apps like Writefull leverage AI to streamline writing while others like Grammarly focus on step-by-step editing. Determine your preferred learning approach.
Specialized features – Consider options with niche functionalities like Revision Assistant’s high-level writing analysis or Zoho’s full-scale paper creation tools.
Price/subscription – Many basic tools are free while premium versions unlock more content. Weigh costs versus individual writing needs and budgets.
Overall, essay writing apps can streamline drafting, citing sources, organizing papers, detecting errors and improving style – making productive writing easier and less time-consuming. With practice, apps foster better writing habits, stronger critical thinking, and higher achievement of learning objectives. Choosing the right apps helps maximize the writing process and ability to effectively communicate complex ideas.
Andrew Stroud