Proofreader is an Emacs package to help recognize common mistakes when writing. It's intended to be used as a buffer-local minor mode that can be enabled and disabled by running proofreader-mode.
Proofreader searches for and highlights uses of the following in a document:
- incorrect spelling (via flyspell)
- use of the passive voice
- weasel words (words that sound good with conveying information)
- duplicate words
Each of these can be enabled or disabled as desired.
Install proofreader using use-package or require:
(use-package proofreader)
;; OR
(require 'proofreader)Proofreader ships with default values that should make it usable out of the box. However, you can customize highlighting faces and word lists by customizing the group:
M-x customize-group RET proofreader RET
If using files for custom word lists, each word or phrase should be placed on its own line.
Proofreader uses flyspell to highlight misspelled words. This can be disabled by setting proofreader-check-spelling to nil.
Proofreader attempts to recognize and highlight phrases that use the passive voice. This functionality can be disabled by setting proofreader-check-for-passive-voice to nil.
The words lists used to recognize passive voice can be customized by configuring the values of proofreader-irregular-words and/or proofreader-auxiliary-verbs, or by using word files specified by proofreader-irregular-words-file and proofreader-auxiliary-verbs-file.
The phrase "weasel words" here indicates phrases or words that sound good without conveying information. Proofreader highlights these weasel words. This functionality can be disabled by setting proofreader-check-for-weasel-words to nil.
The list of recognized weasel words can be customized by configuring the values of proofreader-weasel-words, or by using a word file specified by proofreader-weasel-words-file.
Proofreader searches for and highlights multiple occurrences of the same word used consecutively. This functionality can be disabled by setting proofreader-check-for-double-words to nil.