A brief look at Grammarly

Remember my post on 3 free programs to help writers? One of those is Grammarly. It is available in a free and a premium version and I use the free version myself. 

There are several ways to use this program. Web-based, as an extension in your browser or as an add-on to Word or for your desktop. All these possibilities are free in the basic version.

One of the questions mentioned in the comments was how to change it to British English. In view of this question, I felt another blog post was in order as a quick run through the program. This post explains the web-based and extension version and I hope you find it helpful.

When you add the extension to your browser, you will find the below icon (without the grammarly) in your task bar:

If you click on the green icon, it will show up the following image:

Clicking on the down arrow behind the phrase "I write in" will show you the following drop-down menu:

This is where you can choose to change the language you want to write in. The extension is also available on Edge and apps are available for Microsoft Office (Word and Outlook) for Windows and for Chrome. It does not appear to work for Internet Explorer. Mozilla Firefox also allows this extension.

In the web-based version, you go to 'my account' and choose 'Customize'. Here you can add words to your personal dictionary, or change your language preference.

Customize

Personal Dictionary

Improve your Grammarly experience by adding words to your personal dictionary.
These words will no longer be flagged as misspellings.

ADD

abdominis

digi

digistamps

goreng

oelek

paperpack

permafree

SheepSki

venflon

Language Preference

I write in

British English

What's the difference?

We will check your writing using either American, British, Canadian, or Australian rules in all Grammarly products.

And here is how the web-based version works. I have created a number of images to guide you through the program.

The home screen looks like below and you can choose to start or upload a document or have a go at a few examples.

Choosing 'New' opens a new tab which looks like the image below.

On this page, you can choose to upload a document and as an example I have uploaded my recent review of Heron's Bond by Julia Schmeelk. You will see a pop-up here where you can choose the audience, formality, domain and tone of your document. 

Now, you can start editing your document. If you hover over 'Correctness', it will show you it will improve spelling, grammar and punctuation.

Hovering over 'Clarity' shows this helps to make your writing easier to understand.

Now, we look at the tab '2 more alerts'. When I click on this, it brings us to the first possible error found in the document. Apparently, my spelling of the word 'wetted' is incorrect and should have been 'whetted'. Clicking on the recommended word (in green), will accept the change and move to the next error found. It also gives an explanation why it was considered to be an error.

The next error found appears to be containing superfluous words and it is recommended to cut some of the words out. Again we accept the recommendation. As you may notice, in the bottom of the screen there is a green tick, followed by Corrected an error and undo. Clicking on undo allows you to change your mind and go with your own choice after all.

You have now finished the corrections in the free version and Grammarly informs you of the number of potential improvements the premium version has found. Whether you want to improve even further is up to you. It would, however, mean you would need to subscribe to the service.

Grammarly has also found a possibly mistaken word. It considers the word sane does not fit in the sentence well and suggests safe may be more appropriate. Again, you can choose to accept the change or decide to go with the word chosen.

Well, this is it for the whistle stop tour of the program. I haven't got time to discuss the add-on to Word at the moment, but it intereacts with the web-based one. This means any prefences you have set in the online version will be copied to the Word version too. At least, as long as you have signed in.

I hope this helps.

Joni.