By Dr. Rohi Shetty
One of the biggest problems we freelance writers face is the difficulty in revising and checking our own work. Even if we have the luxury of reading our work with fresh eyes after putting it away for a day or two, we can’t be absolutely sure that our work is free from all errors.
Some of us may have writer-friends who can read our work and point out errors, but that may not be feasible all the time. They may be busy or on vacation. And they are also likely to miss a mistake or two.
What we need is a reliable tool that is accessible 24×7 and can check out work fast. What we need is Grammarly.
[Editor’s Note: Rohi has shared the report generated by Grammarly for this article. Click here to download it.]
Grammarly Editor is an online writing application that helps you to finds and corrects mistakes in your text with a single click. It ensures that everything you type is effective, easy to read, and error-free. There is no need to download any software. All you need is Internet access and a (free) Grammarly account.
Grammarly checks your text against more than 250 grammar rules including common errors such as spelling, grammar, punctuation, word choice and style mistakes in your writing. It also provides synonym suggestions to make your writing more precise and readable.
Most important, Grammarly explains the reasoning behind each correction so you can make an informed decision about each suggestion. Currently, Grammarly only supports the English language.
Grammarly reviews text quickly using sophisticated and efficient algorithms to analyze your text. These algorithms, combined with powerful, cloud-based computers, lets it process large amounts of text both accurately and quickly. Although it only takes a few seconds, Grammarly thoroughly analyzes your work and provides extensive feedback.
Also, it lets you choose the British English or the American English dictionary and recognizes spelling, grammar, and punctuation differences between them.
How to use Grammarly
- You can either copy and paste any English text into Grammarly’s online editor,
- install Grammarly’s free browser extension for Google Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and Internet Explorer (including Microsoft Edge).
The free version includes not only the online editor, but also the browser extensions for Google Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Internet Explorer. These extensions help to correct your mistakes as you type in most sites including Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
The premium version is a paid upgrade that checks for over 250 types of grammatical errors, provides vocabulary enhancement suggestions, detects plagiarism, and provides citation suggestions.
Grammarly Premium includes:
- Grammarly for Microsoft Office, which lets you use it in Microsoft Word documents and Outlook email.
- Plagiarism checker, which searches an index of publicly accessible websites and helps us to accurately cite our writing.
How to Use Grammarly
You can either upload a file, copy-paste your work or type directly in the online editor window.
Grammarly automatically checks everything you type, making it easy to spot and fix errors quickly. While your document is being checked, a notification appears in the status bar at the bottom of the page. Changes are automatically saved as you type so you don’t have to worry about losing your work.
Once you complete editing, you can copy-paste the text wherever you want.
Grammarly highlights mistakes and shows suggested corrections to the right of the text, which allows you to correct it in one click. You can accept a correction by clicking on it. Alternatively, you can ignore the correction or add words to your personal dictionary so that they are no longer highlighted as mistakes. You can also view a detailed description of the suggested correction.
Additional functions
- Types of checks
You can choose among the following:
- contextual spelling
- grammar
- punctuation
- sentence structure
- style
(I suggest you keep all of them on.)
- Document types
You can choose from the following document types:
- General (default)
- Academic
- Business
- Professional
- Creative
- Casual
- Technical
- Medical
- Document statistics
The score button in the lower right corner of the screen gives detailed statistics including a score out of 100, which you can download as a PDF file.
Get Grammarly Premium for Free (No credit card required)
Grammarly has a referral program that enables you to try Grammarly Premium for a full week for free. You can check it out while you work on your daily writing of emails, articles, stories, and even novels.
Get a free one-week trial of Grammarly Premium.
(Full disclosure: I’ll also get a free week of Premium if you claim this offer. It’s a friends-with-benefits reward, redefined.)
Action-step:
Once you get the free one-week trial, you can check not only your present work but also all your previous work. Copy-paste or upload your previous work into Grammarly and gain fresh insights about your writing.
Join the conversation:
Have you tried Grammarly or any other online writing app to improve your writing?
Let us know in the comments below.
(11 January 2017)
Rohi Shetty is a doctor, health writer, and editor. Check out his website at http://rohishetty.com and connect with him on LinkedIn and Facebook.
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