Journalist's Toolbox Newsletter XLIII

March 8, 2022

Mar 8

Writing and Editing Tools

Web producers must wear many hats, including that of copy editor, fact-checker and, sometimes, even writer. Managing such a wide range of skills is a bit of a juggling act, but there are many tools that can help.

You can find dozens of the on the Journalist’s Toolbox copy editing, fact-checking, writing and productivity tools pages. Here are a few of my favorites:

Editing

Chicago Tribune Grammar Cheat Sheet
A short overview of some of the sticky grammar issues journalists regularly encounter. It’s worth a read … and a bookmark.

Lose the Very
Gives you synonyms to words to help avoid using the word very. It’s VERY effective.

Global Press Style Guide
This is a living document that establishes rules for referring to the people and places around the world where Global Press Journal reporters work. Each entry is crafted to promote dignity and precision in international journalism. It points out options to AP Style and gives an international perspective on writing for an audience.

Thsrs: The Shorter Thesaurus
This thesaurus gives you synonyms the same length or shorter than the word you enter, which is helpful for both print and online headline writing.

Fact-checking

TinEye.com
Reverse image search photos to fact-check for context, publish date, etc. It’s a good alternative to Google reverse image search.

Google Fact Check Explorer
Look up and see a timeline of current fact-checks on news stories.

Sensity.ai Facial Recognition
This tool lets you use artificial intelligence to fact-check/search photos.

Craig Silverman’s Verification and Digital Investigations Resources
Essential plugins and tools for general OSINT/online research work.

Writing

Most of us know about or use common tools like Grammarly, etc. But here are a few tools you might not know about.

My friend Jeremy Caplan at Wonder Tools (his newsletter is awesome) shared these first two tools a few months ago. I really like Analyze My Writing as it flags some issues you may have with verb tense, etc.

750 Words
The site reminds you to write 750 words a day and tracks your daily and monthly progress. This is good discipline if you’re writing a book or other lengthy project.

Analyze My Writing
Copy and paste a sample of your writing into the box on the screen and it will analyze it for readability, passive voice, etc.

WordTune
I’ve just started playing with this tool and found it to be useful as it uses AI to offer suggestions for restructuring sentences.

WordCounter.net
You might not think you need a word count as Microsoft Word and Google Docs have it built-in. But an English teacher created this word counter to help users not just meet word requirements, but to evaluate the length of sentences and define typing and reading speed.

Video: Watch how to incorporate some basic editing tools into your workflow.

Around the Web

KMZ to Shapefile Converter: Use this free tool to convert shapefiles to work with various types of maps and images.
Copy, Paste, Legislate
This Center for Public Integrity site helps you track lobbying efforts by pulling documents and parsing text. It identifies recent model legislation introduced nationally and in your state. It lets you search a specific topic or keyword and by a specific bill number.
StateLocalGov.net
Official government websites locator cited by the following govt websites: USA.gov, LOC, FEMA, EPA, IRS, HUD, DOJ, SSA, ARMY, NAVY, 49 state governments, and more.

Cool Tool Tuesday

Don’t forget that at 1 p.m. CT each Tuesday, we feature a new resource on #cooltooltuesday, like you see in our Around the Web section of this newsletter. Be sure to check it out and retweet it. Here’s a video of some of my past faves:

Tips Welcome

If you like the resources we share in this newsletter, on Twitter, the YouTube training videos or on the Toolbox site, you can send Mike Reilley a tip on Twitter. Just open the Twitter app, go to @journtoolbox and click on the tip button in his profile header and tip away. Tips are never expected but always appreciated.

In Quotes …

“If a person is not talented enough to be a novelist, not smart enough to be a lawyer, and his hands are too shaky to perform operations, he becomes a journalist.” -- Norman Mailer

Follow us: @journtoolbox | JournalistsToolbox | Subscribe on YouTube

Journalist's Toolbox