I was recently asked to give Grammarly a try.
“What’s Grammarly?” I asked.
THE ANSWER AMAZED ME!
Their website www.grammarly.com says that Grammarly is “the world’s most accurate grammar checker.” I decided that I should be the judge of that myself. The program allows you to either download or cut and paste your text into their online platform. Once the text is in the program, it scans for over 250 points of grammar. Now, I’m not going to list them all but some of the things it looks for are:
Contextual Spelling Grammar Punctuation Sentence Structure Style Plagiarism
My Test Drive:
In order to test out “the world’s most accurate grammar checker” I decided to cut and paste, into their online platform, the latest chapter of the novel I’m writing:
(COMING SOON)
Just a little plug for me 🙂
WOW – OMG – SO COOL!!!
The program proceeded to mark grammar issues, words that were miss used, spelling errors, and even overused words – things that Microsoft Word doesn’t find. Things that I am sure my editor will love for me to have fixed before sending her my manuscript. Already, after only five minutes with the program, I was sold.
But wait, there’s more!
There is a FREE version!!!
Nope, that’s not all…
If you upgrade to the premium version, you can also download Grammarly to your computer and activate it in Microsoft Word. That means you don’t have to upload your manuscript to the internet or cut and paste it into the online platform. This made me feel so much safer. So, I gave it a shot.
Once the download was complete, I opened up my current work in progress. The 176-page document (34,632 words) only took a matter of minutes to be processed. When it was done, Grammarly had marked all of the “errors”. From the use of passive voice, squinting modifiers, incorrect use of commas, and so much more. No, I don’t like my “errors” to be thrown in my face, but trust me I am glad that there is a tool that will allow me to catch them now – before I send the completed document to the editor. PLUS – I can now use Grammarly as I type instead of going back and trying to catch the errors after the first draft is already completed.
Here’s a little more information
Grammarly’s free version checks for the most frequently made writing mistakes.
- 100 points of grammar
- Contextual spellchecker
- Punctuation checks
- Works anywhere on the web. (Use the editor at Grammarly.com or use the free Chrome add-on)
Grammarly Premium eliminates both basic and advanced errors.
- 250+ points of grammar
- Sentence structure
- Style checks
- Vocabulary enhancement
- Plagiarism detection
- Document type checker (business, academic, etc.)
- Windows Microsoft Office add-in
My recommendation…
If you are a writer – GET Grammarly NOW!
Still not convinced? Check out the screenshots below to see more things you can do with Grammarly!
- Use Grammarly to help edit your emails to ensure the quality of writing.
- Choose your document type.
- Choose what types of errors you want Grammarly to find.
Nina Soden 