In this article, we will conduct full Grammarly reviews for you to know the basics of this tool. Everybody has heard of Grammarly and have used it one time or so. If you ask us what’s the best software for editing grammar, spelling, context, and tone, it’s got to be this app.
Do you feel that Microsoft Word’s spellchecker does not add that much value in your writing? Do you get frustrated switching site to site to find grammatical errors and cut fluffed words? If you are looking for a more sophisticated program which caters to all of this, then Grammarly might be the best for you!
From my five years of usage, here’s what I want people to see how I use the app. Read on to know more about this software with our Grammarly reviews!
What Is Grammarly?
Grammarly is a real-time writing review tool that is available online. It checks all types of writing, whether it is from your social media sites, Google Docs, WordPress, or your email. This AI-driven tool makes sure that your write-ups and messages get delivered error-free. It follows 250 grammar rules to provide intermediate proofreading.
Earlier in 2019, it rolled out a feature that sets the overall tone of the article. While it’s nothing new for Grammarly, this feature allows you to tailor your writing tone based on your goals and audience. I did notice that they’ve improved their features and transcended not only to do proofreading but do basic copyediting also.
Proofreading and copyediting are different. The fact that the app can now do both will be a wonder to writers and editors everywhere.
Benefits of Grammarly features
The primary advantage of using Grammarly is that writers, professionals, and even students can enhance their writing styles and create articles by making improvements in grammar and context. For my five-year use of the application, Grammarly is genuinely the leading grammar checker because it runs beyond correcting content mistakes.
Here, we discovered more advantages of using the software in our Grammarly reviews.
Thorough checking
Grammarly can identify and fix even the slightest grammar errors in your article that are often ignored by other grammar checkers apps. It focuses on mistakes such as misspelled words, missing punctuations, and sentence inconsistencies, among other things. Also, it can improve word choices and detect wrong prepositions, hard-to-read texts, and dangling modifiers among a few.
Plagiarism detector
Grammarly has 16 billion article databases so they would know whether you’ve copied content from other websites. They can even tell how much percentage of the text match you’ve copied from various sources from the web and on scholarly databases. One can avail the plagiarism detection by subscribing to Grammarly premium.
Strong suggestions to weak adjectives and passive voice
For blog posts, academic position documents, and technical papers, weak adjectives, and passive voice are eradicated to make your piece comprehensive. Adjectives like very pretty, very smart, or very scared are often useless and can be summed up in simpler words such as beautiful, bright, and frightened. Passive voice construction often confuses the readers due to its implication.
For example:
Instead of “The stone is used as a tool to create weapons.” Who used the stone to create weapons? Is it you, her, or by our early ancestors? One should be clear to avoid confusion and implication of first or second-person voicing.
Goal setting
Earlier this year, Grammarly rolled out features like “Intent,” “Tone,” and “Domain,” so they can tailor their writing suggestions according to your objectives and target readers. Is it neutral, creative, or technical? Do you want to describe a product, convince readers of the topic, or tell a story?
Engagement
Grammarly has another feature which helps your writing more interesting. The engagement feature makes suggestions of words that evoke stronger emotional responses from readers. For instance, instead of “wonderful,” the app will suggest you use words like “excellent” or “fantastic,” because it has a stronger ring to it.
Formatting options
This feature rolled out in August and let you keep your formatting options of the piece you’re writing. It’s primarily helpful for those who’ve prepared a layout for their blog or paper positions. Before, Grammarly never integrated formatting options, thus jumbling the whole format of the article. While formatting the article again will only take a few minutes, it’s still a hassle, especially when you’re running on a deadline.
What’s new in Grammarly
The comprehensive feedback from Grammarly (correctness, clarity, engagement, and delivery) is now structured into four categories to help you understand each grammar and context solutions. You can find its full explanation on their blog here, but to recap their new features:
New interface and improved user experience
I love how Grammarly developed its interface for ease of use. A box will pop up on the screen and ask how you will deliver the article to your audience. Are the audience experts, knowledgeable, or the general public? Is the article neutral, informal, or formal so that the app can restrict the use of slang?
Tailored word suggestions
If Grammarly understands what you want to accomplish with your article, it can tailor or recommend words to fit your expectations. For instance, the general public would want to read with easy words and shortened sentences. Meanwhile, knowledgeable and expert individuals can comprehend technical phrases within their industry. Grammarly will modify its suggestions to assist your reading on that sort of viewer.
Grammarly’s extensive feedback
Grammarly provides extensive input for your article through four categories – correctness, clarity, engagement, and delivery. Each group corresponds to an underline color in the text, so you can see where your writing may need some refining.
Correctness. Misspelled words, faulty grammar, and wrong use of punctuations are in red underlines. You can access this feature in the FREE version of the app. However, detection of several faulty grammars such as wrong prepositions and sentence inconsistencies are available through the premium version of the app.
Clarity. A grammatically correct sentence doesn’t mean it’s easy to comprehend. Wordy or complicated sentences for the general public might require more effort from the readers. One unique tool is the ability to show whether you have written an active or passive voice. Once it detects that you have written, it will tell you to change the tone accordingly. Clarity writing issues are in yellow underlines.
Engagement. As mentioned earlier, Engagement refers to Grammarly’s suggestions to words that will evoke emotional responses from the readers. It provides a unique storytelling technique which can appeal to the general audience. I find this feature beneficial to e-commerce websites, especially to marketers who are writing product descriptions. What’s more, if you’re building a brand name, then use Grammarly’s suggestions for a compelling brand experience. Engagement suggestions are with the color green.
