Grammarly has always been one of my favorite programs. I believe I've been a subscriber for at least ten years, maybe more. For those who are unfamiliar, I would like to begin by stating that I have no affiliation with the company. I don't work for them, and I don't receive any compensation for promoting their program. Believe me, that would be nice, but it's not the case. Second, Grammarly is a type of software program. It is not AI, but rather a system similar to the grammar and spell check in Word, albeit infinitely more sophisticated.
I'm an editor, and I would never deliver a project without
running it through Grammarly at least once, and sometimes twice, depending on
its length. I have many people who write projects exceeding 100,000 words, so
I'll use Grammarly once, carefully. It will point out all kinds of typos,
missing words, grammatically incorrect structures, and errors in punctuation,
and it will stylize your text according to the Chicago Manual of Style if you so choose.
I edit a lot of fiction, and since Chicago is the gold standard for fiction, I
usually accept most, if not all, of Grammarly's suggestions for punctuation.
It will also tell you if you are using straight quotes in
some parts of your manuscript and curly quotes in others, and with one click,
you can make them all conform. It will let you know if you have two spaces in
front of 250 sentences and one space in front of 700 sentences. It will establish conformity with your numbers, i.e., did you spell out numbers as words from 1 to 100, but then you inserted digits such as 27, 72, and 84? Grammarly can also find missing words; it's very good at finding missing prepositions. Then, just
click, click, click, and Grammarly fixes everything for you. It's truly amazing.
You can use the simplified version of the program to check
for correctness, or you can expand it to look for clarity, engagement, formality,
delivery, and style guide
recommendations. It's up to you.
Don't get me wrong. Grammarly can make incorrect suggestions.
It's not perfect all the time, but if you are new to writing and want to catch
ten times more spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors than you would with
Word, I would give Grammarly a try. They have a free trial, but it's worth subscribing to the annual program. You can also reject
their recommendations and tell them to stop looking for something if you want
to format it or spell it differently. Again, I don't work for the company! I
could never survive without this tool.
