[throwjabah]

Personally I think this is a useless tool. Writing ability isn’t so easily trained like muscle memory and this website does not handle tone, style, or describe how to use grammar as a tool as opposed to it acting as a governance over your writing.

The people you’re talking about do not actually need to write well. The assumption is that the reader is capable of handling better writing and thus if the writing is better, the reading will be also. That’s not the case, not merely because improving writing often doesn’t improve the experience of reading, but also because most people don’t have extensive reading capabilities.

We test students entering college on their reading comprehension, and in general we only require them to understand approximately 60-70% of what they read. This means that 30-40% of what most people write is pointless crap that can go in the trash. Some idiots who aren’t considered confident in their intellectual abilities might scoff at this assessment, but unless I am reading and writing for an audience that also is capable of understanding the expression, then it is pointless to attempt expressing more.

That’s why I believe you noticed that most people don’t do well in reading/writing… it’s simply not a skill most have and it also is not overly meaningful that is the case. Why paint for the blind?

[moksha256]

> Writing ability isn’t so easily trained like muscle memory

Writing is improved through practice. That's why there will be 500 games.

> this website does not handle tone, style, or describe how to use grammar as a tool as opposed to it acting as a governance over your writing

Guidance on tone and style is provided, and paid users get lessons that go over techniques to achieve desired tone and style.

> The people you’re talking about do not actually need to write well.

Not sure what you're talking about...my experiences are first-hand accounts.

> in general we only require them to understand approximately 60-70% of what they read

Right, so if the underlying material had less crap in it, people would get more out of the time they spent reading it.

> That’s why I believe you noticed that most people don’t do well in reading/writing… it’s simply not a skill most have and it also is not overly meaningful that is the case. Why paint for the blind?

Most people cannot speak well in front of an audience either. Does that mean public speaking is not worth learning? Learn how to write well if you want, or don't...it's up to you to determine if it's worthwhile or not.

There are others who don't share your opinion who may gain a lot from this site.

[kareemm]

Don't worry about the haters. The throwaway's response is verging on trolling and isn't worthy of your concern.

I was impressed by your project and will consider paying down the road. I think an app like yours plus human feedback is a killer combo to help people learn to write better. This kind of writing isn't even really about writing - it's about self-editing.

Good stuff!

[moksha256]

Thanks! Yeah exactly -- I actually believe that one of the most fundamental issues with traditional writing instruction is that it focuses on writing tips, which are mostly useless because everyone's first draft of anything is always bad.

Writing instruction should instead focus on writing faults so that people know how to actually improve whatever they initially wrote down.

I discuss that notion more here:

https://brevity500.com/about/

Part of the reason I went public this early was that I wanted to work directly with people to provide them feedback on their own writing samples. That will help me better understand this site's users, but there's a selfish motive also: it will help me gather writing samples to use for the next ~490 games that need to be built.

All that to say -- I don't mention it on the site, but for the near-term, everyone who signs up will get pretty personalized attention and feedback.

[throwndajakajd]

This is how you write and you want users to PAY for this? Are you taking a page from Blizzard and making an out of season April fools joke?

Edit: “ Writing is improved through practice. That's why there will be 500 games.” See you’re wrong about this. Writing is improved much the same way that personality is. And being a funny dick can win more points than being kind and boring.

[Miraste]

If the aim of professional writing is to communicate your ideas and convince your audience of their value, and we accept HN votes as a proxy...

you may want to sign up for GP's course.

[Shared404]

Wow.

Congrats, you landed an even bigger egg on your face.

OP, congrats on your progress. This looks interesting, and has the potential to help a lot of people.

Mr. Throwaway, do you have nothing better to do with your life?

[GiorgioG]

You created a throwaway account to shit on someone else's efforts. You knew it was wrong, otherwise you wouldn't have created a new account. Just move along if you have nothing of value add to the discussion.

[chrisdbanks]

When I was writing full-time, we had strict word limits. It meant we spent a lot of time removing unnecessary words. My writing skill improved immensely because of this "training". Writing is a skill like any other. It can be trained. The problem most people have is that they don't know how to train it.

I think this tool is an excellent start. As you point out there are other skills in writing, but maybe this tool is just the start of a suite (or gym) of tools to help people become better writers. I applaud the creator's efforts to help people.

As I recall, most of the texts in reading comprehension tests are so badly written that it's amazing anyone can understand even 70% of them. Are you saying that because people can't understand difficult texts, people shouldn't bother trying to write clearly and concisely?