Grammarly - Check Your Preferences!
I know there are many Wealthy Affiliate members who use Grammarly and find the program very helpful. I started off with the free version of Grammarly and then went to the paid version. I guess that I have been using Grammarly for 6 or 7 years. In general, I find Grammarly fairly helpful, but it can get slightly annoying at times when it tries to overcorrect grammar.
I believe everyone has a different style of writing and it’s good to add our own uniqueness. We don’t want software like Grammarly to take away that uniqueness. Sometimes, it appears Grammarly will just change the wording of a sentence almost for the sake of it!
Just recently, I have noticed that Grammarly had changed; it was trying to correct multiple sentences all at once. In theory, this is a great idea, however, due to the fact that I don’t change all the words that Grammarly suggests, it almost made the software unusable. I decided to send Grammarly a support request. I must admit they were quick to respond and very helpful.
Grammarly suggested going to my preferences and turning a few settings off, such as “rewrite text for improved effect”. They also suggested going to feature customisation and turning off “suggestion bundles”. This has definitely made a huge difference. It appears that Grammarly is now back to the old and more original settings.
Over the time of using Grammarly, I have noticed that sometimes, all of a sudden, it appears that things change. I guess around a year ago, all of a sudden, Grammarly decided to start putting a semi-colan instead of just a comma. Sometimes it appears that Grammarly wants to change punctuation and various words just to try and prove a point!
17 Preferences Turned Off
I ended up turning 17 out of 50 preferences off, I do feel that many of these preferences that I turned off shouldn’t really be there! However, that’s another story. I certainly don’t want Grammarly telling me about ableist language and other inappropriate settings!
To Conclude
Grammarly can be a great helper, but make sure you keep your own individuality and uniqueness. In other words, don’t be like Grammarly! Despite what I have said, Grammarly is a useful tool, but just check the preferences.
Thank you for reading.
Roy
Recent Comments
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Ditto to what Dave said below, Roy.
I'm looking at the titles on some of those preferences in your screenshot and shaking my head. As you said- that's another story which I won't get into either.
Just my thoughts.
Isaiah 🙂
Thank you, Isaiah, it's appreciated!
I believe great minds think alike!
There are some great tools available on the Internet. I purchased Grammarly to help me pick out mistakes in my writing, I also use Dragon NaturallySpeaking, which is speech software, so I'm liable to make more mistakes. We don't want software that goes with the mainstream narrative, we need to keep our own thoughts and individuality.
I trust that you are doing well and you are enjoying the Easter break.
All the best.
Roy
Thanks for sharing your solution, Grammerly has gotten pretty pushy - and the choices it makes are probably better, but just not me.
Sami
Thank you for commenting, Shelly, it's appreciated.
Personally, I don't think the choices are better; we need to make up our mind about how we are going to write. Please don't get me wrong, Grammarly has some great features, but there are limitations. And I believe we need to keep it unique to our individuality.
Enjoy the rest of your day.
Roy
I do feel you about the preference thing, Roy. It makes me wonder why are these things even there to begin with?
Myra ♥️
I agree with you, Myra! I can't say too much here as it is not appropriate on the platform. But all we want is something that's going to help us with our grammar and improve our writing.
I appreciate you taking the time to comment, thank you.
Enjoy the rest of your day.
Roy
They are all trying to control you Roy. - You will write what we tell you or it will be instant death.
If I'm honest, I dislike perfect text and prose or whatever. I much prefer to read something that shows the authour's own style and manner, even if it does include the odd typo or mismatched sentence. After all, what is a comma between friends,
Perhaps we won't have the option of free speech for much longer. We will have to let an AI-bot do it all for us.
Today, Roy, you will think about ...
Exactly, Bux! Your comment is quite amusing! 😄I must admit that I was really surprised when I saw these different types of settings. Please don't get me wrong; I know some of the settings are there to help us write better generally. But I don't want settings that try and encourage me to go with the mainstream narrative!
I think it's good to show our uniqueness, obviously we need to understand what we are reading, but we don't want to lose our uniqueness. I think we need to stand firm on what is right and genuine.
