Is grammarly worth it?

Discussion in 'Author Discussions' started by xluferx, Feb 21, 2020.

  1. xluferx

    xluferx [The writer who writes for fun][Meme lord]

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    So I have been using grammarly to help with my grammar and it was honestly a very useful tool to correct mistakes in my stories and I read reviews from many sources about but not from novel or fanfiction writers so I wish to know your opinion if it worth the subscription. I want to deliver a better product to my readers but since English is my second language is a bit hard to do so.
     
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  2. Anra7777

    Anra7777 All powerful magic grammar hamster queen pirate.

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    No, I hate grammarly.
     
  3. DontLookDown

    DontLookDown One with the bed

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    So for editing and trying to maintain continuity while translating...tentative yes. Human editors are best for that, and grammarly premium gives you access to those...just that it's a bit difficult to fully explain what you want to people over the internet, especially if English isn't your first language.
     
  4. OverlordPotato

    OverlordPotato Well-Known Member

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    Tbh, Grammarly is overrated imo.

    Also, keep in mind that while it can help you with grammar and stuff, it's important that you're able to get your point across to the reader about the dialogue or the plot unadulterated by grammarly corrections. It can get easy to ruin the oomph.
     
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  5. Blitz

    Blitz ⛈️ awakened from the reverie❄️

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    I don't use it but a friend recommended prowritingaid as a better alternative to me before. Try the free trial I guess
     
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  6. imK

    imK Artful Dodger

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    I did freelance writing work for years and used the free version of grammarly for the first year or so. The free version is pretty decent considering you don't have to pay anything for it. I switched to the paid version of prowritingaid after trying out the free trial and I'm still using it. My most used tools for novel writing are Scrivener to write, Prowritingaid to check grammar/spelling and Hemingway Editor to make sure my writing style is consistent and punchy.

    TLDR; Grammarly was okay. Prowritingaid was better for me. Recommend the three I use as great tools if you want to get into novel writing, have the money and the features are useful to you.
     
  7. Yamcha

    Yamcha Friendnemy

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    No dude, the subscription is not worth a penny. Grammarly is good to double check your text but if you don't put effort since the start is meaningless.
     
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  8. ATrueStory

    ATrueStory Villainesses, Historical Shit, Noble Circuses

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    I do a lot of writing and Grammarly is one of my go-tos. I have the premium version courtesy of the company but it feels a lot like the free version. If you're more into non-fiction writing, Grammarly is the way to go. I use Prowritngaid more when I do my creative works.
     
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  9. ATrueStory

    ATrueStory Villainesses, Historical Shit, Noble Circuses

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    If you're paying out of you're pocket, I agree. It's a free premium tool provided by somebody else, I abuse it all too often.
     
  10. ATrueStory

    ATrueStory Villainesses, Historical Shit, Noble Circuses

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    To add, make sure not to enable the formal style of writing (sometimes its the default setting) or else your text will be like some technical paper or something that needs to be seen by corporate people. Go for the Casual approach so many errors that might be flagged by the algorithm will not be flagged.

    And feel free to ignore some suggestions, It's a tool and it works by AI so it might flag things that it thinks it doesn't make sense.
     
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  11. techguy5343

    techguy5343 New Member

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    Yes, Grammarly absolutely works. It's better at picking up spelling and grammar mistakes than any other checker. At the end of the day, that's its greatest selling point. Writing software has never been totally correct. You can also get Grammarly free trial and check whether it is good or not. and then buy its premium version.
     
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  12. heysushil08

    heysushil08 New Member

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    Totally worth it. I've been using it since 2017. Now, I'd like to mention that it's only as good as your knowledge of the English language. I mean, sure, it'll suggest numerous changes no matter how good you write (the AI is really advance), but, ultimately, it's up to you whether to incorporate those suggestion in your final work.

    PS: I have some Grammarly discount code, if anyone's interested.
     
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  13. UnknownSaint171

    UnknownSaint171 To Something Sounds Cooler

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    As a writer I'm sometimes insecure in my sentences but don't overly too much on Grammarly. I like it, it's helped at times but overrelying on it won't be helpful, I tend to check on other ones and then revised the chapter just in case.

    But yeah I agree, if you want a good writing tool that works, you need to pay real $
     
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  14. hypersniper159

    hypersniper159 Creator of NuF’s 7th Enigma

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    I think there's actually a legal issue for publishing it. You would actually have to pay them to take back what you wrote and then publish it. I saw something like that on Reddit once, ask a lawyer.
     
  15. PeterCan

    PeterCan New Member

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    I use Grammarly to catch basic errors as an extra set of eyes. I become quite annoyed with the program's pension for pointing out errors with engagement, conciseness and clarity.

    As an experiment, I used Grammarly on excerpts from Steinbeck, Tennyson and Dickens.

    Grammarly found countless errors in all three texts.

    I know I don't write or edit as well as these outstanding authors and professional editors.
     
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  16. Lizzieonka

    Lizzieonka Active Member

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    In my former web novel proofreading job, we were actually encouraged to use Grammarly. My company, however, refused to pay for Premium, so it didn't really help much.

    Grammarly is good when you're writing business documents or blog posts. I won't really recommend it for fiction since its suggestions would steer you into making your text generic and formal-sounding. But if you're using it just for basic grammar and spelling checking, it should be okay.
     
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  17. ToastedRossi

    ToastedRossi Well-Known Member

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    Grammarly is a tool that's meant for technical writing and communication above and beyond anything else. Fictional writing is a very different beast from technical writing and has very different goals so it's not going to be a very tool for that purpose. One simple way to illustrate this is that Grammarly is meant to provide as clear and precise sentences as possible. Nuance and phrases with multiple meanings are going to be things that it's going to want to weed out but they can be very important tools in the hands of a good writer.
     
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  18. Anvis

    Anvis Well-Known Member

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    Dude use chatgpt it is hundred times better than Grammarly and it gets what you are trying to say and best of all it is free
     
  19. hcps-maia

    hcps-maia [Dreamwalker]

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    Yes!
    Grammarly helps a lot while writing!
     
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  20. Georgelee5786

    Georgelee5786 Wait...it isn't 1898?

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    No. It tells you your word choice is bad for simply using fancy words. Example: I wrote the word 'venerated' and it said it was poor word choice. When I wrote 'respected' grammarly had no issues. It gets annoying
     
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