Grammar has been an indispensable part of our school curriculum right from Grade 1 but ironically, even as adults, we often pause and question ourselves whether we have made the right choice of pronouns, nouns, verbs, prepositions, punctuation, and such others. But, now, if you need any help regarding any of these, don’t get perplexed or stressed, but directly go to the app store and download the Grammarly app.
What is Grammarly?
We have been trained to write compositions and pen down letters, but it does stand true that all of us, including professional writers, are prone to committing errors while writing.
You might be sure about the basics, but what about excelling in the intricate use of grammar and style consistency? Grammarly promises to help us out of all such tangles. Grammarly could be downloaded as an app or an extension on your browser and finds itself of prominent use when you need assistance with grammar, spelling, plagiarism, punctuation, and more.
The app proudly calls itself you ‘Free Writing Assistance’ and is useful for anyone who takes up writing as a hobby or profession or even wants help with casual writing such as writing emails, formal notices, social media posts, and blogs. Fulfilling all these needs means that Grammarly is the choicest tool for students, bloggers, copywriters, content writers, and any professional whose job involves phrasing grammatically correct sentences, presentations, and reports.
Why Grammarly?
Style of writing conveys our clarity of thoughts, and the better we write, the easier it becomes for others to understand the nuances present.
You might be a good writer, but all of us are prone to committing mistakes as humans.
So, what’s wrong with getting hold of this online grammar checker that helps you get rid of the smallest of errors and write better!
If you think, we already have Microsoft Word and Google Docs to check spellings and other text edits. So, isn’t it a complete waste of time and resources to invest in another text editor? Of course not!
Grammarly is compatible with both Word and Docs, you could use it with many other programs, and even fine-tune your latest article by logging in to your account irrespective of the application used currently. Above all, Grammarly offers better functionality and accuracy compared to the grammar tools available in Docs and Word.
Grammarly for Academics
A decade or two back, we relied upon composition books, Wren and Martin, and other good grammar guides for coming up with the perfect sentences and compositions. Otherwise, we even took the help of parents, teachers, and friends to polish our work. But, now, with the availability of grammar checking tools such as Grammarly, we needn’t disturb others for the smallest corrections but hop onto the self-learning path where we gain clarity and consistency by correcting our mistakes. So, if you are in high school, college, or post-graduation where there are plenty of writing assignments to complete, don’t hesitate to use Grammarly’s free plan. Yes, Grammarly has different plans and pricing, which are discussed below, but before that, let’s discuss how Grammarly could be of great help to academics.
You might or might not be an English major still, we are all required to come up with quality writings while submitting assignments or presentations. Some of the core areas where Grammarly helps improve your writing skills are:
Grammar, Punctuation, Spelling, and Sentence Structure
In the free version, you can check up to 150 grammar and spelling mistakes, while in the premium version, it is possible to check an additional 100 grammar errors, enhance your assignment’s vocabulary using the tool’s suggestions, and even correct the document’s style based on the recommendations given by Grammarly (these are given based on the type of document that’s written).
A complete sentence involves the correct use of punctuation, especially commas, and full stops wherever needed to make it clear and precise.
Many students are aware of capitalization and full stops, but commas are the tricky ones here disrupting the flow of the sentence and ruining your writing spirit. Grammarly comes to the rescue here, figuring out whether or not commas are needed at someplace and checks whether the spelling is consistent throughout, based on your English language selection. Again, the language selection is a highlight feature of Grammarly as you can choose British, American, Canadian, and Australian English. You might be in any country, but the tool comes to your rescue while writing casually or for any education-related assignments.
Some good style-related suggestions and grammar mistakes that Grammarly detects include:
- Correct sentence structure and phrasing
- Overuse of Adverbs
- Inappropriate pronoun usage
- The wordiness of the article
- Redundant words that don’t enhance the meaning of the sentence (such as actually, really, truly, etc.)
- Tautologies
- The apt usage of comma
Plagiarism
Writing is all about creativity, but not all of us are equally innovative and creative. Some of us have it naturally in us, and some others develop better writing skills by practicing, reading profusely, understanding the nuances in grammar, and following up on others’ writings. So, when we read more, many ideas crop into our mind but sometimes, we word them exactly as given in the original.
So, before you submit any assignment or prepare a speech for an inter-school/inter-college competition, the plagiarism checker offered by Grammarly is extremely useful. But, the only disadvantage is that it comes at additional pricing which is available in the premium version only.
Use the plagiarism checker and scan your document before submitting anything. You might not have copied the sentence structure purposefully, but any intentional or unintentional case of plagiarism is detected and highlighted for your reference.
English could be your core subject in college, or you could be passionate about the English language. In such cases there is no other tool than Grammarly to come up with enriching suggestions and corrections.
