Membership Plan Options

Virtual Writing Tutor has 3 levels of membership.

Free non-member: Unlimited grammar check  (500 word limit), 30-click max total for “Improve writing” and “Check level”

Free member: Unlimited grammar check  (3000 word limit), 10 clicks per day max for “Improve writing,” “Check level,” and "Score essay"

Paid membership: Unlimited grammar check  (3000 word limit), unlimited access to all features.

Members can check 3000 words at a time, save text and feedback, translate feedback into 70 languages, create hypertext narratives and essay outlines, send PDFs with voice recordings, track errors, play error correction games, post essays to forums for additional feedback, with more features on their way.

One year: $36 USD ( < $0.10 per day)

Three months: $16 USD

One month: $8 USD

One week: $3 USD

Buy the plan that’s right for you here.

Pay once. There’s nothing to cancel. Subscription prices do NOT renew automatically. And a one-year plan only costs $0.69 USD per week!

Coming soon!

Paid membership customers of the Virtual Writing Tutor will soon get access to automatically scored speaking activities. Learn pronunciation and interactive conversation skills while improving your writing skills with one membership package. Stay tuned.

What does the Virtual Writing Tutor essay checker and grammar check do?

The Virtual Writing Tutor is a free online essay checker and grammar check website that helps you improve your writing. Owned and operated by ConverSolo Inc., VirtualWritingTutor.com is part of an AI revolution in language learning.

Try it now. Type a paragraph from your essay with errors in it, click “Improve writing” and Virtual Writing Tutor will correct the mistakes, reformulating the sentence in standard English. The system shows you your errors and its improvements.

The Virtual Writing Tutor can score and check your essay. Copy-paste your essay and click “Score essay” to see the types of essays it can score. Two seconds later, it will give your your overall score and give you practical advice on how to improve your essay score.

The Virtual Writing Tutor can also do a CEFR level check, analyzing your writing to calculate your English proficiency level. The VWT can score IELTS and other essays, count words, check spelling, give feedback on grammar and punctuation errors, check paraphrasing, improve word choice, check for target structures, and help you master English pronunciation.

This website is currently free to try witha free membership option. If you use the Virtual WritngTutor a lot, you will be asked to upgrade to the low-cost premium version.

We offer low-cost API grammar check service and essay scoring service. What follows is a list of its features. At the bottom of the page, there are a series of frequently asked questions.

What’s my level?

CEFR, IELTS, TOEFL, or CEGEP ESL? Students often want to know, “What’s my level?”

The Virtual Writing Tutor can estimate your CEFR level, your IELTS score, your TOEFL score, or your CEGEP ESL level in just half of a second. See a demonstration here.

Simply enter your text from any assignment, click “Check Level,” and the system will calculate your proficiency level. How? The VWT checks your vocabulary profile by comparing the vocabulary you used with the vocabulary used by other writers at each level of proficiency. Then it checks your grammar error density. Better writers have fewer errors per 100 words than weaker writers. Then the system checks the types of errors you make against the error profile of learners at each of the 6 levels of proficiency. It’s fast and surprisingly accurate.

IELTS Speaking Exam Preparation

Get help preparing for a speaking exam using our IELTS speaking exam preparation system. It's free and easy to use. Select one of the common topics used on the IELTS speaking exam. Click on one of the questions. Compose your answer, check your grammar for errors, listen to our text to speech robot pronouncing your text, and then record yourself saying your answer. Click "evaluate" to get an instant evaluation of your pronunciation, with detailed feedback on each word you said and an overall pronunciation score. Your score is calculated based on the average score for each of the words in your answer. If you are satisfied with your answer and pronunciation score, move on to the next question. Master every question on every common IELTS topic.   

Check essays and get a score

The Virtual Writing Tutor can provide automated essay evaluation with a score and formative feedback on a variety of writing assignments. Try the Virtual Writing tutor's essay checker scoring system. This website is an opinion essay checker, film-analysis essay checker, argument essay checker, cover letter checker, IELTS essay checker, and self-scoring pen pal exchange system.

Researchers have found that the Virtual Writing Tutor accelerates learning by 44%, showing an impressive effect size (Cohen’s d = 0.88). Read about it here: “The Impact of Virtual Writing Tutor on Writing Skills and Attitudes,” in the Journal of Education and Development.

Students love it. At a college in Montreal, students got formative feedback on their film-analysis essays and reported that they enjoyed getting a score and feedback in just two seconds instead of having to wait two weeks. Dr. Frank Bonkowski reported that using the VWT helped to reduce his workload. Try it for yourself. Here is part of a video on YouTube to explain why automated essay scoring is so important in ESL. 

Essay checker

If you write essays in your second language for high school or college, check your essay for embarrassing errors that a teacher would deduct points for. For the best results, we strongly recommend a two-pronged approach: find your errors using this Virtual Writing Tutor grammar checker first; then, use the “Improve writing” button to rewrite your sentences in standard English.

For students preparing for the IELTS exam, get the practice you need here with our IELTS essay checker and IELTS speaking exam preparation.

