Zhee

an ai project develop by shawn

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Essayto — An Essay Corrector Built Out of Necessity

Inspiration

Back in high school, my English was poor — especially when it came to writing essays. I searched everywhere for a tool that could help me learn and improve, but I couldn't find a single one that truly fit my needs. So I decided to build one myself. That's how Essayto was born. It's also available on GitHub for anyone who wants to explore or contribute.

What It Does

Essayto is an essay corrector designed to help students improve their writing across different languages. The goal is to guide learners step by step, offering corrections and feedback until they gain enough confidence to write their own essays independently.

How We Built It

I built Essayto from scratch, without any external references or templates to lean on. To help analyze and enhance the codebase, I used Kiro by Amazon — a tool that proved valuable in refining the logic and overall code quality throughout development.

Challenges We Ran Into

After completing the first version, I discovered a critical flaw: whenever a user submitted an essay, the app would only return a score — no actual corrections. There was no way for users to know what they got wrong or where they needed to improve. That feedback gap defeated the entire purpose of the tool, and it pushed me to rethink and rebuild the correction system from the ground up.

Accomplishments We're Proud Of

One of our proudest milestones is that Essayto is now officially live and open source on GitHub. What started as a personal solution to a very personal problem has grown into a public project that anyone in the world can access, use, and build upon. Making it open source wasn't just a technical decision — it was a statement. We believe that tools for learning should be available to everyone, regardless of background or resources. Seeing the project go from a rough idea born out of frustration to a repository that other students and developers can contribute to is something we are genuinely proud of.

What We Learned

The biggest lesson I took away from this project is simple but powerful: if the market doesn't offer what you need, build it yourself. You don't have to wait for someone else to solve your problem. Sometimes, the best tools are the ones born from personal struggle — and those are often the tools that help others most.

What's Next for Zhee

Essayto is just the beginning. Looking ahead, I want to dive deeper into the world of technology — particularly artificial intelligence — and channel everything I learn into building my own startup. The vision is straightforward but meaningful: to create useful, thoughtfully designed applications that solve real problems and leave a positive mark on society. I believe technology, when built with genuine intention, has the power to change lives. That belief is what drove me to build Essayto, and it's the same belief that will carry me forward. One project at a time, I'm working toward a future where the things I build matter to the people who use them.

Built With

  • kiro
  • vibe-coding
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