The 5 Best Writing Apps for College Students

Want to listen to your favorite music anytime, anywhere? There's an app for that. Need a quick and easy way to communicate with family and friends? There are apps for that too. There are also apps for playing your favorite games, monitoring your finances, tracking your fitness activity and goals, storing your photos, increasing your productivity, and practically anything else you could ever want to have right at your fingertips.

But one of the questions Saint Leo University students have when it comes to apps is which ones are best for assisting with their coursework, specifically the work that requires a fair level of writing. With that in mind, here are the best writing apps for college students who prefer to use technology to enhance their education.

For Taking Notes: Evernote

Maybe you're just looking for a writing app that enables you to take notes so you can use them later in your current writing system. In this case, Evernote delivers by providing a place to keep those notes and organize them so they're easy to find when you're ready to retrieve them. The Evernote app also enables you to not only capture text, but also pictures and voice notes too. So, it doesn't matter what format your source is in since you can store it for later use.

You can download Evernote on your Android, Apple device, or via Microsoft. Additionally, Evernote Basic is totally free to download if you're only interested in having a place to record all of your notes. However, if you want to be able to organize them and share them with others, it's going to cost you $7.99 a month. There are other differences between packages as well, such as monthly upload limits and maximum note size, so these are things to consider before making your final decision as to which version would suit your needs best.

For Students Concerned About Proper Grammar: Grammarly

Let's face it. You can have the best content in the world, but if your grammar is off, your grade is going to reflect it. Therefore, downloading the Grammarly app is one way to not only show off what you know about a particular topic, but also to provide the information in a way that follows basic writing guidelines, providing you even more credibility as the write. Not only is this one of the best writing apps for enhancing the overall verbiage in your documents and projects, it also corrects any grammar issues in your email and social media posts too.

Grammarly is free to download and interacts directly with Google Chrome if you use this particular browser. You can also purchase Premium Grammarly for $11.66 per month if you pay for it annually, which offers additional features beyond basic spelling, grammar, and punctuation. For instance, the paid version will tell you if you've overused words, used impolite language, have an inconsistent writing style, or have plagiarized content.

For Writing Projects that Require Collaboration: Google Docs

In college, it's not uncommon for instructors to assign writing assignments that require you to collaborate with other students. In the past, this meant each person doing his or her part, then putting it all together at the end so it flows from one part of the document to the next. Yet, the problem with this approach is that it makes it difficult to track which version is the most up-to-date because so many people are involved. Yet, use of the Google Docs app eliminates this issue because you're all working off the same document, which is updated and saved each time anyone makes changes.

Perhaps the best thing about Google Docs is that it is absolutely free. That makes it perfect for college students on a tight budget. Plus, it has the same basic features as Word and other document recording systems by letting you know when there are spelling errors and if your grammar could be improved. It's kind of the best of all worlds and is generally viewed as one of the best writing apps for collaboration.

For Those Who Don't Like to Write: iA Writer

If you struggle with writing because this is a task that you really don't enjoy, the iA Writer app can help as it is designed to enhance the writing process. How? It offers features based on research about what types of typography and fonts are more appealing. This company even looked at the sounds people make when they write – referring to the way we think about the words we're about to put on paper – and used that data to create features that help you stay "faithful to your perceptions" so your words come out right.

This app is available in a variety of formats so it works with Windows, Mac, Androids, and Apple devices. With Windows and Mac, you can download a free trial to see whether iA Writer is one of the best writing apps for you. If you want it on your Android, you can install it without cost, but in-app products cost $8.99 each. Download it via the App Store and the cost is $8.99 up front.

For Planners and Non-Planners Alike: Scrivener

A big factor that makes the Scrivener app one of the best writing apps available is that it is extremely flexible. For instance, if you are a planner and prefer to outline your writings in great detail before filling in the blanks, Scrivener allows for that. Alternatively, if you'd rather just start typing and worry about what goes where later, Scrivener lets you do that too.

Other features available with the Scrivener app include:

• Inserting images and tables
• Format presets and templates
• Importing documents from other writing and research apps
• A corkboard and outliner for planning
• Footnote support
• Setting (and monitoring) writing targets

This app works with mac OS 10.12+, Windows 7 or newer, and if you want it on an Apple device (iPad, iPhone, or iPod Touch), it has to have iOS 9 or above and a Dropbox account is necessary to get it to sync. The cost depends on which version you download and ranges from $19.99 for the iOS version to $42 for mac OS, the latter of which includes a student discount.

How the Best Writing Apps Can Help You Succeed in College

Most college classes require some form of writing, and some courses may have a fair amount of essays, discussion posts, or term papers. Utilizing apps such as these can make your college papers and essays easier to write and edit. They'll serve you