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Tuesday, July 23, 2013

'Grammarly' Review

Another apology for my absence from the blogosphere. I'll be catching up on all the blogs I usually follow over the next couple of days. I miss this place, but settling back into university has been intense.

About a month ago, I was offered a one-month premium membership for Grammarly, an online word-processor, in exchange for reviewing the product. I thought it would be a great opportunity to see what alternatives there are to proofreading and relying on Microsoft Word as I usually do.

Grammarly is a great online word-processor that can be used as a second set of eyes when proofreading. After copying and pasting the text or uploading the document into the programme, you can select the type of writing - general, business, academic, technical, creative or casual - and start the review process. The review process picks up on a wide range of spelling, grammar, punctuation and sentence structure issues and suggesting synonyms. As well as pointing out mistakes, it explains why the highlighted text could be incorrect, giving great examples to help the user understand. It then allows you, the author, to choose whether or not to correct it, assuming that there may be an exception to the rule. You can repeat the review process multiple times after making corrections until the document is as close to perfect that the product can make it. You can also use the Grammarly editor to check for plagiarism.

A Grammarly account has a dashboard similar to that of a Blogger or Goodreads account. The dashboard contains some statistical features such as how many documents you've checked, your average score based on how many mistakes are made per document and your score trends over time. The dashboard also categorises the types of mistakes you make - punctuation, verb form, confusing modifiers, pronoun use, etc - and shows how many of each type of mistake have been detected in the texts you've checked over. Perhaps the most useful feature on the dashboard is the 'Personal Writing Handbook', which is created by the programme and updated as it checks your work, detailing the mistakes you make most often and explaining why. It gives you the most relevant writing rules to help you, based on your Grammarly usage.

Grammarly can be used to check a range of documents for you, such as emails, blog posts, creative fiction and resumes. It's a great second set of eyes if you would like to create an account. It is known for catching more mistakes than other word-processors such as Microsoft Word.

Of course, I'll be reverting back to Microsoft Word once my one month premium account runs out, because I'm a poor, unemployed uni student. I can make Microsoft Word accept my Australian-English and Australian writing etiquette too, which is always helpful. I'd like to thank Grammarly for the opportunity they gave me to use and review their product. It's been a fun experience and I've really enjoyed it.

Has anybody else out there used Grammarly?

- Bonnee.

www.grammarly.com 


17 comments:

  1. The question is, would you use continue using Grammarly if it was still free?

    I'm also curious, did you run any tests pitting Grammarly against Word's spelling/grammar checker? You mention that Grammarly is known for catching more errors, did you put it to the test?

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    1. I think I would keep using Grammarly if it were a free service, simply because, yes, it does catch more than Word does. I always check everything in Word first and Grammarly was still able to find some mistakes. Of course, no programme is going to be 100% perfect.

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  2. I was invited to try it but didn't. Maybe if the site starting selling ads they could offer it for free. They'd certainly get a lot more users that way.

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    1. I think it would work better as a free service too. Of course, I'm not too sure how the monetary side of things works for online businesses and programmes :p

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  3. They're working on me to plug them, right now. Did you have any trouble receiving payment from them?

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    1. Payment? Well, I wasn't offered any, but I figured it wasn't a huge deal seeing as they were giving me free use of their services for a month.

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    2. Hmm... they offered to pay me and gave me a free trial.

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    3. The gave me a free one-month premium account but that's all... hmm.

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    4. Well, maybe, it's because I was hesitant with them about it. I'm not sure when the offer of payment came into it.

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    5. Well at least that's a bonus for you if you choose to do it now :) I would have said no straight out if it weren't for the fact that I was on the uni holidays and knew I had time for it, unless they'd mentioned payment.

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  4. I didn't use Grammarly. You might want to check Deakin University employment center for students. In a big city like Melbourne, there must be many part time jobs for students. One nice job might be in a bookstore to also learn how books stores operate. Good luck in this second semester.

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    1. I have taken a look at the Deakin Job-Shop and plan to keep an eye on it for near-by opportunities. Fingers crossed that I'll find something soon :) I'd love to work around books if I could, but if not I already have experience in hospitality... Thanks as always, Giora :)

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  5. I got a free trial offer too, but I didn't follow up with it. Too much to do. :(

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    1. I understand what you mean. I would have rejected the offer if it had been during the uni teaching period. But hey, still cool that you were offered. :)

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  6. Hi! This is my first time visiting your blog and all I can say is that it's all worth my stumbling upon your site. This post on Grammarly will be very helpful for writers who want to make the best of their works even better. I'll be one of your blog followers from now on.

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    1. Hey there, thanks for following and I'm glad you think my blog is informative :) Grammarly is a useful tool for anyone in need of a second pair of eyes, especially if they don't have a critique partner. Thanks for stopping by and I hope to see you around again :)

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