IELTS Academic Writing Practice Tests

The Virtual Writing Tutor calculates your band score on Task 1 and Task 2 writing tests automatically. There are a variety of timed writing tests for you to choose from. Select either a Task 1 or Task 2 essay writing prompt, start the timer, and write. When you finish, the Virtual Writing Tutor will use its breakthrough form of Artificial Intelligence to analyze and score your essay.

How does it work?

After many years of research, I have developed a special method of quality detection that I call Latent Essay Feature Analysis (LEFA). I use it to discover what makes a great essay great. Then, I use Model Essay Proximity Scoring (MEPS) to determine how closely your essay resembles the ideal essay response for each test prompt.

How accurate is the system?

I’m not sure. A trained IELTS examiner might score your essay a little higher or lower, but I am confident that the Virtual Writing Tutor’s IELTS practice tests will help you improve. Why? The system provides valuable tips and corrections on a range of essay features to help you improve your essay so you can get better and better. Try it! You might like it.

Teach IELTS online?

If you are an IELTS teacher or want to become one, you find additional IELTS teaching resources here. You can teach online with Off2Class.com.

Grammar Check

To check your grammar, click on the Check Grammar button. The system will check for common punctuation errors, common grammar mistakes and ESL grammar errors, false cognates, contextual spelling errors, and word choice errors. The results of the grammar-check are listed below the text area. You must scroll down to see the suggested corrections. The reason for putting correction advice down below is simple. When learners scroll down to read the correction advice and then scroll up to make the correction, I believe that there is a better chance that they will remember the correction in the future.

The Virtual Writng Tutor's grammar and punctuation checker feature is powered by a modified LanguageTool system. The difference between these two systems is that the Virtual Writing Tutor grammar checker has thousands of additional error detection rules to catch common ESL grammar errors.

Some examples of common ESL errors that the Virtual Writing Tutor grammar checker can catch are as follows: tense shift errors, missing auxiliaries, adverb word order errors, aspect errors, collocation errors, articles with plural nouns, adjective word order errors, double subjects, double objects, double negatives, mixed conditionals, gerund error, h-epenthesis errors, pronoun antecedent agreement errors, quantifier errors, verb agreement, and adjective agreement errors.

Paragraph Checker

The Virtual Writing Tutor can quickly find errors in your paragraphs. It can help you with punctuation, spelling capitalizations errors,and word choice errors. Check your paragraph with the Virtual Writing Tutor before you submit your text to your teacher.

Vocabulary Checker

To check your vocabulary, click on the Vocabulary Checker button. The Virtual Writing Tutor will analyze your vocabulary using a range of vocabulary checker tools. Use the feedback to increase the sophistication of your word choice, to increase the number of words related to your field of study, or to eliminate clichés.

Academic and general vocabulary profile → The Virtual Writing Tutor vocabulary checker will profile the vocabulary in any piece of writing to tell you how common your word choice is and how much academic vocabulary you have used. Aim to use less common and academic vocabulary for your school work and IELTS essays. Learn more about academic versus conversational vocabulary.

Cliches and power words → Bloggers will find it useful to check for expressions that have lost their original impact because of overuse (cliches) and to count the types of words that elicit powerful emotional reactions in readers (power words). Eliminate cliches; they're boring. Include power words; they're engaging.

Field-related vocabulary →  If you are learning English for professional or academic purposes, knowing what Field-related vocabulary you have in your essay will let you know whether your writing is field-related or not. The system checks to see which words in your text are related to the 47 fields of study on FieldRelated.com. The system will display the best three matches. Each match is shown with a link to additional field-related readings, listenings, and glossaries to help you extend your field-related learning.

For alternatives to the Virtual Writing Tutor vocabulary checker, try Longman Vocabulary Checker and Lextutor.ca Vocabulary Profiler.

What is the best grammar checker?

The Virtual Writing Tutor is the best grammar check website for many reasons.

1. The Virtual Writing Tutor can find errors that other systems can’t detetct. I have spent years analyzing and correcting real errors written by real students.

2. The Virtual Writing Tutor reports your errors below the text, forcing you to remember the feedback and correction for a few seconds. Remembering a correction is a positive step toward eliminating it forwever.

3. The Virtual Writing Tutor can detect run-on sentences, comma-splices, and dangling participles--among other problems.

4. The Virtual Writing Tutor’s grammar check is always 100% free. If you want to try our other services, it is inexpensive to upgrade.

How can I embed a free grammar checker into a webpage or blog post?

You can get the iframe code to embed the Virtual Writing Tutor grammar checker into your webpage, Moodle course, or blog with this grammar checker iframe code. The iframe is set to expand to 90% width of the page or frame you put it in. I have written a blog post all about adding the Virtual Writing Tutor to your web page or blog here: Create your own ESL grammar checker website for your students with an iframe

What is the purpose of the Virtual Writing Tutor grammar checker?

