Tag Archives: android

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Expand Your Vocabulary With Android Apps

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As writers, having an extensive vocabulary is a great tool in our toolbox. The right word choice can excite a sentence and shift it into nuances that can create a memorable passage. Learning new words and how to best use them comes from reading the classics and books in your chosen genre, but in our modern age of electronic learning, apps can be of assistance as well. Being an Android user for the most part, I took a look at various apps that help with learning vocabulary. The reviews are my own and none of the app creators compensated me for my opinions.

Cram
FREE

This android app brings your custom flashcards to your phone. They have an apple version too. It allows you to study your chosen subject on the go and works hand in hand with cram.com. At the website, you can find educational resources to load into the app. You can learn a foreign language, practice your math tables, or pop in new vocabulary to memorize. Memorization is a good way to bulk up your word choice or to beef up your knowledge on a subject you might be writing on. One of the fun aspects of their website is the essay topic generator. When you have writer’s block, it is fun to look through this repository for inspiration. As a blogger, I find this to be helpful.

Quizlet 
Free or Pro ($19.99 annual fee)

This is another flashcard app that can help you memorize a variety of subjects such as languages, history, science, and vocabulary. The basic version is free. You create your own flashcards using the Quizlet flashcard maker or choose cards from fellow users. Part of the fun of this app is the Match game where you beat the clock to gain the right answer. There is another function called Test that helps you prep for a pop-quiz in whatever class you are studying for. If you find you like the app, you can go pro for a small fee and upload your own images, get faster customer service from quizlet, and study ad-free. It would be easy to create vocabulary flashcards with this app and then take it on the go with your phone.

Vocabulary.com
$2.99

I really enjoy this android app. Vocabulary is learning designed to be a game. As you answer the questions, the algorithms conform the game to you as you go along to help make the learning process more fun. It can become addictive! You accumulate points, achievements, and badges as you compete with other users around the world. The app has won a few awards such as Time’s 50 Best Websites of the Year, PC Magazine’s Top 100 Websites of the Year, and more. While this is not a free app, the value it offers to expand your vocabulary is worth checking out.
Words, Words, Words
FREE

While this vocabulary builder is not as fancy as some of the others or as extensive, I like that it included audio pronunciation of the new words along with the text. This is a great aid in learning how to use the words for speaking, not just for writing or reading.

Test Your English Vocabulary
FREE

This vocabulary app is more for people learning English as a second language than for native speakers. It is geared toward helping you master language so you can pass tests such as TOEIC, GMAT, SAT, GRE, MCAT and more. It gives you the correct pronunciation and translation of the words into your mother tongue. It has word games to keep things fun. Play games such as Anagrams, Codewords, Millionaire, Puzzle and StopWord.

As a writer, it pays to become a wordsmith and develop your vocabulary. The best way to do this is to read more books, but these apps should be a great way to supplement your practice of finding and using new words as you interact with the world around you. I hope you check out the apps and find them useful.

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Android Apps that Writers Love

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Last year, I made the switch to an Android smartphone and have been discovering the wide world of Android apps. While I still resist obtaining a full sized tablet, I find that the larger smartphone covers most of my on-the-go needs. For writing, I favor using my Alphasmart Neo as a digital typewriter combined with a paper notebook and fountain pen for rough drafting or my full-sized laptop loaded with Scrivener for editing and revising. I tend to not use my smartphone for actual writing.

This is a review of apps that I have found useful on my Android smartphone that I use for research or as a supplement to my Neo and notebooks. I did not want to make this into another “Evernote, Dropbox, or GoogleDrive” review that you see everywhere else. These are Android apps that are not commonplace, but could have a useful place in your writer’s app toolbox. I have not been asked to review the app by the developer nor do I have any financial stake in their product. These are simply my own opinions.

Rory’s Story Cubes
$1.99
Also available as physical dice or as an iPad app

This app consists of 9 cubes that you roll to create combination. Use the images on the dice as the basis to form stories. There are millions of combinations. When you are stuck forming a new story, sometimes these dice can help you tickle out new ideas from your muse. Having the dice in your phone apps keeps them all in one place and able to use when ever you have a free moment.

Android Troper
Free

I like to browse through a website known as “TV Tropes”. It is a great place to find articles about television programs and the tropes behind the storylines. In the tabbed browser you can set the app to hide spoilers, put it in “night mode” when reading in a dark area so it is not too bright. It has a great search feature too.

Simplemind
Free

This is a simple mind map app that imports easily into its desktop client. The export options are somewhat limited, but I feel that its simplicity keeps you more focused on the task than on making the map pretty. Since it is free, it is not a bad little app to add to your writing app toolbox.

Habit Streak Plan
Free

A trick I like to use in my bullet journal is to create “chains” of activity. I make a note of each day that I perform a certain habit. For instance, I have a chain for every day that I write, every day I work on the revision of my novel, and even each day that I exercise. This app allows you to do your chains on your android phone and help you build a streak of habits that make you a better writer.

What is nice about this app as opposed to using a paper notebook is that it will prompt you to report on your success each day. It also allows you to create more than one chain at once. Of all the chain building apps on android, this is the one that I like the best.

Baby Name-o-Matic
Free

One of the more difficult tasks for me to do when writing is naming my characters. A baby naming app is perfect to help in this case. This app not only will suggest names for you, but it will tell you the meaning of those names. It has 10,000 of the most popular baby names in its database. I try to not rate the names, that way it doesn’t narrow the names choices that it gives me.

Clockwork Tomato
Free

I’ve been a huge fan of the pomodoro time management technique and often use it to help boost my word counts. This android app helps to streamline the timing aspects, and being on your phone it makes the timer extremely portable. I can use this app at home or on the go at the coffeehouse.

Write
$3.99

While I personally do not write on my smartphone or have a tablet, the one writing app recommended by my friends that use android tablets is Write. It has a minimalist text editor interface which makes it great for taking notes, writing chapters and it imports/exports to Dropbox and Evernote among others. It has a word count feature which is necessary for Nanowrimo, and a search function for your notes. CNET calls it the “best android notepad apps for students”. If you do need a word processor for your Android Tablet, this is the one to check out.

Nanoprogress
Free

I have covered this app once before in a post, but it is a good one and bears repeating. One of the features of Nanowrimo is the word count graph on the website that helps to motivate you to reach your goals. This is the app that will do it for you. It is a simple, free app for your Android tablet that will help you keep on track at any time of the year.