Sunday, November 29, 2020

Why I Love Grammarly Premium and Why It's Worth the Investment

Why I Love Grammarly Premium

Last year I decided to tackle several bucket-list items. One of those items was writing and publishing a poetry book, which led to self-publishing a full series of originally written riddle books. Yes, I know, it's crazy that I can write riddles - but, yah, it turns out I can. Weirdest skill ever.

At any rate, this article isn't specifically about my books. You'll find several articles I've already written on that topic posted below. Instead, this article is about one of my favorite paid premium tools, Grammarly. 

By the way, Grammarly doesn't have a referral program, so everything I'm typing here has nothing to do with receiving a commission from them - This is just a straight review of what I love about it.

Grammarly Premium - Your Own Writing Assistant

I originally used the free version, but after writing several books, I decided the Grammarly premium features were worth it. Grammarly's ability to capture wordiness and make alternate suggestions is one of the most useful writing tools. It gives you a better-worded sentence to choose from. It's my favorite feature. 

Here's a brief video explaining Grammarly's artificial intelligence: Viewing Via Mobile? Here's the Link.



When your brain is tired, Grammarly Premium is like having a personal assistant. Grammarly installs on your browsers and shows up on everything you're typing online, even Facebook posts. In fact, as I'm typing this right now, there's a "G" at the bottom of this post tallying up better writing suggestions.

Grammarly Has a Tone Detector

This is a fantastic feature. When writing, the mood we think we're conveying may not actually be conveyed on the screen. Grammarly's mood detector lets you know how your writing is coming across; confident, joyous, formal, friendly, optimistic, and so on. This video provides a brief outline of the tone detector: Viewing via mobile? Here's the link.



Install Grammarly on Your Phone, Microsoft Office, and All Your Browsers and Other Devices

You can also open Grammarly and post passages, paragraphs, and so on directly into the program. That's very handy indeed: When I'm writing a riddle book, I always copy each riddle into Grammarly (opened on a second screen) to double-check for typos or other errors. Since I use Libre-Office to write my riddle books, I haven't installed Grammarly directly into it yet. However, I'm sure that's coming. 

You CAN download Grammarly directly into Microsoft Office. Also, if you prepare documents using Google Documents, Grammarly automatically works there as well. Essentially it provides you with the ability to correct anywhere on any document on your device. Are you viewing via mobile? Here's the link.



If you haven't used Grammarly yet, give the free version a try, then upgrade if you feel it's something that would serve you well. In terms of pricing, as of this date, the annual fee for Grammarly Premium is $139.95. Here's a link to Grammarly Premium outlining the service and features.

If you're thinking about self-publishing your own books, here are additional articles I've written on the subject to date.

Introducing My Latest Self-Published Riddle Book - Volume 6 Released November 24, 2020

By the way, I ended this article by checking Grammarly's tone detector; it said the post sounds 'friendly'. :)





Note: The author may receive a commission from purchases made using links found in this article. “As an Amazon Associate, Ebay (EPN) and/or Esty (Awin) Affiliate, I (we) earn from qualifying purchases.”


13 comments:

  1. I have been using Grammarly for years and I love it. I agree with you that it's well worth it.

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    1. Brenda, and you get so use to having the advanced help when writing - I love the feature that rephrases my sentences when needed!

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  2. I used Grammarly for a while and then uninstalled it. I'm not sure why I did that, but there must have been a reason. Guess I should check into it again. Most of my typos come from hitting a key too often, spelling was my favorite subject as a kid. I'm sure that I could use other help though. Going to give the free version another try! Thanks Barbara!

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    1. It's a service that not everyone needs. If you're constantly writing for whatever reason, it's quite handy. It doesn't catch everything so you still have to proof read. For me it's the alternate suggestions for wording and mood that I find helpful. Plus I work a lot at night and I'm tired - or I've been writing for ten to 15 hours and my mind is mush - truly helps for that!

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  3. I've often considered trying Grammarly, but, for the smaller amount of writing that I do, I feel pretty confident that my English and Journalism background should handle most things. Also, I have always had well developed proofreading skills since my days of working as a newspaper proofreader (long before computers). :) Glad Grammarly helps you with your book writing these days.

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    Replies
    1. Yes, that background you have is a valuable asset indeed. As you know (lol) doesn't catch everything - but for me those marathon writing days, or even when I'm writing content for a new website give me the peace that there is a backup catching things I miss.

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  4. I haven't tried Grammarly. I'm really glad you reviewed it because I thought it was a punctuation & spell checker. Clearly, it is much more than that! I can see how it would be a wonderful tool for any writer. One thing that would concern me would be if it removes your "voice" or personal style in an article. I don't see that happening in this post, but have you felt it "overstepped" at any time? Of course, I realize you have ultimate control in what you change.

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    Replies
    1. No I haven't found that at all - plus you don't have to accept the suggestions - and sometimes I don't - it doesn't catch every error either - so we still have to proof read - I would say over 95% of the time I go with their sentence rephrasing. I tend to be too wordy, or so I've discovered, lol - so it's helped me quite a bit in that department

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  5. Barbara, as a professional editor as well as lifelong professional writer, I often cringe at the decline in writing and editorial quality in recent years. Even publications like The New York Times, long respected for its editorial excellence, is now rife with spelling and grammatical errors and poor writing. Part of it is due to the financial challenges of publishing paid journalism subscriptions in an era where there is so much free alternative content, which has resulted in slashed editorial budgets and more and more AI-generated newspaper content. Good writing is an important opportunity to distinguish your written content these days, and Grammarly Premium sounds like a very worthwhile investment for many writers.

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    1. Plus with everything being on screen, proof reading can fail. Printing out copy and reading it is often a better way to proof read - but most of us don't do it - I know I sure don't. Plus speed reading, and speed thinking lol - that's actually a thing - I'm speed reading most of the time and when it comes time to proofing work, I actually have to slow down! Companies today are pumping out 24/7 content as you know and it's such a different world that 30 or 40 years ago in terms of copy. Another thing I've noticed is the attention span of this generation/time - it's much shorter. If copy is too long, it's not going to fly for a certain group - I have grown kids like that - if it's too long, they're not reading it - unless it's a book

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  6. I love Grammarly! One of my favourite features is the ability to change from American English to Australian English, as I use each for different blogs.

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  7. Thank you for this review Barbara. I have recently downloaded the free version of Grammarly and am getting used to it. I do like that it highlights the mood of writing, that is an interesting feature. Have to say I do ignore some of its suggestions but that is no problem. It has already helped me with some typo's I missed when proofreading on screen. I need to learn more about it but so far I like it and find it helpful!

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  8. A tone detector! I would never have guessed that's part of a tool you can buy. Brilliant because we all know that tone can be hard to read in a written message.

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