• Welcome to the Fantasy Writing Forums. Register Now to join us!

Grammarly?

C

Chessie

Guest
I use Grammarly. It's pretty awesome on the free, even awesomer on paid. But it's expensive so just know that ahead of time. But yes, it's a good program.
 

SeverinR

Vala
The ad I saw said it was an app.
My computers are old and my next one will probably be a 10. I think they use apps instead of programs for that. That's why I asked. (Definitely not asking for my phone. I text, talk and take pics with my phone. It's not a smart phone.)
 
C

Chessie

Guest
There's also Pro Writing Aid, which I think is better than Grammarly. There's a free and $40 a year version (I use the latter). In fact, I use both. Grammarly is great at catching spelling slips and basic grammar, but Pro Writing Aid will let you know if there are repetitive words or phrases, adverbs in dialogue, that sort of thing. It's an inline editing program basically. Using both together + some human eyes will give you a clean ms.
 

ThinkerX

Myth Weaver
Like Chesterama, I use the pay-for versions of both Grammarly and Pro Writing Aid. Mostly, I agree with her.


My main gripe with the PWA is so called 'sticky sentences' comprised of short, so called 'glue words.' Problem is, eliminating 'sticky sentences' makes it almost impossible to write some basic sentences. 'Who are you?' and 'I went there,' both count as 'sticky.'

Also, spotting 'overused words' is good; but thing is, much of the time the list of alternates, even with a thesaurus, is limited.
 
C

Chessie

Guest
Yeah, the sticky sentences are a bit tricky. I'll rewrite them sometimes, other times I just let it go. :)
 

Steerpike

Felis amatus
Moderator
I may have to give Pro Writing Aid another look. I checked it out a while back and pasted some paragraphs from some of my favorite authors into it. It flagged a number of problems, which made me skeptical. Then again, there's no obligation to act on what it says, so it functions more as an awareness tool.
 

ThinkerX

Myth Weaver
I may have to give Pro Writing Aid another look. I checked it out a while back and pasted some paragraphs from some of my favorite authors into it. It flagged a number of problems, which made me skeptical. Then again, there's no obligation to act on what it says, so it functions more as an awareness tool.

It's good at spotting things that can get overlooked - like adverbs and overused words. The 'sticky sentence' function, while annoying, is useful - a lot of the sentences it flags should be pared down.
 

Demesnedenoir

Myth Weaver
I use PWA, it does a good job of highlighting issues in bulk. Sticky sentences are an interesting one, it can be totally useless, or quite handy, depending. I've tightened a few paragraphs rather nicely after it's pointed out to me that I just shotgunned pointless words all over, LOL.

Never really used grammarly much, might look at it again, I use grammarian pro on the mac also. Different programs seem to catch different things better.
 

Penpilot

Staff
Article Team
I use the Style Writer plug in for Word. I've used PWA and Grammarly free versions, and from my experience they don't do as good a job as Style Writer. Yes, Style Writer is kind of expensive, but it's a one time cost. I've been using my copy for almost ten years. I addition it lets you set sensitivity and stuff to ignore.

I find no grammer program/site is perfect on it's own, so I use the combination of Style Writer and MS word's grammar check. Together, I find they flag all the right things so I can cross reference and double check my usage.
 

carroll

Acolyte
I use it as a Chrome Extension, and it's great. But it also doesn't work with Google Docs.
 
Last edited:
Top