In this Grammarly Review, we take you through this excellent digital writing assistant that can help you avoid embarrassing grammatical and spelling faux pas and ensures an easy to read text and engaging article.
As we mentioned in a previous article, one of the ways to get paid travel is to start a travel blog. This will, of course, require a lot of writing, and a tool can significantly reduce the burden of spelling and grammar challenges that writing a blog can pose. This is where Grammarly can be a huge help.
What Is Grammarly? What Does It Do?
Grammarly is a digital writing tool developed by a Ukrainian technology company using artificial intelligence and natural learning processes. With over 10 million users from around the world, Grammarly has transformed into the most popular spelling and grammar checker tool available on the internet, used by passionate writers, both the beginners and the professional ones.
The app was originally developed by Ukrainians Alex Shevchenko, Max Lytvyn, and Dmytro Lider in 2009. It is now owned by Grammarly, Inc., of San Francisco, California. The company has strong funding support. In May 2017, it raised $110 million in its first round of funding. Then in October 2019, another $90 million was raised in a second round, at a company valuation of more than $1 billion.
The application provides various services to check for grammar and spelling, proofread, edit and detect plagiarism. You can get your goals and the app will use that as the basis for suggesting corrections.
Following are the types of text-related errors that can be corrected using Grammarly:
- Grammar and Punctuation – It detects mistakes related to grammar and punctuation, ranging from basic to advanced styles. It also provides suggestions and guidelines on how to rectify them.
- Spell Check – It has a prompt spelling checker which clears all errors of such type.
- Plagiarism Detection – Grammarly compares your writing to various others available on the internet to encourage uniqueness to your text.
- Writing Style – Quite an under-appreciated feature of the application, writing style helps you with the length of sentences, overall readability and actionable insights on further improving your writing.
Who Benefits from Grammarly?
Grammarly supports all kinds of writing, including professional, hobby and casual writing. It has all the features required to spruce up emails, blogs, social media posts and even formal papers. Authors at the beginner level may also use it to draft a riveting and well-worded novel or media article.
Grammarly can be used by both native and non-native English speakers, and it is most beneficial for: students, bloggers, content marketers and copywriters and business writers/professionals.
How Can You Use Grammarly?
Grammarly is an internet-based tool, which does not require you to continually copy and paste your writing into a text box to check it. The application is available in the following formats and platforms:
- The Grammarly Web Tool – You may copy and paste portions of your writing into the platform and wait for a few seconds for the software to analyze and edit it. Alternatively, you can upload the entire file and allow the tool to analyze the data for you. The same actions can be performed on the website as well.
- Desktop Application – A version of the app is available for your desktop to check your writing. Till now, the version available is supported in Windows and Mac OS only. You can download it from the official website. Follow the setup instructions to install the app onto your desktop successfully.
- Microsoft Word – Microsoft Word on Windows OS has a built-in Grammarly feature available. The application consists of a separate page for the add-in, along with the information on how to install it. Once the feature is locked in, Grammarly checks as you write along on MS Word.
- Browser Extension – This is available to download from the website. A browser extension allows you to incorporate Grammarly across various sites, like Gmail, Google Docs and Google Sheets. The extension will enable you to use the tool for writing emails, documents and posts on social media.
- On Your Phone – A mobile app is available for your smartphone keyboard, which is supported on both Android and iOS devices.
The Pros
- Excellent User Experience – You do not have to be a computer genius to use Grammarly. In contrast to its complex and advanced analyzing skills, the user interface is incredibly simple and allows improved user experience. You can learn how to use Grammarly and will be able to edit your documents with confidence in less than an hour.
- Real-time Correction Suggestions – Grammarly supports the automatic correction of errors in real-time for a cleaner and better final result. You can view the mistakes that you are making and immediately correct them based on the suggestions recommended by the tool.
- High Degree of Accuracy- Despite being a program run by a machine, Grammarly holds a very high degree of accuracy in its rectification recommendations. The software does not make a lot of mistakes and maintains accurate grammar and spelling changes throughout its use.
- Customization Options – The application allows you to customize your writing as you desire freely. You can choose a preferred language, turn off certain websites and use your regular set of words from the dictionary. It also has the feature of adding new words (like slang and brand names) to the dictionary, so that it does not mark them wrong time and time again.
The Cons
- May Lead to Unnecessary Corrections – The software does not work whenever it is analyzing your documents. It may misunderstand certain passages and suggest the wrong corrections, leading to messy results. However, you will have the option to just disregard the suggested corrections. It has also shown incompatibility with Google Docs, refusing correction.
- FREE Version Limitations – There are two versions of the software: FREE and PREMIUM. Most of the basic features, like spelling, grammar and punctuation, are covered by the FREE version. The customization and writing style changes are only allowed once you purchase the premium version. Several people opt to buy the latter, although the majority of the students and bloggers tend to stick to the former.
