Toolbox Tuesday: Grammarly Premium

A few years ago I started writing in earnest. It was a big deal for me because even though I had always loved to write, I was never quite sure how to handle punctuation. I even wrote about my problem with commas in a post on Medium.

Last year I published a book called “Flannel-Graph Jesus: More Than A One-Dimensional Savior.” I had some anxiety about proper grammar, but my secret to negotiating my grammar pitfalls was hiring a good editor!

However, what about the rest of my writing? I can’t hire an editor every time I write a blog post, email, or even a Facebook comment. But I was wrong, and I did–I hired Grammarly.

For a year or so I had been using the free version of Grammarly to help me with basic punctuation and spelling. However, each time I wrote an article for my blog PhilAyres.me, my Yoast plugin accused me of too many instances of “passive voice.”

Passive voice is everywhere, and it weakens writing in almost every case. If you’ve never heard of passive voice, there’s a good chance it plagues your writing too. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, check out this simple explanation.

As soon as I purchased the premium version of Grammarly I knew I made the right choice. Not only was Grammarly able to detect issues with comma placement (one of my BIG issues), Grammarly was able to analyze sentence structure and point out instances of passive voice so that I could fix them and make my writing stronger.

Of course, the Grammarly tool does much more than just punctuation, spelling, and passive voice detection. Grammarly helps you choose better words, detects overused words, suggests context-specific corrections, and even runs a check for plagiarism.

Here are a few more reasons you might want to consider the premium version of Grammarly.

Works on multiple platforms

You can compose directly at Grammarly.com, or you can download the Grammarly app for Windows or Mac and compose offline. Plus, you can install a browser extension to make sure that no matter where you write, Grammarly is making sure you’re writing is sharp and clean of errors. It works inside of your email application (I use Gmail) and within comments and posts on Facebook. 

What about on your mobile phone? Yep, Grammarly has you covered. You can install the iOS app or the Android version and make sure you are writing well when you type with your thumbs.

Great for students

My kids love using Grammarly on their school assignments, and it’s totally legit! Now, my high schoolers can run their papers through Grammarly to check for simple mistakes as well as find opportunities to enhance their overall writing.

It’s totally affordable

When I wrote my book, I paid my human editor about $.05 per word. Since my book was over 20,000 words, I ended up spending almost $1,000. True, software will never beat a live, human editor (at least not yet). However, at $17 per month, Grammarly is a steal mainly because it checks ALL of my writing, from emails and blog posts and even the messages I put on Slack.

Grammarly helps you sound like you

When you begin to write a document within the Grammarly app, the software asks you about your goals. For example, do you intend to inform, describe, or convince the reader? The Grammarly editor wants to know about the audience—are they knowledgeable on the subject or not? Also, whether the piece should sound formal or informal. Plus much more. 

I’ve been able to customize and change my goals, based on the needs of whatever I am writing.

So, what do you have to lose? If grammar, punctuation, and spelling have been holding you back from being a writer, give Grammarly a try today.

Disclosure: I am an affiliate for Grammarly, which means if you click through a link and try out their software I receive a small commission for the sale. However, I really do use the software and I truly believe what I’m writing here! Try it out today and if you’re not satisfied it’s very easy to cancel.