Experience with Grammarly. Your thoughts?

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   Savio Dawsonposted 2 years ago

   Anyone else using Grammarly feels that the sentence correction (or rephrase, as they call it), makes the sentence more professional or robotic-sounding than entertaining? This is especially when you are writing a novel or a story. The sentence correction mostly seems to remove the human element and wants to make it sound flat. Is this true or I am overthinking?
   
   Any thoughts? Of course, I still love Grammarly. It is an exceptional tool to help me with my articles, especially when I am in a hurry and could overlook mistakes.

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      SerenityHaloposted 2 years agoin reply to this

      With Grammarly, my suggestion is to try to figure out why it's suggesting the correction.
      
      It might be trying to bring the verb closer to the subject or to remove an unnecessary prepositional phrase... it could also be indicating that your sentence is too long and therefore confusing.
      
      I would take Grammarly's suggestions for a sentence as a yield sign. Read over what it highlights and see if there is a better route to take or decide that your original sentence is the superior version.

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         Savio Dawsonposted 2 years agoin reply to this

         I do follow Grammarly's suggestions. Stats-wise, I accept nearly 90% of the changes suggested. It is the last 10% that I am not sure to follow. It just tries to remove any emotion from those (10%) sentences.
         
         You can try this out yourself. Take any of your favorite author's books and type out a sentence that you consider as funny, emotional, or confused. I bet Grammarly would ask you to correct those. That's what I am referring to.

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            SerenityHaloposted 2 years agoin reply to this

            I thought I was referring to that by saying to read over what it suggests and then deciding if you already had the superior version, as in what you think is superior. My apologies if I made that confusing.
            
            Grammarly doesn’t understand every nuance or turn of phrase, that is for sure. I like using it because I often autocorrect things in my head and gloss over what’s actually on the screen. I use the free version to catch the little things.

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               Savio Dawsonposted 2 years agoin reply to this

               Ah ok, got you @serenityhalo!

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            Miebakagh57posted 2 years agoin reply to this

            In any of my articles with a quatation, and callouts, I see grammarly suggestion to change a word, remove or insert a comma, or fullstop, etc.                                          If that hint was allow to sail through, they would be trouble for writers, like a bench press.                                    That's where I regard grammarly as dumb tail.

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   Stephen Tomkinsonposted 2 years ago

   Completely agree, Savio- <grammarly is great but there are some things that you have to take with a pinch of salt.

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      Savio Dawsonposted 2 years agoin reply to this

      Thank God, I am not the only one! I started doubting my writing, you know. That was crazy!

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   viryaboposted 2 years ago

   I use Grammarly too and have found it to be good enough for what I need it for. I do disagree with some of its suggestions, because as you mentioned, it does take some humanness and warmth out of sentences. When this occurs, I “stick to my guns”.

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      Savio Dawsonposted 2 years agoin reply to this

      Agreement with you. And there are times when I would write a sentence to express humor and Grammarly would straight away tone it down to some robotic statement. It's like the application is designed to sniff humor and make it anything but that.

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   theraggededgeposted 2 years ago

   The key to using Grammarly is to not take all its recommendations as gospel. It's really useful for picking out the obvious errors, but, as a writer, you know that some (if not many) rules are there to be broken. If it makes your writing sound unnatural, it means you've over-cooked it with the corrections.
   
   I use the pro version and also ProWritingAid. I probably only use 50% of the suggested revisions. They are still worth the money.

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      Savio Dawsonposted 2 years agoin reply to this

      True that. Phew, I just commented on this thread that I started doubting my writing. When English is not your first language all these funny thoughts creep in...
      
      That said, I still like Grammarly for what it can do. I just have to figure out where to take the suggestion and where not.

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   psycheskinnerposted 2 years ago

   I use a version where you can change the tone, intent, and type of writing. That said, Grammarly tells you what is correct Grammar, you decide when to bend or break those rules for some good reason.  Also occasionally Grammarly gets it wrong, so you have to use it criticially.

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   1. 91

      Savio Dawsonposted 2 years agoin reply to this

      Yeah, I figured that out, post my discussion with members over here. It does get it wrong once in a while.
      
      You use a Grammarly version that checks for tone, intent, etc.? I use a paid version too, so not sure if my package has that.

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6. 73

   Miebakagh57posted 2 years ago

   I agree with everyone's say so's. As an addition, or a balance check, I use Writing Tool. It's great. The ProWritingAid, is a device I want to give a try.

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      tsmogposted 2 years agoin reply to this

      A word of caution on ProWriting AId. Fantastic English grammar and writing software, yet it is very thorough and gives an intricate analysis. At first it was overwhelming for me as I have a basic understanding of the English language. In other words I had to actually research what their analysis was pointing out ha-ha Yet, a great teaching tool when on a learning adventure. I only originally got a yearly subscription to play with it to see if worth having the lifetime subscription. I let the year subscription run out.
      
      ProWritingAid subscriptions
      https://prowritingaid.com/en/App/PurchaseSubscription
      
      About what ProWritingAid does
      https://prowritingaid.com/
      
      For me the Grammarly loaded in my MS Word software is sufficient to get the job done. Convenient to launch it while writing in MS Word. And, I don't have to worry about a subscription cost as it is Free, yet they do have subscriptions for their Premium and Business versions.
      
      https://www.grammarly.com/plans?utm_sou … lsrc=aw.ds

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         Miebakagh57posted 2 years agoin reply to this

         Okay. Your warning is noted. Will go with the utmost caution. Much thanks.

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      Savio Dawsonposted 2 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks, @Miebakagh57 and @tsmog. An interesting discussion that leads me to check out ProWriting.

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         Miebakagh57posted 2 years agoin reply to this

         Welcome to ProWritingAid.                                    I just download it a day ago. Unfortunately, I couldn't instal it, due to flankly internet connection at the moment.                                            Will try again when the band wave become steadily.

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   Kenna McHughposted 2 years ago

   I use both Grammarly and ProWriting. Each has a purpose and helps me put on my editor's hat.

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      Savio Dawsonposted 2 years agoin reply to this

      Just heard of ProWriting. Time to check it out. Thanks, @KennaMcHugh!

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   Solarasposted 2 years ago

   Many pro writer suggestions for online writing, to make it punchy, are grammatically incorrect.
   
   For instance breaking up long compound sentences, and starting a sentence with a conjunction like "but" or making one sentence paragraphs, is strictly forbidden in formal writing . Yet, it makes it easier to keep the reader engaged.

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   1. 73

      Miebakagh57posted 2 years agoin reply to this

      I completely agree with you. Thanks.

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