Simple to Use
Being a student, you might not be a computer wizard or might not know much technical stuff. Grammarly understands this very well and hence has designed the tool such that it is simple to use.
All it takes is a couple of minutes to install the app, and you are all set to correct grammar and spelling mistakes in your workflow. You can either install the plugin or even choose to use it as an extension for your browser (Chrome, Safari, and Firefox).
Now, with the latest update, you get a better experience of Grammarly in Google Docs as well that helps you gain better clarity, delivery, and engagement. Grammarly is compatible with both Android and iOS, it gels well with Microsoft Word, and once you add it as an extension on your browser, it assists you while typing emails, any text messages, and even social media Tweets and Facebook messages.
Enhance Vocabulary
Grammarly never fails to point out errors highlighting them in bright red color, and also tells you relevant details about your mistakes. Hence, you are given time to process these details and learn which could be helpful in your future projects. The vocabulary tool provisioning with a readability score available makes it easier for students to improve their vocabulary skills multifold times.
Our writing should engage the readers, and for this, vocabulary is a powerful weapon. The premium version presents you with details of frequently used words throughout the writing and prompts better vocabulary suggestions that helps you improve your English vocabulary and make use of these words in other compositions and more.
Set Goals
Grammarly caters to a wide group of audience and writers who use it for different purposes. An academic writer’s goals are very different from that of a high school student’s requirements. Hence, goal setting is mandatory to help you make relatable changes, and when you set your key requirements, it becomes easier for the tool to come up with the right suggestions based on your needs.
Again, the Premium plan caters to all such needs by prompting you to set goals before starting to scan the document. The goals available include intent, style, emotion, audience, and domain. When writing a term paper, you would set the ‘Intent’ as ‘inform,’ while a novelist would set it as ‘tell a story.’
When it comes to ‘Audience’, as a student, you might be writing for your teachers and professors who are masters in the subject, and hence, you could choose ‘Knowledgeable’ or ‘Expert’ tabs.
The style must be ‘formal’ when writing a term paper or gearing up for a presentation. Emotion depends on you—it could be mild or strong. Domain choices are many, choose from academic, casual, creative, or technical based on whether you are writing a term paper, give a speech, do some creative writing for your literature class, and so on.
It is highly recommended that you understand the domain and have a clear understanding of your audience to come up with an impressive final paper. Again, this is a key feature available only in the Premium version.
Helps You Learn all that You Must Know
Many grammar tools help you correct mistakes, but Grammarly gets the top position among them, especially among students, as it teaches you ‘why’ your mistakes are wrong in the respective places. So, besides correcting grammar, spellings, and punctuation, you start mastering the English language, gradually improving your English knowledge through these practical lessons.
Consistency Checks
One must be consistent in their styling and words throughout the document to make it readable and clear to the reader. Grammarly doesn’t forget to scan the document for any inconsistencies such as abbreviations, times, dates, and capitalization. For instance, you could have typed any historical date in three different formats in three different places in your document. Grammarly highlights them all and gives suggestions to convert all of them into one consistent format according to your choice. Hence, once you choose the desired format, the tool changes it in one go at all places.
Grammarly Plans and Pricing
I love the free version of Grammarly that doesn’t impose any restrictions on usage period. In the free version, you get all that is required to establish a strong English foundation, such as checks for grammar, spellings, and punctuation, which are better than Word and Google Docs. In the free version, the mistakes are highlighted in red and even suggestions for the right words are given for your referral. The choice of English language is also available, and prompts for punctuation mistakes are also given to you.
Unlike many other tools where the free version is quite unsatisfactory and primarily exists to lure customers into purchasing the paid plans, the free version of Grammarly is best suited for meeting the needs of students specifically.
If you are seriously into the English language and hoping to master it at some stage, you could opt for the Premium version of Grammarly that’s available at different prices depending on your subscription duration. Check Grammarly Premium Pricing for students.
In the premium version, you get all that’s available in the free version plus a couple of other advantages. The Premium version checks for writing inconsistencies, plagiarism, tone of the document, inappropriate use of language, wordiness, overuse of words, and sentence structure. It depends on you to choose your preferred version and reap the benefits of better writing skills.
Final Words
Grammarly can never replace your writing skills and creativity but only complement your needs. The tool is a great choice when you have an upcoming report or presentation, as you can instantly download the free version and start correcting mistakes. All of us are bound to make mistakes, and this is where Grammarly comes to your aid—it picks your mistakes, suggests changes and improvements, and helps with better word choices to improve your writing skills and enhance your English knowledge.
In this competitive world, we must adapt to the changing needs and demands, equip ourselves to perform better, and reap success by using tools such as Grammarly that prevail as our best friend for learning the knack of the English language.