Virtual Writing Tutor

What is Virtual Writing Tutor?

The Virtual Writing Tutor is a completely free online platform, brought to you by ConverSolo Inc. It is your go-to essay checker and grammar assistant, designed to help you really boost your writing skills. You can pop in paragraphs that have mistakes, hit the “Improve writing” button, and the Virtual Writing Tutor will step in, fix those errors, and rephrase sentences so they sound just right in standard English. On top of that, it can actually score your essays, give you an overall grade, offer helpful tips for making them even better, check your CEFR level, analyze your English proficiency, and lend a hand with all sorts of things like vocabulary, spelling, grammar, and punctuation. While you can try it out for free with a basic membership, if you find yourself using it a lot, there’s a super affordable premium version with even more features and perks.

Who created Virtual Writing Tutor?

Nicholas Walker, an ESL teacher over at Ahuntsic College in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, is the person behind the Virtual Writing Tutor. He first launched the website back on April 5, 2012. His whole mission was to make ESL writing instruction better by giving students more opportunities to get feedback on their writing – more feedback, better quality, sooner, and more often. The website is actually connected to Bokomaru Publications, a group that’s all about supporting great teaching by creating free and low-cost tools for ESL learners.

How to use Virtual Writing Tutor?

Here’s a detailed, step-by-step guide to getting the most out of the Virtual Writing Tutor:

1. Improving Your Writing:
   • Just type in a paragraph that needs some work.
   • Click “Improve writing.” The tool will then correct your mistakes and rewrite the sentences in standard English.
   • You’ll get feedback showing you the errors it found and how it improved them.
2. Scoring and Checking Essays:
   • Copy your entire essay and paste it into the tool.
   • Hit “Score essay.” It’ll show you the different kinds of essays it’s equipped to score.
   • You’ll then get your overall score, along with practical advice on how to make your essay even stronger.
3. Checking Your Proficiency Level:
   • Enter some text from any assignment you’re working on.
   • Click “Check Level.” The tool will then calculate your current proficiency level.
   • It does this by looking at your vocabulary range and how often you make grammar mistakes.
4. IELTS Speaking Exam Preparation:
   • Head over to the section specifically for IELTS speaking exam practice.
   • Pick a common topic and a question related to it.
   • Write out your answer, check it for grammar errors, and then record yourself saying it.
   • Click “evaluate.” You’ll get immediate feedback on your pronunciation and an overall score.
5. IELTS Academic Writing Practice Tests:
   • You can choose between practice tests for Task 1 or Task 2 of the IELTS writing section.
   • Start the built-in timer and write your essay.
   • The system uses AI to analyze and score your essay, checking it against specific criteria.
6. Grammar and Punctuation Check:
   • This tool is great at spotting common punctuation and grammar mistakes.
   • It’s particularly good at detecting grammar errors common for ESL learners and offers suggestions for correction.
   • The grammar and punctuation checker has been fine-tuned with extra rules specifically for ESL error patterns.
7. Vocabulary Checker:
   • Simply click on the “Vocabulary Checker” button.
   • You can analyze your vocabulary use, including academic words, clichés, power words, and words specific to your field.
   • Use the feedback you get to improve your word choices and cut out clichés.

Overall, Virtual Writing Tutor offers a really helpful set of features for improving your grammar, vocabulary, essay scoring, estimating your proficiency level, and getting ready for exams. It’s designed to make your writing skills better by giving you instant feedback and useful suggestions for improvement.