Introducing: The Wordifier

Looking to spice up your writing for consulting proposals, workshop descriptions and other communications? What if I told you there was a tool that would offer you alternatives to your go-to phrases like “build capacity” and “provide training”?  You know, those tired and over-worked terms that fill the page but don’t really say much or distinguish your work. If you’re thinking, “She’s talking about a thesaurus” I have good news for you — it’s better. It’s a research-based tool that’s like a Willy Wonka candy machine: fun to use and guaranteed to add novelty and light up the brains of your readers.

I’m talking about the Wordifier, brought to you by the word-savvy folks at Claxon. They pulled text from over 2,500 websites, cleaned the data, and analyzed word usage by sector to provide you with metrics to gauge novelty for your audience.

What’s it good for?

The Wordifier is based on websites in the non-profit sector, and designed to help people raise more money for good causes. And there’s plenty of room for adult educators, instructional designers, training consultants and conference organizers to jump on the Wordifier band wagon. To name a few potential uses:

• Proposal writing as a learning consultant
• Course description writing as an instructor
• Presentation description writing as a conference organizer
• A suggested resource for students in a writing class
• Other places where great communications are called for

How do you use it?

Enter your word and note the color coded signals:

• red (Stop! That word is way over used by nonprofits. If you want your words to stand out, pick one that’s used less often.)
• yellow (Caution! Use it if you have to, but look for alternatives.)
• green (Go! We looked at 15 million words and not many organizations are using it.)

+ Plus, you get a list of related words and synonyms

+ Plus, you get a pie chart showing distribution of usage by sector

Here’s a sample results page for “create”:

How can it help you?

• Use better verbs 
• Stand out where it counts (win those RFP’s!)

Where do you find it?

The Wordifier on www.claxonmarketing.com

Claxon also offers a list of suggested verbs to spice up your writing

What do you think?

How else could the Wordifier be useful for adult educators?