George Orwell lamented in his 1946 essay, “Politics and the English Language, that:
“Most people who bother with the matter at all would admit that the English language is in a bad way, but it is generally assumed that we cannot by conscious action do anything about it.”
‘Most people’ can safely ignore society’s grammar problems, but if you make your living writing, you can’t afford to ignore your own. Words are the coin of your realm. They hold pride of place in the personal fable that is you. For years, I’ve searched for a good grammar-check program. I’ve tried many different online and software options that promised results (such as White Smoke, Ginger, After the Deadline, and Correct English Complete). None were better than the built-in program that comes with MS Word, and that is wrong half the time.
Then I found Grammarly. This online tool and word processing add-in (free or fee) searches 100 points of grammar (250 with Premium), is a contextual spellchecker, and offers word choices to improve writing. It comes with a Chrome extension to review emails, FB updates, and entries in Discussion Boards and Forums. The premium account offers a Windows Microsoft Office add-in and a choice of thirty writing styles like business email and academic essays.
Set-up is easy. Create an account and get started. No downloads or installation.
Paste your text into the canvas and tell Grammarly what type of document you’re writing:
Grammarly highlights problems and explains changes with reference to appropriate grammar rules. If you’re a teacher, the education subscription enables students (and teachers) to check for plagiarism.
Here is an example from my novel using the MS Word add-in. Grammarly added its own ribbon to the Word menu bar. In the right sidebar, I see the complete list of suggestions (in my case, over 900 after my six thousand rewrites) or I can break it down by categories such as:
- contextual spelling
- grammar
- punctuation
- sentence structure
- style
- vocabulary enhancement
- plagiarism
Pros
I can access Grammarly through the website by logging into my account, through the Chrome browser app, or directly within MS Word or Outlook. I can see tremendous value in the browser app to check email, forums, Twitter or whatever I’m using to share ideas without the need to copy-paste it into the website canvas. The ability to log into Grammarly’s website and check my writing is a big plus.
I love their blog. There are lots of tips–and it’s up-to-date, unlike many commercial blogs I’ve seen that make a few posts and then abandon the effort.
Cons
Computer analysis of natural language is very tough and certainly not perfect. Grammarly can’t read your mind or make adjustments for your personal writer’s voice. It isn’t automatic. Don’t plan on accepting Grammarly’s changes without engaging your brain. The website even warns users:
One thing to remember is that Grammarly is best used as a “second set of eyes” for your writing as opposed to a replacement for a professional proofreader.
I’ll give you an example. It highlights contractions like ‘it’s’, suggesting you spell them out as ‘it is’. Since my day job as a teacher doesn’t (er, does not) allow us to use contractions, I appreciate that, and in fact, most of the world does not use contractions. But Americans find the lack of them to be stuffy and formal. Grammarly will point those out; you make the choice.
Two bits of advice when using this program:
- use Grammarly to learn and develop writing skills, not as a replacement for them
- use Grammarly to check your work–and never blindly accept changes. It’s impossible for any software to replace the human brain (at least, today it is)
If you’re looking for that level of hands-off engagement, hire an editor (which Grammarly also offers).
Insider tips
When you enable the Grammarly add-in on MS Word or Outlook, it disables auto-save (not a big deal to me) and Ctrl+Z (a really big deal. I use it all the time). For me, I enable Grammarly after I rough out the piece, when I’m perfecting my writing. I don’t need Ctrl+Z at that point. As for auto-save, Word regularly crashes on me, often enough I save my work constantly to avoid losses. I am my own autosave tool.
Educational Uses
For teachers, Grammarly is a quick way to check student work for plagiarism. Paste the student work into the online canvas and put Grammarly to work. Here’s David Zetland’s story over at Simon Fraser University on how he saved a lot of time with Grammarly.
Where I list the lack of automaticity under Cons, it’s a plus in an education environment. Students using Grammarly must understand their grammar and writing style sufficiently to make a go-nogo decision on Grammarly’s suggestions. As a teacher, I see this is a good thing, especially since Grammarly explains the mistakes it highlights.
There is an education subscription that covers a preset group or an entire campus.
Conclusion:
This online grammar checker is easy to use and provides useful feedback, though the long explanations may give you more information than you want. In many studies, it had a high accuracy score and recognized a wide variety of common grammatical errors. However, it does not catch 100% of them. It should not be considered the final word in spelling, syntax and grammar, rather a helpful aid. In addition, its extensive explanations and personal grammar handbook can teach you a lot about the subject of grammar.
