I just found a free, open source Windows word frequency counting tool. If you are afraid you are using the same words over and over you can see for yourself, or you can figure out who your favourite theorists are based on the number of times you mention their names. The uses are endless. You do have to export your writing to a text file, though (or paste the text in) and it can be a little slow to generate the list. Enjoy!

Update: by an odd coincidence I just ran across a similar tool but Wordle is web-based and produces “word clouds” which are less precise but certainly prettier. Here’s a Wordle map of my draft theory chapter:

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 12th, 2008 at 11:35 pm and is filed under Software reviews, Tech tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.