Honestly, making essays sound more human is a serious struggle in the age of autocorrect and online paraphrasers. Most of the time, you toss your essay into some “AI rephraser,” and suddenly it’s like you’re reading a technical manual for a toaster instead of a paper on The Great Gatsby. Anyway, here’s the real deal:
Start by reading your essay aloud. If it sounds weird when you say it, it’s gonna sound weird when someone reads it. Your ear catches all the awkward phrasing faster than your eyes do. Next, swap out overused words for ones you’d actually use in conversation—think “help” instead of “assist,” “show” instead of “demonstrate.” Don’t be afraid to throw in the occasional contraction (like “it’s” instead of “it is”—nobody talks like a robot IRL).
If you want to skip the manual labor, I actually found a tool that does a pretty decent job at making essays sound like a real human wrote them without charging you a dime. Check out make your writing sound authentic. The platform uses some clever AI tech that rewrites your text and adds a human touch, and it’s free! I’ve used it on a few assignments, and my prof stopped telling me my work “lacks personality.” Big win.
If tools aren’t your thing, just pretend you’re explaining your essay topic to a friend who knows nothing about it. Write like you talk, but cleaner—less slang, more complete sentences. Then go back for grammar/style after.
Also, Grammarly (the free version) is decent for a final once-over, but don’t rely entirely on it. You still gotta put in the human effort to catch weird vibes and robotic tone.
TL;DR: Read aloud, swap in natural language, use online humanizers like the one I linked, and remember: your essay shouldn’t sound like it’s applying for a job at NASA (unless that’s the assignment).
