Free Must-Have Tools for Freelance Writers and Editors

Image Source: Unsplash User Hans-Peter Gauster

Whether you're a freelance writer or a freelance editor, you'd probably agree with me that it can be time-consuming work. Perhaps you've been in the middle of a project and found yourself scrambling for just the right resource to help you complete it. So, read on to learn about several free tools that can make your freelancing life much easier.

Capitalize My Title: If you're either writing or evaluating a title, and have questions as to if certain words should or should not be capitalized, use this tool. All you have to do is type or paste in the title, select the style guide you want to apply to it, and you'll have a properly capitalized title in seconds!

Beyond capitalization, there's the matter of whether a title should be italicized, underlined, or put into quotation marks. Two of the tools that I've found to be helpful are:

• Dr. L. Kip Wheeler's Punctuating Tools Chart
• The Punctuation Guide's Titles of Works Chart

Purdue University's Online Writing Lab (OWL): This is probably the most comprehensive resource I've found either as a writer or an editor looking for specific information regarding how to implement various style guides. If you happen to be a freelancer who focuses on either writing or editing academic papers, you might really benefit from this site's formatting examples.

Grammarly: This is a grammar-checking extension that you can add to Firefox, Chrome, or Safari browsers. Note, though, that it checks whatever you type on whatever page you're visiting via that respective browser. So, if that seems a little too much, simply add it for the project you'd like it to check, then uninstall it after the project's completion.

EasyBib: Citing sources and/or putting together a bibliography page for a project can be cumbersome, but this tool streamlines the process. Simply select the style guide and source type, then from there the website will direct you how to put in the remaining information to generate the citation.

Plagiarism Checker by Small SEO Tools: Plagiarism is, of course, something that writers and editors need to guard against, and this tool does just that. It's important to note, though, that each check is limited to 1,000 words. So, if you find yourself needing to check something beyond that word count, simply split it up and have the tool check the content accordingly.

Google Drive: If you have a Gmail or a G Suite Account, you've most likely already used this tool. Not only is this great for storing and sharing documents, it encourages collaborative writing and editing.

Content source: my own blog - please click the image below for the link!