More about grammar in the classroom:
Five Grammar Errors that Make you Look Dumb
Grammar and Spelling Aren’t Just for Computers
Book Review: Elements of Style
Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular Building a Midshipman, the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is the author/editor of dozens of books on integrating tech into education, webmaster for six blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a columnist for Examiner.com and TeachHUB, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, monthly contributor to Today’s Author and a freelance journalist on tech ed topics. You can find her book at her publisher’s website, Structured Learning.
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I’ve been using Grammarly for 2 months and am more or less satisfied with what I know how to do. Your blog is going to let me use it a lot more. TX. Sheri
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I have the browser add-on and always check that (well, it works automatically so I have to check it). It gives me some sense that I’m not making too many stupid mistakes!
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I hear you.
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Thank you Jacqui, especially good when you are not english mother Language…
:-)claudine
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Ah, yes. True. I think I’d be quite a challenged writer in Italian.
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Well, you may try Jacqui… as I try being a writer in English 😉
Have a lovely weekend :-)claudine
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I’ve heard of Grammarly before. I’m glad tools like this exist. Right now I have everything checkmarked in Word’s grammar check, but this is probably more thorough.
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They provide options. I like it for my final draft, the one I take days to complete because it forces me to focus on all the details.
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I agree we all need a grammar checker of some kind. The one I use is @ http://prowritingaid.com, but there are tons out there to choose from. 🙂
Anna from Shout with Emaginette
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I’m going to check it out. I love options.
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Thanks for the info, Jacqui. I have heard of Grammarly, but hadn’t checked into it. I’ll also take a look at Spellcheckplus. May reduce the cost of a professional editor when I get to that point ;>}
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Try the free version and see what you think. It definitely gave me a lot to think about.
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I tried Grammerly but found it cumbersome as it corrected everything which included speech, which in fiction is often not grammatically correct. Plus you had to enter a certain number of words; often more than I needed help with. I prefer Spellcheckplus.com which will take as little as one simple sentence and worked well for me writing fiction.
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Thanks for the alternative, Jeanne. I’m going to check it out.
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Terrific info on Grammarly Jacqui. I’m familiar with it but do not use it myself. My editor does though. She also has a program developed by her computer programmer husband which reads the text for her, allowing her to judge the pace, flow, and need for punctuation.
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I love that last one. The husband should sell it. And, one that reads the text backwards (always the suggestion I get from my writers group).
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Reblogged this on georgeforfun.
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Thanks for the reblog, George!
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My pleasure, very welcome
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I added Grammarly to my browser last month. I think it’s the best tool for writing on the market today. If you haven’t noticed yet, when it gives correct spelling for a word, it also gives the option of ‘remembering’ it. Very handy with the spelling of names.
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Thanks for the feedback. I’m a new user so am happy to hear from someone with experience under their belt.
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I have tried Grammarly and found it useful, but haven’t for a couple of years. It’s fine for a quick check but nothing like human eyes. thank you for reminding me about it again. ❤
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Agreed. I like the MS Word add-on (in the premium version) because it’ll check as I go along, much as Word does, but better.
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Ahem. MS add-on in the premium version?
Never heard of it. How’s it different from regular MS Word?
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That sentence was confusing. You must have the Grammarly premium version to get the MS Word add-in. Hope that’s clearer, Tess!
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There’s one thing that always has bothered me. (sorry I’m a bit off topic), when I write, whether I use the grammar and spelling check or not – when i read it, it sounds good, but 6 months later – I read it and feel a 5 year old could have done a better job. Am I being too critical or should I just have someone else read what I write BEFORE I post it?
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As a devoted reader of your blog for several years, I’d say you’re too critical. I’ve never read one that didn’t engage me and include your voice. Maybe your inner voice is different from your writer’s voice and that’s what your seeing.
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Thanks for the intro to Grammarly. I think it should make the task of people who have to review lots of documents, like checking student essays, easier. However, I feel more comfortable getting human eyes to check any piece of my writing, at least currently. Nothing against Grammarly, just a personal preference.
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Humans are preferable to any automated review. I completely agree. As you say, when there is volume, this is a good first step. Also, to teach students grammar, this is good because it explains its finds.
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Excellent post and very objective analysis. I’ve been using the Grammarly premium version for a few years. As you suggest, the “second set of eyes” approach is best.
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I appreciate the feedback. I’ve just started using it so have no track record to cite.
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I’ve not heard of Grammarly, so thanks for reviewing it here. The points you’ve made are extremely useful – I’m going over to check it out!
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They got my trust when they pointed out a grammar checker doesn’t replace the human eye. Duh–we writers know that. I like that they acknowledge it.
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