The primary goal of this grammar checker is to enhance ESL pedagogy. English teachers are a limited resource. They are available only to their own students, only during the course, only during the day, and are typically only available for one-on-one instruction for a few minutes at a time. A free online grammar checker website can enhance pedagogy by filling in when teachers are not available. A free, automated grammar checker can assist learners by being available to everyone, student or professional, night or day, and by providing tireless assistance with tedious proofreading tasks.

Why should language teachers use the Virtual Writing Tutor grammar checker in their courses?

Students are usually loath to do any writing unless it either "counts" or they get extensive feedback that will prepare them for an assignment that will count. Teachers therefore feel obliged to copy-edit every assignment students hand in. However, spending just 5 minutes a week on each student's assignment adds twelve hours and 30 minutes each week of corrective feedback to the workload of a teacher with 150 students. Many teachers will therefore limit the number of writing assignments they give students because of the impact corrections have on their workload as a teacher.

By automating part of the corrective feedback that students receive with the Virtual Writing Tutor, teachers can ensure students get extensive feedback on every assignment. Confident that students' errors won't be ignored, teachers can assign more writing tasks to students without increasing their workload.

Making the correction load more manageable is one benefit for teachers, but there are benefits for students, also. There are at least 5 clear benefits that I can see:

1. students get a greater amount of consistent, explicit, just-in-time corrective feedback on surface errors from a grammar checker than they would otherwise
2. students learn to become more autonomous when using a grammar checker
3. grammar checkers teach students to become judicious users of technology, engaging their critical thinking skills, especially when they receive bad feedback or false alarms
4. grammar checkers provide students with lifelong learning opportunities
5. grammar checkers can provide feedback on multiple drafts of an assignment, instead of typically just one or two drafts

How should teachers incorporate a grammar checker website into their ESL course?

In order to use a grammar checker effectively in an ESL course, teachers must, in my opinion, do two things: 1) create a routine in which students are required to use the grammar checker every week, and 2) set a standard of zero avoidable errors. To ensure students stick to the routine, teachers can assign a writing task at the end of each lesson and deduct points if the text contains avoidable errors

What are avoidable errors? Avoidable errors are those particular errors students can correct for themselves because they have received form-focused instruction or because a free grammar checker like the Virtual Writing Tutor can detect them and suggest corrections. In other words, a student who submits a text that contains errors in grammar that was thoroughly taught in a previous lesson or contains errors that can be eliminated by using the Virtual Writing Tutor grammar checker is a student who has not met expectations. Submitting texts containing avoidable errors to a teacher indicates a lack of learning or care, and should be scored lower than texts without avoidable errors.

In two of the courses I teach, my students must submit 12 texts over 15 weeks. The first 11 of those texts must be checked with the Virtual Writing Tutor grammar checker and have all avoidable errors eliminated. Each text is scored using a simple rubric. It must be 100-200 words in length, contain the target structures from the lesson, and have all avoidable errors elimnated using the Virtual Writing Tutor. If a text is submitted with avoidable errors, the student loses 1/3. The other 2/3 comes from using target structures taught in class (1/3) and from submitting a well-developed text (1/3). The only exception to my rule about using the Virtual Writing Tutor is with the final exam. On the final, students do not get access to the VWT because I expect that they have learned to eliminate their most common errors by then. Use the target structure tool with the Vocabulary Checker to quickly find the grammar, phrases, or vocabulary students have been asked to iclude in thier writing.

One of the best ways I have discovered to incorporate an online grammar checker into my ESL lessons for my non-fluent learners is to create a series of steps in a collaborative narrative writing project. Both my Actively Engaged on the Job and Actively Engaged at College textbooks involve collaborative narrative writing projects. Here's how the project works. Students are placed in groups of 4-6. Each student creates a fictional character, describes him or her using the first person, and makes his or her character interact with the other students' characters within the context of the shared story. Depending on the level, the characters live together as roommates (Actively Engaged at College) or work together as colleagues (Actively Engaged on the Job) within the collaborative narrative. Each week, I ask students to plan one episode of their story with the help of their groupmates. For homework, I ask them to write the current episode in the story, eliminate all avoidable errors using the Virtual Writing Tutor, and submit it to me for points. Writing that contains avoidable errors is penalized for not having applied the necessary revision strategies. The following week, I ask students to read what they wrote to their groupmates. I encourage them to use the VWT's text-to-speech function to help them with their pronunciation. In this way, they get to practice a more target-like form of English in a meaningful and social way.

For more advanced levels, I ask students to create a blog on Blogger and write listicles, glossaries, career summaries and hypertext narratives related to their fields of study. Again, I require students to eliminate avoidable errors using the Virtual Writing Tutor grammar checker and paraphrase checker to avoid plagiarism. Each blog post is peer-reviewed by two or more fellow students and submitted to me for a grade. Of course, if the Virtual Writing Tutor misses some of their errors, I provide feedback -- but only after they have eliminated many of their errors using the online grammar checker.

That's how I use the VWT. Perhaps you have found another way to use the Virtual Writing Tutor. I would love to hear how you do it. Send me a message when you have the time.