That's so true, Bux, we are only allowed to have certain thoughts.
On the other end of the scale, changing a few of the other commonsense settings help to make Grammarly more efficient.
Enjoy the rest of your day.
Roy
Yes Roy, Grammarly has it's place and you are right, we should not lose our own uneqness. Done that on purpose.
Fantastic, Bux! Although Grammarly is generally helpful and useful, it regularly misses mistakes! I wouldn't be surprised if it missed your uniqueness mistake! I can create a blog post in Word, for example, and Grammarly will tell me it has no mistakes. When I put it into WordPress, it will show me mistakes!
It's all good fun!
Have a good evening.
Roy
Well done, Bux; that sounds like a good and constructive thing to do! I hope it went well.
Have a great day.
Roy
Thanks Roy. Yes, it all adds up and it makes a start on Tuesday’s to do list. I’ve been very lazy over Easter. Time to dust down.
I hope you have a productive day.
Bux
I think sometimes it's good to have a complete break over Easter all various bank holidays. It's hard to get motivated for work sometimes when everyone else is enjoying themselves and relaxing on a bank holiday weekend!
Have a great day.
Roy
Very true. I enjoyed the break, now I need to crack on.
Wednesday already, almost another weekend.
It's incredible how quickly the days go by, Bux! I think that's why it's important to make so much of every moment.
A very happy Saturday to you.
Roy
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I have used the free version of grammarly for a few years now Roy, and I find it great in spotting the odd spelling mistake here or there, even as an English teacher... I still make them!!
But... I totally agree that recently it has been coming up with so many different, not just word replacements but whole new sentences and even paragraphs!!
I think they want me to upgrade and change my writing style!!
No way!! I will continue to plod along in my own voice, thanks!!
Take care buddy and enjoy what is left of your bank holiday!!
I hate it when the clocks go forward for the first few days though...
I know I need to go to bed soon to prepare for the next day's work, but I am still functioning on the old time and it just seems too early!!
👍👍
Thank you for your reply, Nick, it's appreciated.
I didn't realise that you were an English teacher, Nick! That's good to know that an English teacher makes spelling mistakes! I use something called Dragon NaturallySpeaking, which is speech-to-text software, so Grammarly helps to pick out those mistakes, but neither are perfect.
I must admit that although I'm using the paid version of Grammarly, the free version isn't bad at all. Maybe Grammarly is trying to be overly clever! It certainly is not a having it correct multiple sentences, especially when we want to leave their own mark on our writing.
I guess the paid version may give you a bit more control over your writing, Nick, but I understand where you're coming from. We definitely need to keep our uniqueness.
Thank you, Nick; I'm back to working my off-line business today.
I know where you're coming from regarding changing the clocks, Nick, hopefully, you will quickly adjust.
Have a great day.
Roy
You're most welcome Roy and I have made some absolute howler's in my time!!
I've never used any speak to text software, but it could be worth looking into!
I'll stick with the free version of Grammarly for now...
I still haven't fully adjusted, so I will call it an early night again soon!
Enjoy the rest of your week my friend! :-)
It's amazing how easy it is to make a mistake and it's easy to miss a mistake when we are speed reading!
I have used Dragon NaturallySpeaking for years, it's much better than it used to be and more accurate. I can't type particularly quickly, so Dragon naturally speaking is a really useful tool for me. Although it's much better than it used to be, it can still make some horrendous mistakes. Some could be really embarrassing!
One of the things that Dragon wrote by mistake and fortunately I noticed it, as it was on the Wealthy Affiliate platform, "can I go with your wife please"!!! I can't even remember what I was trying to say, but it can very easily make something become very offensive if it's not checked. This is where Grammarly can come in!
I also tried to get Dragon to say how is Mrs Ugen, which is a Nigerian name, Dragon said, "how is Mrs fatso"! Dragon could get me in trouble, big time!!
I think the free version of Grammarly is quite good, Nick, a lot better than some other free product versions.
All the best.
Roy