You Really Need to Use This Software

By Annette Rey

Writers, how familiar are you with multiple predicate commas? And do you add a comma when there are less than three predicates? Do you miss adding determiners in your sentences? What about missing a comma to isolate a clause? How about adding an unnecessary hyphen or not adding a necessary hyphen? How about the rule to make a word a gerund so it can act as a noun?

I thought so. Not many of us do know all the rules of grammar. Read on to see how the free program at Grammarly.com can instruct you and make you more confident in your work before you press send.

First, you must make certain preparation to use the free program. It is only available on the browsers: Chrome, Safari, and Firefox. So, you must download an alternate browser if you use Internet Explorer exclusively. If you buy the Premium program, it is available on Internet Explorer.

I used the free program for several flash fictions and an incomplete short story of mine and was amazed at the errors the software found. My overall work was good with two to four corrections needed per article. But finding little aggravations in my work like a missing comma, an extra comma, a missing hyphen, an extra hyphen, a missing determiner made me feel like a rookie. How embarrassing, I thought. I’ve submitted this work already!

In lieu of purchasing the premium Grammarly program, I also use the Word program spelling and grammar checker. For me, spelling is no problem, but the Word program catches typos. It is pretty efficient on grammar alerts, too. But, unlike the Grammarly program, Word does not give reasons or suggestions for an alteration.

The free Grammarly program is a big boost of help to your writing. It’s easy to use, simply copy and paste. The program doesn’t just point out errors. If you expand the notation in the right column and hit more, you’ll get the grammar rule that applies, and right and wrong sentence examples. I suggest you read through these comments each and every time. Repetition will make you learn the rules, which makes the software an excellent teaching tool, as well.

A Grammarly suggestion offers one-click to accept a change and it automatically makes the correction in the body of the work. This is a convenient feature and saves time.

If you have a large project ready for editing, you may want to purchase the premium program for just one month. The site offers quarterly and yearly packages, too. The free program is so effective, it’s hard for me to imagine how much more worthwhile the premium program may be. But, I would bet it’s worth it.

The trouble is, the program is so good, I’m going to put all my recent work through it, one by one. A lot of work is facing me. But, I am grateful for some oversight since I don’t have an editor for each and every piece I write.

I am bowled over by the thoroughness of this program and want to share it with other writers. Please check it out at https://www.grammarly.com/. If you use it, give me a little feedback on how it worked for you.