Delivery. This feedback corresponds to suggestions that help you modify your sentences or phrases with the appropriate tone. More often, it deals with balancing friendliness and professionalism by choosing words that express the right tone for your article. In short, it’ll help you sound polite and respectful.
How to use Grammarly?
In this review, we will also be exploring the various ways of using this app.
Website. The most common go-to platform is the Grammarly website. Just copy-paste your article in the web tool, and you’re good to go. Click ”New” in the dashboard, and a blank page will appear before you. You may also opt to click ”Upload” instead of ”New” to attach the content of a specific document. The tool will take only a few seconds to analyze your writing.
Browser Extensions. You will find a link on Grammarly’s homepage which will allow you to add the extension into your browser. Once you have it in there, you will be able to check your writing compositions on Google Docs, email, and social media platforms.
Desktop Application. If you are a macOS or Windows user, you may download Grammarly via a desktop app to check your work. Follow the installation process.
Phone Application. Downloading the app in the Apple App Store or Google Play Store will give you your own Grammarly keyboard for your smartphone. Upon activation, the app will automatically check your writing while composing a text message or email. Notice that not a lot of individuals with their Grammarly reviews are aware of this (since only a few know its existence), so make sure to maximize the use of this app.
Personal Grammarly Reviews: What I loved and what I’ve missed
I’m going to share to you what I loved most about the app – my weekly writing updates! I love how Grammarly reviews my work with its insights. Here you can find how productive and accurate you were from your writing gigs. And, here are my ideas:
I also note down my top three mistakes detected by Grammarly so that I can improve them on my own later on.
I’m not sure with you, but I love seeing how those numbers soar. Since I’m a full-time writer, I always checked my work with Grammarly before submitting my papers to clients.
However, there’s one feature I sorely missed from Grammarly.
A few years back, one can send invites to friends and colleagues and received a free Grammarly premium account for one week, after these invited individuals sign up for an account. I understand the changes to the app’s terms, but it’s so sad that they took the feature away.
Free version vs. Premium version
Most users wonder whether they should upgrade to a premium version. Several Grammarly reviews will push you to go for it, but others will say that ‘it’s not worth it. In our case, we believe that upgrading your account will depend solely on your writing goals.
We will also give you a brief overview of how the free version differs from the premium one to help you solidify your decisions.
Plagiarism Checker
Most users with Grammarly reviews consider this as the best tool that you can’t access in the free version. It shows the percentage of plagiarism in your article, highlights them, and pinpoints which websites they came.
Word Usage and Sentence Structure
The free version of Grammarly only focuses on correction punctuation, spelling, and grammar. However, the pro version also covers word usage and sentence structure. In the case of word usage, they check your content and analyze if the terms you have used are apt in your work. If it’s not, they give out suggestions on which words are better. Lastly, they also detect weak words and dangling modifiers.
Tone
Grammarly premium also gives out a warning on informal words, non-inclusive language, and slangs in a formal document. This feature is most effective if you are trying to establish an emotional appeal in your article.
Conciseness
The conciseness tool tries to cut out unnecessary words by transforming it into shorter terms. For example, you placed the phrase “In view of,” Grammarly premium will suggest two alternative wordings – “Because of” or “Given.”
Human Proofreader
If you are unsatisfied with the performance of Grammarly on your work, you have the option to seek advice from a human proofreader. This is one of the best-selling points of the premium version since it will enable you to receive helpful insights about your work.
Feedback
Grammarly users will have access to suggestions and corrections on grammar, spelling, punctuation, and clarity. Meanwhile, recommendations related to engagement and delivery are available only to Grammarly Premium subscribers.
Pricing
You can use Grammarly for free! If you’re going to upgrade to Grammarly premium, plans and pricing start at $29.95 a month. Quarterly subscriptions are also available and start at $19.98 per month, and billed as $59.95 as a bundle. Their bestselling value is at $11.66 per month if you pay an annual charge of $139.95.
Downsides of Grammarly
Now that we have laid out the best features this program entails, there are still various aspects that can be improved.
The app is quite expensive
Grammarly starts at $30 a month, and that’s already expensive for our taste. While students and academic institutions have special subscription prices, the school should be responsible for handling the purchase. The Grammarly EDU plan costs $700 per year for ten users and $1,000 for 20 users. Many students opt for an individual plan instead of using Grammarly’s academic bundle.
You cannot use Grammarly if there is no internet connection
Without an internet connection, you cannot access Grammarly and seek the app’s proofreading services. MS Word is still king if you want to edit your work without net connection.
Microsoft ‘Office’s Grammarly add-in is not applicable for macOS
According to several users’ Grammarly reviews, it’s a shame that Grammarly cannot be an add-on for Mac users.
On a personal note, it can be annoying online
If you’ve downloaded the browser extension of the app, pretty much Grammarly will check all wordings you’re typing. Sometimes, the green “G” icon at the end of the note block the way of your writing.
The verdict
Just like other Grammarly reviews, here’s our verdict: despite its flaws, we still recommend the use of the application, especially for freelance writers, students, and academic writers. This tool will ensure that your articles are error-free and understandable most of the time. Whether you are addressing plagiarism, grammar errors, spelling problems, or word usage which weaken your writing, Grammarly is worth getting.
I’ve been using Grammarly for over five years, and here’s what I want to say about this grammar engine. I’ve seen a lot of progress and developments the app has over the years. While it’s still not perfect, it helps the writer spot apparent mistakes.
Yes, it’s hard to spot your typos because your brain is trying to convey the context of what you’re writing. But this software can help spot grammar mistakes you’re oblivious to. For students, writers, or professionals, it can be beneficial to have this app work for you.
