The X-Ray

The X-Ray reads your draft, marks what makes it read machine-made, and suggests small edits. It never changes your text until you accept a change.

Adding a draftCopy Anchor Link

• Paste or type into the editor.
• Upload or drop a file: plain text or Markdown (.txt, .md).
• Import from a link: a public Google Doc, a blog post or a web page. Private documents need a connected platform.

The X-Ray needs at least 12 words and reads up to 5,000 words at a time. For a longer piece, split it into parts and check each one. Long drafts are read in parts behind the scenes, so a very long draft takes a little longer.

What you seeCopy Anchor Link

• A verdict for the whole draft: Reads like a person, Partly machine-made or Reads machine-made.
• Tells underlined in the text. These are the stock phrases and habits behind the score.
• A tone for each paragraph, headed "By paragraph, roughly". Paragraph tones are rough; the verdict at the top is the one to judge the draft by.
• Rhythm bars: one bar per sentence, one cell per word, coloured by tone.
• Show the numbers opens the scores behind every verdict.

How to read a score explains what these mean and where they are weak.

Suggested cutsCopy Anchor Link

Each suggestion is a card with Accept, Decline and Undo. Accept all takes every suggestion at once.

• After each accepted edit the X-Ray scores the whole draft again and tells you in words what changed, for example "Score barely moves".
• Suggestions are kept small on purpose. Together they never change more than a tenth of the draft's words, so the draft stays yours.
• Press Re-score or X-Ray again after editing the text yourself.

If cuts are not enough, Humanize rewrites the paragraphs that still read machine-made.

Saving and sendingCopy Anchor Link

• Save keeps the draft in your Library as a new version. Saving needs a free account.
• Send to… sends the draft to a connected platform, always as a draft.
• Export downloads the text as a .txt file.

Using a voiceCopy Anchor Link

If you have saved a voice and chosen Use this voice for edits, the X-Ray takes your style into account: it stops marking habits that are yours and prefers suggestions that sound like you.

WordsCopy Anchor Link

When you are signed in, a check counts the words in the text you send against your checked words. Scoring the draft again after you accept a suggestion does not count. See Words, certificates and plans.