Proofread Mode Deep Dive
Grammar and style analysis for polished prose
The Grammar Layer
The grammar layer runs entirely on your local machine, which means results appear instantly as you write. There is no network delay and no usage cost. It scans for five specific categories of mechanical issues that are both common and reliably detectable.
Because the grammar layer runs locally, it works even when you are offline. You can use it on a plane, in a coffee shop without Wi-Fi, or anywhere else you write. The results are identical regardless of connectivity.
- Passive voice
- Identifies sentences written in passive construction where active voice would be stronger. Not every passive sentence is wrong, but overuse of passive voice saps energy from prose, especially in action sequences and dialogue beats.
- Readability
- Flags sentences that are excessively long, structurally convoluted, or difficult to parse on first read. Readers should not have to re-read a sentence to understand it unless the complexity is serving a deliberate artistic purpose.
- Repeated words
- Catches words or phrases that repeat within a short span of text. Unintentional repetition is one of the most common issues in draft prose and one of the hardest for writers to spot in their own work because the brain auto-corrects familiar patterns.
- Indefinite articles
- Detects incorrect usage of "a" versus "an" before words, including edge cases with silent letters, acronyms, and unusual pronunciations that trip up even experienced writers.
- Sentence spacing
- Identifies inconsistent spacing between sentences, such as mixing single and double spaces after periods. While modern typographic convention uses single spacing, the important thing is consistency throughout your manuscript.
Working Through Issues
Proofread Mode assigns severity levels to each flagged issue, and the most efficient approach is to work through them in severity order. Address critical issues first, where the prose is genuinely confusing or incorrect. Then review warnings, where the pattern is likely weakening your prose but might be intentional. Finally scan informational flags, which highlight tendencies worth being aware of.
The filter system lets you focus on one category at a time. This is particularly powerful during dedicated polish passes. You might spend one session working through all dialogue tag issues, then another addressing show-vs-tell flags, then a third on sentence variety. Categorical focus prevents the mental fatigue of switching between unrelated types of revision.
For each flagged issue, you can accept the suggestion and revise the passage, or dismiss it if the current text is working as you intend. Dismissed issues will not resurface unless the underlying text changes. This lets you clear the noise of intentional choices and focus on genuine problems.
If you find that certain categories are not useful for your writing style or genre, you can toggle individual proofread categories on or off from App Settings. This is a project-wide preference that persists across sessions, so you can permanently silence categories that do not apply to your work without needing to dismiss individual flags each time.
Style issues are not errors. They are patterns that tend to weaken prose in most contexts, but every one of them can be the right choice in the right moment. A deliberate cliche in dialogue can reveal character. A filter word can create useful hesitation. Trust your judgment and use the flags as prompts for reconsideration, not commands for correction.