I like writing. I also like to think that I’m fairly good at it. I suppose that’s for you to decide, but whatever.
It’s something I enjoy doing, and I hopefully will aspire to be a published author at some point (published, as in a book via a publisher- not just having uploaded blog posts).
However, there’s a very important catch in these loaded statements of mine: I like writing but not reviewing my writing. Going back and rereading what I write is uncomfortable, sort of like looking at old photos of yourself or childhood drawings or listening to your own voice.
On top of that, my brain automatically fills in what it thinks should be written down instead of reading with my eyeballs. I can go over the same sentence several times over and still miss an obvious mistake. Like not putting the spaces between Online Slots Gambling Guide. Or should there not be spaces? Shoot…
That’s why I would rather offload that part of the work to a tool that can do it for me (please note: I’m not calling professional editors tools). Word processors like Word and LibreOffice are great, don’t get me wrong, but they just don’t cut it. That’s what initially got me to pay for an annual subscription to Grammarly. Was it worth it?
What is Grammarly?
Grammarly is a tool for checking grammar and mistakes within a task document. You either write within the desktop application or upload files to the application, and it checks them for you. On the right side, a list of errors will appear, and clicking on them will indicate where in the document they are to be found. These errors are divided into four different categories: Correctness, Clarity, Engagement, and Delivery (which are colored Red, Blue, Green, and Purple, respectively).
Correctness flags outright errors, like spelling mistakes, extra words, or unnecessary punctuation. For me, this is by far the most common flag I get and is also the only one of the four that comes for free. The other three are premium features, which, for 90% of you out there, is really the only one you need.
Clarity checks how well your sentences flow. It finds wordy sentences and suggests where to break them up or even how to rewrite them entirely. If you tend to write long sentences, expounding upon the excessive nature of one’s own scripting habits, like yours truly, filled with sub-clauses, commas, and far too much ego, then this tool is particularly helpful for removing such chaff.
The Engagement errors, for the most part, only check two things: Whether sentences are getting monotonous and whether you have used the same word too many times and should use an alternative. If you write three short sentences, one after the other, Grammarly will suggest rewriting them.
The last, and very much least, is the Delivery. This flags how you have written something and suggests ways you can rewrite it to fit the tone you want. For example, which sounds more confident: “Maybe we should look into that…” or “Let’s look into that!” That’s the sort of thing.
Does it do its job?
The short answer to that question is yes… but!
First, the correctness flags are awesome. They are easily the most useful, and when I need to edit a bunch of writing very fast, I click on the correctness button to only show me these red errors and go through them. They are available for free and fix so many tiny errors I have such a hard time noticing. Whether to write “its” or “it’s” (which I always mix up). Whether or not I have a comma in the correct place. Whether or not I need a hyphen. This is where Grammarly excels.
This is also where Grammarly can turn some users away, from what I have seen from other reviews because it’s not perfect. Grammarly can make errors and doesn’t always give the correct answer. If you write advanced sentences (not to toot my own horn or anything), you have to sometimes reread what you wrote versus what Grammarly suggests to check which sounds better.
This seems to turn some people away from Grammarly. Grammarly will not write your paper for you- it is a tool for improving your writing. You still need to be competent enough to decide which suggestions to accept or deny. In my opinion, though, if there was a scoreboard between me versus Grammarly… Grammarly would be winning. By a lot.
As for the three other categories of errors… they’re useful but not for everybody. I write all the time. It’s my job, it’s what I’m getting paid for, and I enjoy writing fiction in my free time. Iterating on how my writing flows is important for what I do, and Grammarly catches problems I don’t notice.
I have a tendency to write sentences that are big (getting paid by the word over here, see?), which isn’t so good in a fiction novel where you want the story to flow naturally with good pauses and timing in the Delivery. So while I like these features a lot, you have to decide for yourself whether or not your needs justify the $140 dollars a year to pay for it.
The Quirks
Now, I’m officially a Grammarly fan. I have admitted as much. I am not being paid by Grammarly, by the way, just to make that clear. In fact, here are various problems that I do have with the software, even aside from the imperfect Grammar checking:
First, the software requires an internet connection. I assume this is because Grammarly uses a machine-learning algorithm to check sentences, which requires good hardware and space to run, so it just references one on a server somewhere instead of having you download that to your machine. So I understand why this is the case, but it is a nuisance that I can’t edit my writing on the bus with my laptop without creating a data hotspot.
The second niggle, is that, like most tech companies, Grammarly has a bias in favor of ThE CurREnT ThInG. Grammarly will check your writing for non-pc terms and offer alternative words to use instead. The most hilarious of these checks was when I was writing about slavery in the world today, and Grammarly suggested that I find an alternative word because it might be offensive to “Enslaved Peoples”. I guess literal slaves don’t have anything bigger to worry about than the terms that they are referred to by here in the western world. Thankfully, you can turn all of that nonsense off in the settings.
Speaking of which, the settings are actually pretty darn good, with a lot of options of how you want Grammarly to handle different things, add exceptions, what version of English to check, what “mistakes” to overlook, and what features to turn off entirely.
I even discovered in the settings an option that would have Grammarly pop-up suggestions for where you can support Ukraine in your writing. Disabled with a single button click! Now THAT’S what I call a good settings system, and I just realized how much of a nerd I am for reviewing the freaking settings.
The third thing that annoys me about Grammarly is that whenever I open the desktop application, it doesn’t remember that I have logged in. To log in, the application takes me to the website, which does remember that I logged in, and I need to press a button that will toss me back to the application. It’s a ten-second interruption that bugs the hell out of me.
The bottom line is that Grammarly is an awesome tool whose premium features will only appeal to a niche market. It’s not perfect, but it expedites so much work for me. If that appeals to you, I highly recommend Grammarly.
Can’t say that makes the advertisements on YouTube any less annoying, though.
