Word clouds can help students analyze documents written by others as well as documents of their own creation. The Google Documents Add-on called Tag Cloud Generator makes it easy for students to generate a word cloud within any of their documents. In the video embedded below I demonstrate how to use this handy Google Docs Add-on.

Applications for Education
By copying the text of a document into a word cloud generator your students can quickly see the words that appear most frequently in that document. Word clouds can also be used to help students see which words that they have frequently used in their own works. Have your students create word clouds of their work during the revision process of writing a story or essay. The word cloud will quickly show students which words they have used the most. Then ask them to think about synonyms for the words that they have used most often in their writings.