I suck at grammar, Is anyone using Grammarly pro?

Azdaphel

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I use ProWritingAid. It does more than Grammarly without asking for a fee.
 

TheListener

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I would find a great workbook on grammar and use that. If you don't know how to format sentences, what goes where, how to use nouns, pronouns, verbs, action verbs, etc., then a program isn't going to work any better for you.

You can't fix the past but you can fix the future. Find that workbook, study it every day for maybe a hour. At some point your grammar will improve and so will your writing. If you don't want to buy one, find some sites on the net that will help improve it. I have enclosed a couple. One is British but shouldn't matter.

https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/intermediate-grammar
https://grammar.collinsdictionary.com/easy-learning
 

LUNABLUE

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I have grammarly but my recent posts got hammered for grammar, so I may try Purdue owl, whilst also trying to improve the grammar from learning. Good luck.
 

sivart_sf

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Just an update. Grammarly Pro can help you spot mistakes that normally you don't fiind with word….
BUT... the program doesn't necessarily recognize the difference between names you have already saved into word and what is in the database.

In fact, it often tells me for being too wordy which in some cases is okay. But when you are writing a book then this is a Problem

and it only does US English (And I think with a San Francisco dialect if you get my drift) because some of the suggestions from the program are bad

That being said once you understand the System it can be an invaluable tool
 

DanielSTJ

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I agree, the premium is VERY slow. However, I figure with the waiting time that it allows me to do other things.

I've also noticed that, with dialogue, it's not very useful at all. Like mentioned, it makes it sound stilted and forced.
 

thomasdown92

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Grammarly Premium is a great grammar correction tool. I don't always like the suggestions that it gives but that is just a minor complaint. However, I rely on other plagiarism checkers online to check how original my writing is.
 

Bufty

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Grammarly Premium is a great grammar correction tool. I don't always like the suggestions that it gives but that is just a minor complaint. However, I rely on other plagiarism checkers online to check how original my writing is.

I don't worry about 'accidental plagiarism' even if there were such a term.

I know my writing is original.

I don't copy anyone else's writing at all and claim it's my own - not even whole sections word-for-word, which is what plagiarism is.
 
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indianroads

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This is a fairly old thread - I downloaded and installed the FREE version of Grammarly for MS Word and use it. I often don't follow its suggestions, especially in dialogue, but it does a better job and std. MS word. It's a tool, one of many I use when I write.
 

Melania_Devitt

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Grammarly is a good tool for sure. But sometimes it also makes some mistakes. The work of this app based on the NLP algorithm (natural language processing), which for now is not so perfect. The more you use it, the more this app learns how to fix writing issues right.
 

AW Admin

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I wouldn't rely on any grammar checker; and I've written them. I absolutely wouldn't use a grammar checker for fiction.
 

Ari Meermans

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. . . I absolutely wouldn't use a grammar checker for fiction.
This.

Lookit, when we're writing fiction we're storytellers. Our goal is to make the story interesting, not necessarily grammatically correct. We use words and word order in sometimes unconventional ways to set tone, mood, and character of the world we're writing, as well as to distinguish individual characters' dialogue. This is a huge part of voice and voice keeps our readers in that story world with eyes glued to the page. If we rely on a grammar checker, we lose the interesting bits and run the risk of writing ourselves right out of the story. just sayin'
 

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Well, I just used Grammarly's free spot check, and it told me something interesting. I entered two lines of my bio, and it stated that "significant plagiarism was detected," which I found curious. I mean, it's my bio. I wrote it. Perhaps because my bio's been posted online in various places before? *shrugs*

Yep. That's why. Try short excerpts from non-21st century writers—not so much in terms of the problems associated with digital plagiarism checkers, but as evidence of why grammar checkers are problematical when not used as a limited tool.

Say, Joyce, Faulkner, Austen, Woolf . . . just a short bit.
 

Sonya Heaney

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Agree with the people above. I write historical fiction, and I have A LOT of characters with various reasons for having different English skills. My word choices are deliberate. My grammar is often deliberately incorrect.

While misplaced apostrophes etc. are an issue, I don't see why a basic spellcheck (or an editor!) can't fix that without a program turning a manuscript sterile with the same rules for every situation. (Except that time I kept spelling "Latin" incorrectly, and my editor thought I was doing it on purpose!)

Edit: I've never actually used Grammarly, so I probably have no idea what I'm talking about!
 
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veinglory

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I use the premium grammarly for fiction, including for grammar, because all it does is alert me-- and often it is right. Ultimately the writer always has to know for sure, themselves, what is correct for the writing in context. But I go error-blind to my own writing (I see what I intended to write not what I actually wrote) and grammarly breaks through that problem for me.
 
