SublimeWritingStyle

Improve your writing style with this Sublime Text package. It supports both Sublime Text 2 and 3.

Why Should I Write in Style?

Practicing your writing skills will make you a more effective communicator.

How Does This Package Help Me?

It does two things. First, it helps you use active voice instead of passive voice. Consider these two sentences:

The car was driven by the boy.
The boy drove the car.

Which one is simpler? (Hint, it's the second, active one.) Using active voice simultaneously makes your text shorter and more engaging to the reader. Unfortunately, it takes some practice to spot passive sentences. Passive voice indicators are forms of to be (am, is, are, was, were, be, been, being) plus another verb (often ending in ed).

Second, this package highlights weasel words. Use these judgmental words sparingly. A few examples: very, clearly, and, relatively.

Both the list of passive voice indicators and weasel words are customizable using Sublime Text settings files. Use the extra_words settings key to define additional highlighted words.

How to Install

Using Package Control (Recommended):

Install Package Control
Open the command palette (cmd+shift+P) then Package Control: Install Package
Search for Writing Style
(Optionally) Reopen any windows

Manually:

Open the Preferences > Browse Packages… menu
Extract the zip archive to the Packages directory, rename it to Writing Style, and delete the zip archive
Restart Sublime Text

How Can I Configure What gets Highlighted?

Create (or open) a file called SublimeWritingStyle.sublime-settings in your Packages/User directory. For instance, you can add extra weasel words using the extra_words key or overwrite existing weasel words using the weasel_words key. You can enable the plugin on additional file types using the extra_extensions key.

How Can I Adjust the Colors of the Highlights?

The icons come in dark and light versions. You can switch this by adding this to your user settings:

"theme": "light"

Valid theme values are: light, dark, and none. The last option turns off gutter icons.

Add this to your theme, and adjust the colors as necessary:

<!-- Support for SublimeWritingStyle -->
<dict>
    <key>name</key>
    <string>SublimeWritingStyle.Passive</string>
    <key>scope</key>
    <string>writingstyle.passive</string>
    <key>settings</key>
    <dict>
        <key>foreground</key>
        <string>#40BFFF</string>
    </dict>
</dict>
<dict>
    <key>name</key>
    <string>SublimeWritingStyle.Weasel</string>
    <key>scope</key>
    <string>writingstyle.weasel</string>
    <key>settings</key>
    <dict>
        <key>foreground</key>
        <string>#E09500</string>
    </dict>
</dict>

Who Inspired This Package?

Stefan Brunthaler extended the writegood-mode for Emacs in a similar fashion.

Icons made by Freepik from www.flaticon.com is licensed by Creative Commons BY 3.0

thedataking / SublimeWritingStyle