The Product - What is It?

Grammarly is a free downloadable tool that helps users edit while writing. It can be downloaded to a desktop or used in a browser for any type of writing. There is a paid option, but I like the free version, so we’ll stick to that for today.

How It Works

To use Grammarly, you have to download it to our computer first. I have it installed on my Google Chrome browser so it can help me while I write blog posts, emails, social media posts, or whatever else I happen to write online.

As you write, Grammarly checks your spelling and grammar. It can show definitions or synonyms of words, and predict what you should say next. You can determine what tools you want to use and turn off the ones you don’t want.

If you’re writing something and don’t want Grammarly to keep chiming in with suggestions, you can turn it off. Don’t worry, if you want to do a spelling and grammar check at the end, you can turn it back on and it will show you all the suggestions.

Grammarly gives suggestions based on four aspects of writing:

Correctness - whether there are mistakes
Clarity - how easy it is to tell what you are saying
Engagement - how interesting your writing is to readers; diction (the words you use, the flow of your writing, etc.)
Delivery - how the writing sounds to readers; tone (excited, informal, optimistic, etc.)

You can see the edits Grammarly wants to make right on the writing itself, through underlining. You can also check the small circle in the bottom right corner of the screen. It can be green or red, depending on if it thinks the writing needs help. When you click the circle, it gives you an in-depth look at the edits.

This in-depth look is where Grammarly tells you which aspect the edit falls under. That makes it easier to tell if it’s a necessary edit or something based on your own preference.

Pros & Cons

Top Pros:

By using Grammarly, editing becomes more thorough and accurate. This helps ensure when people are reading your work, they don’t stumble on easily fixable or obvious mistakes. When I’m reading a book, blog post, or other writing, glaring mistakes in the middle of the page take me out of the story and make me nitpick the rest of the writing. It definitely makes reading less enjoyable. Using a tool like Grammarly is a great way to make sure our writing is as readable as possible.

Another great pro is that it’s free! There’s a premium version that gives you more in-depth suggestions, but it isn’t necessary, at least not for most things. With the free version, you can still see spelling and grammar mistakes, along with some other clarifying edits. I use the free version, and found it very useful for all of my writing.

Top Cons:

Sometimes Grammarly gives suggestions that aren’t what we want or don’t work for the sentence. For example, below I wrote “Grammarly picks up on them all” and it suggested I change “up on” to “upon” which is not what I mean. In these cases, you can just ignore the suggestions.
If you forget to turn off Grammarly, it will pop up in all writing circumstances, even when it’s not wanted. It’s a small inconvenience, but can be annoying. I ignore it when I’m not using it, but sometimes it can be hard to ignore, like when you’re trying to type up a quick email and it keeps predicting text you don’t actually want to use.

Overall Usefulness

Overall, Grammarly is extremely useful. There have been plenty of times when I’m writing too fast and don’t notice I used a wrong word or spelled something incorrectly. Grammarly is on top of it and corrects me.

Even when rereading it’s easy to miss some smaller mistakes, but Grammarly picks up on them all. It ensures that my emails aren’t filled with embarrassing mistakes and that my blog posts make sense!

Those pesky edits we miss can put a damper on our writing, and Grammarly is a great tool to use to make sure that those edits get included.

I would recommend Grammarly to any writer. It can be helpful in many ways. If it’s not for you, at least you gave it a try!

My challenge to you is to try Grammarly for a week.

Do you use Grammarly or another app for editing your writing? How does it work for you? Would you recommend it to other writers? I’d love to hear about your experiences and recommendations! Find me on social media or drop a comment below.

Let’s chat because you, my friend, are on your way to great writing.

Grammarly Review