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Murky

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I believe it is important to treat apps like Grammarly as a tool that you use for help, but never let it replace you manually going over your manuscript for line and copy editing.
 

Laer Carroll

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I haven't seen any posts on Grammarly in this forum. So here is one.

A few months ago I'd finished a long chapter made up of several scenes and began reading it over to rewrite it as needed. I'd recently seen an ad for Grammarly so decided to give it a try. I got the free basic version and installed it in my copy of Word 7.0.

Normally Grammarly is dormant, only noticeable as a tab at the top of the Word page as a green icon labeled Open Grammarly. Click the icon and the page splits vertically in two. The right pane within the page is about a third as wide as the left side. This pane is for Grammarly's comments, which look about like this: pain – Correct your spelling.

Click on the comment and the cursor shifts to the problem word, which is underlined in red. The comment offers a suggested change, which if you click will make the suggested change. Or you can type in your own suggested change – or ignore the comment.

If you don't open the Grammarly pane Grammarly does continue to work, this time by underlining in red any questionable words or phrases but not displaying any reason why.

I found most suggestions given by Grammarly good but not all. They also acted as distractions if I was composing on the fly. So I kept the Grammarly pane off most of the time, only using Grammarly when I'd finished a goodly chunk of text. That chunk became bigger as I used Grammarly more, until finally I only used it after a chapter-sized chunk.

Grammarly checks common usage as well as grammar. It also checks spelling, though that is superfluous as Word does that as well. It handles common usage fairly well, better (though not much) than my subconscious does.

I found the basic free version of Grammarly useful. But I find some of its suggestions unhelpful. I'm also skeptical of its claims that the advanced paid version gives truly "advanced" advice. What has been your experience?
 

mrsmig

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There are a number of posts here about Grammarly, as you might expect since it's been around for more than a decade. You can find just a few here, here and here.

Most of the discussion of the program has been in the Grammar & Syntax section as well as in Basic Writing Questions.
 

Unimportant

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I haven't seen any posts on Grammarly in this forum.
Laer, if you use the advanced search option (top right of the page, the thing that looks like a magnifying glass) you can search for a word (e.g. Grammarly) in thread titles and it'll find them all.
 
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Maryn

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For now, yes. Know that Your Devoted Staff is working up the energy to combine all the Grammarly threads, since having more than one is pretty silly. We're also debating which board should host them/it, but as I said, talk about it here for now.
 

Trying To Be Good

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Grammarily is worthless and needs to stop having ads everywhere, all the time. I see 14 of these blasted things a week.

It's scared of informal speech. I followed it's advice once, and the feedback was complaints about all the sections it touched. It doesn't understand that passive people sometimes use passive language.

Long story short, you spend more time ignoring it than listening to it, and if you listen to it, even if your grammar is as bad as me, it's more likely to be wrong about something than you will.

You might as well flip a coin and on tails ruin your sentence/paragraph on purpose.
For now, yes. Know that Your Devoted Staff is working up the energy to combine all the Grammarly threads, since having more than one is pretty silly. We're also debating which board should host them/it, but as I said, talk about it here for now.
I had a deep suspicion such was taking place, as this very thought occurred to me.
 

CMBright

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Grammarily is worthless and needs to stop having ads everywhere, all the time. I see 14 of these blasted things a week.

It's scared of informal speech. I followed it's advice once, and the feedback was complaints about all the sections it touched. It doesn't understand that passive people sometimes use passive language.

Long story short, you spend more time ignoring it than listening to it, and if you listen to it, even if your grammar is as bad as me, it's more likely to be wrong about something than you will.

You might as well flip a coin and on tails ruin your sentence/paragraph on purpose.

I had a deep suspicion such was taking place, as this very thought occurred to me.
If you pay attention, Grammarly is selling a product. In this case, better writing. Language parsers such as Grammarly have helped improve grammar for a lot of writers for half a century. I don't use Grammarly, but I do listen to the grammar checker in my writing suite. Sometimes I ignore it, especially if I feel the wrong grammar works for dialogue, but I do use it because I know grammar is a weak point of mine.

The new shiny Grammarly feature is AI. AIs and LLMs are controversal enough they are kept in Critical Theory. I suspect that one Grammarly thread won't be part of the merge.
 
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Maryn

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My, how this thread has grown! I've combined all the Grammarly threads into the oldest one, in order of start date, although there may be some confusion as they came together.

Now it's necessary you all keep your hands and feet inside the thread while I move it to Tech Tools, since that's what Grammarly is.

Let's remember that it's like any tool for writers--great if it works for you, useless if is doesn't. No need to disparage it or those who use it.