As of this writing, I have used a Grammarly premium subscription to support my editing and writing work for the past 10 months. I was looking for a way to enhance my consistency and efficiency as an editor and decided to try Grammarly. I started with a 3-month premium subscription. You can access Grammarly for free, but the free version doesn’t offer much more functionality than the built-in grammar and spell checkers in most word processing programs.
Here, I’ll describe the Grammarly features and how I use them in my writing and editing work.
I have a Microsoft Office 365 subscription and use Microsoft Word for Mac as my primary word processing platform. I installed the Grammarly plug-in for Word (a mobile version is available if you want greater confidence in your communication on the go). Unlike the built-in editing tools, which highlight problematic words and phrases as you type (you can turn this feature off, of course), you have to open Grammarly to see potential errors and suggested fixes. Click on the icon in the tools ribbon to open the sidebar and run Grammarly.
Grammarly offers users four alert categories:
Correctness alerts highlight issues with grammar, spelling, and mechanics. It will also point out extra spaces between words and consistency issues with punctuation and capitalization. You can select the preferred style and have Grammarly conform everything to that style. However, I typically want to review the various instances as there may be a reason for the inconsistency. For example, in writing this piece, Grammarly noted inconsistent capitalization of word. That inconsistency is correct and by design.
Clarity alerts identify ways to make your writing easier to understand by pointing out wordy constructions, instances of passive voice, and or spaces where you may be able to increase readability by incorporating transitions or parsing long, complex sentences. One of the features I particularly like about Grammarly is the recommendations for rephrasing confusing sentences. Sometimes, I will adopt the recommendation wholesale. At other times, it simply prompts me to rethink the sentence and come up with better wording.
Engagement alerts point to places where you can make the writing more compelling. Here, the focus is frequently on word choice. For example, Grammarly will point out frequently overused words, jargon, or cliché. It will also suggest when you may have overused a word too often in a passage. Finally, it will offer an alternative, which you can insert simply by clicking on it. Again, I don’t always adopt the suggestion provided, but it may prompt me to spend some time looking at the definition of the word I’ve used and trying to identify appropriate synonyms.
Delivery alerts help you make the right impression by ensuring that you strike the correct tone throughout your piece (so far, I don’t have any delivery alerts for this draft).
You can customize the alerts you receive by setting goals for your document with respect to the expertise of your audience, the level of formality you want to maintain, and the domain (e.g., academic, business, creative) where the work will appear. You open this pop-up menu by clicking on the target icon in the Grammarly sidebar.
When I am editing a piece, I typically run Grammarly after completing my first round of proposed edits. Grammarly lets me choose which alerts I attend to. So, for example, if I am copyediting a journal manuscript and aiming for a light hand, I may only focus on correctness alerts. On the other hand, I may look at all alerts for line editing or developmental editing projects. For my own writing, I tend to view all of the alerts. You can select which alerts you see by clicking on the alert bar at the top of the Grammarly sidebar.
By clicking on the Show In Text bubble for each alert, you can see the problem text in the document. I usually find this helpful because it lets me see the suggested edit in context to see whether it makes sense. If it does, I can click on the highlighted correction in the Grammarly sidebar, and the change will be introduced. If I don’t want to make the change, I click on the trashcan icon to dismiss the suggestion. Also, by looking at the suggested correction in context, I better understand how it will impact the surrounding text. For example, will making changes in the surrounding text make that edit more effective or unnecessary?
If you are unsure why Grammarly made a suggestion, you can click on the question icon to get a more detailed explanation. Note that these explanations aren’t specific to your document. Instead, they are more general discussions of the broader class of issues Grammarly has identified and typically include several examples of how to rewrite problematic sentences for greater clarity, concision, or correctness.
I've actually found Grammarly to be more useful than I thought it would be. It identifies issues that may have slipped by me (and most likely won't be highlighted by Word), and it forces me to slow down a bit and make decisions about how to recast phrases and sentences that somehow tripped up the program’s algorithm. Like most automated grammar checkers, this will be most helpful for users who already have some knowledge of grammar conventions. The algorithms aren’t foolproof; Grammarly sometimes offers a suggestion that isn’t appropriate given the context. At other times, the change may not feel appropriate given your ethos as a writer, your purposes for writing, the stylistic conventions of your genre, or the expectations of folks in your discipline.
My one complaint about Grammarly is its functionality in online spaces. I have installed the Grammarly plug-in for my web browser to receive alerts when creating social media posts, completing online forms, etc. Unfortunately, the Grammarly alerts sometimes obscure the field you are typing in, especially if it is very small, making it challenging to identify and fix the problem.
The Grammarly premium subscription can be purchased on a monthly, quarterly, or annual basis; however, a yearly subscription is the best value (working out to $12 per month).
Grammarly won't replace the time I spend doing a final proof on a draft. I also don't think it is an effective substitute for a professional editor if you need those services. That said, it's a valuable tool for your writing toolbox to help you eliminate potentially embarrassing errors while making your writing more reader-friendly.
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