How Good is Grammarly?
How good is Grammarly? We’ll get into that in a moment.
But first, editing is a necessary evil. Readers will leave bad reviews for poor editing and Amazon can even flag your work. These warning signs will scare off potential readers and cut into your sales. So, you must edit your books and I mean with a real living, breathing human editor.
However, I’m a big fan of technology, and I’m willing to try anything to make my life easier. Sometimes, it works out. Other times, er, not so much. However, like Goldilocks, it took some trial and error before I found the grammar software that was just right for me. I have tried Ginger Software and White Smoke but didn’t find them as useful for editing novels.
Grammarly does a much better job at catching mistakes. Like I said above, it won’t catch everything though. After I run my book through Grammarly, I hand it over to a person for edits.
Grammarly Pros
Grammarly was an instant hit with me. I use the software to do a preliminary check on my work. It weeds out common mistakes before I even do a read through, so it saves me time.
[image error]
You can set the program to check different types of writing, such as novels, blog posts, or even casual emails. It checks for Contextual Spelling, Grammar, Punctuation, Sentence Structure, Style, Vocabulary Enhancement, and Plagiarism (useful in academic settings).
The last category has a repetitive word function, which can help you vary word choices. This is a big plus! Many writers use pet phrases. The software also offers suggestions, which I appreciate. Whenever I’m in the editing phase, it can be exhausting. I swear, it makes my eyes bleed. I’m not the most detail-oriented person. Can you tell editing isn’t my favorite part of the writer gig?
Also, I’ll do yet another Grammarly check after it’s been through a round or two of editing because new typos inevitably creep into the manuscript. It’s the sad truth. You may do a round of edits, run it through Grammarly, send it to an editor, and read it through once more., and there will still be mother truckin’ typos.
[image error]
Grammarly Cons
So how much does it cost? Grammarly is a subscription service, which is a drawback. I’d rather just pay outright for the software and keep it, like Microsoft Word or Scrivener. However, that isn’t the way it works, so I pony up the cash every year.
There are also some annoying ticks. For example, it’ll tell me I’m using British spellings/slangs. Why, yes, I am…my character is British! Or my character is Southern, therefore s/he will use grammar, which isn’t technically correct, but it’s colloquial. There’s no setting to weed out all of these “false positives” either, which can be frustrating. T
Another issue I’ve run into is unclear antecedents which is important in academic papers, but I’m not going to refer to my character’s names in every single sentence. There’s no way to shut this function down either. It can be a tad irritating.
[image error]
The Details
There’s an annually billed plan, which is $11.66 a month, a monthly $29.95 plan, and a quarterly one for $19.98. I got the annual one to save money. When compared with the cost of a proofreader, this is a bargain. Particularly, when you can use the software with multiple books.
By the way, there’s also a free Chrome extension that will help you with social media, emails, and the like. That alone has been invaluable—I hate misspelling words.
The Verdict
So how good is Grammarly ? Pretty darn. I’ve had it for over a year now and I use it everytime I write a book.
What grammar software do you use?
The post How Good is Grammarly? appeared first on Cynthia Rayne.
