Grammarly Review – The must have blogging tool
Grammarly has become an essential tool in my blogging journey as it is a great time-saving addition to my writing arsenal. I have been using Grammarly for over a year and I don’t think I can live without it! Mistakes are quickly identified and corrected quickly and easily. I have no hesitation in recommending Grammarly for anyone who writes regularly.
What is Grammarly?
Grammarly is an online and desktop live grammar and spelling checker that works in conjunction with most popular web browsers and word processing applications.
The browser plugin allows you to write confidently everywhere from Gmail, Facebook and Twitter to Google Docs, LinkedIn and almost anywhere else you write online.
Who is Grammarly for?
Grammarly is for anyone who writes regularly whether for professional purposes, blogging, authors or students. Writing styles and intent can be adjusted in settings to suit your task and Grammarly can work with you to improve your writing and prevent mistakes by identifying errors.
How does Grammarly work?
Grammarly is available as a browser plugin for Chrome, Firefox and Safari and also as a desktop plugin for popular applications such as Microsoft Office.
Grammarly browser plugin
The browser plugin is available as a free download and offers the basic features which some users will find enough for their needs. If you are a regular writer, the premium package offers so much more.
The plugin I use is the Chrome browser extension. Once installed, Grammarly scans your writing and identifies spelling and grammatical errors by highlighting them. Simply click on the error and change to the recommended replacement or ignore if you wish.
As I write a lot of blog posts, the Grammarly browser plugin has become invaluable in my writing process.
Grammarly desktop application
The desktop application is available as a native application for Windows. At the moment, there is no separate application for MacOS. The Windows application is a small download file that enables you to proofread directly from your desktop.
Grammarly will process the document and process any errors and corrections and suggest remedial action if any. This is great for students who want a final proofread before submitting documents.
I tend to use the browser plugin more as a majority of my writing online and the browser extension is very capable for this task – long gone are my student days!
Grammarly and proof reading
I don’t use this feature when writing my blog posts as I usually correct as I go along but if I was writing a piece of schoolwork for example I would get the document proof read before submitting.
AI proof reading will never be as effective as a qualified human proof reader but Grammarly is pretty close.
What languages are compatible with Grammarly?
Grammarly is only compatible with English at the moment, the most common dialects are covered:
- US English (American)
- British English (UK)
- Canadian English
- Australian English
As I am based in the UK this was a key point I had to consider when signing up to Grammarly premium as there are some variances between US and UK English.
You can select or change your dialect setting simply by clicking on the
Grammarly icon and selecting the dialect.
How do I use Grammarly in my writing
I use Grammarly daily and I find it valuable in correcting both minor and major errors I make in my writing, especially in my blog posts. Writing as the ideas are flowing leads to simple errors that may not be identified immediately but Grammarly picks them up and offers suggestions to correct them.
My common errors are misplacing punctuation, commas,
Grammarly weekly writing report
This is a feature I wasn’t aware of but is quite eye-opening. I receive weekly Grammarly reports identifying my writing progress and statistics – everyone loves statistics!
The weekly writing update is a quick overview of your writing statistics, it has motivational stats and compares your progress with other Grammarly users.
I like to pat myself on the back with the productivity and vocabulary but the mastery and mistakes stats are revealing. Because I write my posts quite quickly in order to get my ideas down, my accuracy is not as high as I would like.
The area for improvement is reducing my mistakes. Grammarly identifies the top 3 mistakes in the report and you can get more details on why they are identified as mistakes and how to rectify them in future writing pursuits.