- Spamming Risk via Advertising – The application believes in aggressive advertising when it comes to upgrades. Spamming with constant advertisements and emails might pose as an annoying factor to quite many people. There are options to unsubscribe such alerts, and the problem can be dealt with peacefully.
Final Thoughts
In our view, the PROS outweigh the CONS. We have used it extensively, and overall it has proven to be a useful application, particularly when it comes to grammar and spelling checkers.
When compared to human proofreaders and editors, a computer program cannot cover naturally every base of correction. In cases when you have to write a dissertation, a prominent business document or a manuscript, you may have to seek the help of an expert editor instead.
Otherwise, Grammarly is more than adequate. See for yourself. Let Grammarly do its magic, and you’ll have the perfectly tailored writing that you always wanted! Click the banner below to go to the Grammarly website TODAY and download your preferred version.
Various other platforms, like ProWritingAid, WhiteSmoke and Ginger, provide similar services. However, Grammarly stands out for us due to its easy user interface, high level of accuracy, flexible options and value.
If you have insights and opinions on this subject or perhaps on your actual experience of this app, we would love to hear from you through the comments section below.
Grammarly
FREE Version - $0; PREMIUM - $29.95/mo.
Pros
- Excellent User Experience
- Real Time Correction Suggestions
- High Degree of Accuracy
- Customization Options
Cons
- May Lead to Unnecessary Corrections
- FREE Version Limitations
- Spamming Risk via Advertising
An article of this quality takes a lot of time and energy to develop especially when it has to reach out to people with useful information. I also commend the beautiful website that you have created with nice templates. Grammarly has been around for a while. although I have not had time to use it well.
Hi Benny,
Thank you for your kind words on the quality of our article and our website. Grammarly has indeed been a very positive experience for us. You may want to experience that as well. Get the FREE version now and you will surely be comfortable with it in no time.
I must say that this is really an insightful post and I am very sure that the content of this article will be of so much help to many others, just as it has greatly helped me. This is a very detailed article on Grammarly. I have been using Grammarly and ever since I have not had problems with my spellings since then.
Hello,
Thank you for your positive affirmation on the value of Grammarly to users like you and us. Glad to know that you are enjoying its benefits. Do you by chance using the free version or have you moved on to leverage the benefits of going Premium?
Hi! English is not my first language. And you can imagine how much I struggle daily every time I have to write something in English. After reading the whole article I agree with you, the pros outweigh the cons. So, I’ll definitely give the free version a try. Thanks for showing I can test drive for free.
Hi Ann,
Yes, indeed for us the pros outweigh the cons. It has been a blessing for us and surely that will be the case for you too. Get the FREE version now and it should give you a good peak that what it can do. Who knows, you may like it so much just like us that we later went for the Premium version.
Grammarly seems like a good tool. I write in English but it is not my native language and I do a lot of grammatical errors and could definitely use a tool like Grammarly to pimp up my grammar. I think you give me a good review of this product. I do not like spam so I had some second thoughts reading about the ad spam. On the plus side the user-friendliness, the accuracy, writing style, the plagiarism detection makes it appealing. Definitely a product I will consider. Nothing to say about the price. It is affordable for most pockets.
Hi Hilde,
Thank you for your comments. Just like you, English is a second language to us and we really benefit a lot from the use of Grammarly. It has so many positive features and functionalities. We love the Anti-Plagiarism Checker feature – it takes a lot of effort off us. Amazing – just as if we have a professional editor working with us.
Thanks for this post. Grammarly seems like a pretty good tool. Its a shame about the spamming of advertisements but its probably worth the hassle to ensure minimal writing errors. Like you said, you believe that the pros outweigh the cons.
Thank you for your comments. Regarding spams, there are options anyway for you to unsubscribe. For us, it is not enough to negate all the benefits/pros.
Great post for anyone who needs help in the spelling and grammatical areas.
I have been using Grammarly now for a number of years as a chrome extension and think it’s just great.
Granted and you have mentioned it in the CONS that some of the grammatical errors are a little confusing at times, but you can ignore them until you go back into the document and the same issue arises.
Coming from the UK and English or the spelling of it is sometimes different from the US version so I think a little dedication on our end wouldn’t go a miss.
Thank you for sharing
Mick
Hi Mick,
Thanks a lot for your positive comments. Yes, indeed some of the recommended “corrections” may sometimes be confusing. This is really not a big deal since you have the option anyway to ignore the message or you may wish to update it with a better.
Cheers!
Hi Mick,
Good to know that you have been using Grammarly for a number of years now. Yes, chrome extension is also our preference and it has likewise been great.
Indeed, while some “corrections” being suggested by the app may appear not necessary or confusing, one can just ignore it. The beauty of it though is that it allows you to pause and just have a second look. If things are deemed okay, then you can just easily ignore it.
Thanks a lot for sharing your experience and insights.