What is Grammarly?
If, like me, you have a job that deals with words, then you have probably heard of Grammarly. Grammarly is easily one of the world’s best spelling and grammar checker that is free of charge for personal uses. It is an easy to use tool that is equipped with state of the art spelling and grammar checking features. Grammarly is also very useful beyond just fixing mistakes.
How does it operate?
It has a unique system where it recognises each word that you type and checks if it is used in the right context. This is especially helpful for people who write in large quantities of for people who are just getting acquainted with the English language. The program is written to be a simple add on for your local browser like Chrome or Firefox browser. Once Grammarly is embedded in your browser, it can correct and polish automatically the text you are preparing across different sites and applications.
With this advanced AI assisted tool, all your messages and reports will be delivered clearly and error-free and in the perfect context to make your write up more compelling. Grammarly’s dictionary is approved by the world’s leading language authorities so you don’t have to worry about its accuracy. Besides it’s constantly being modified to keep up with modern ways of speaking.
As mentioned above, Grammarly will aid you in correcting hundreds of grammar, punctuation, and spelling mistakes while improving your vocabulary by pinpointing and fixing contextual errors. Grammarly also helps you write better by suggesting ideas for you to enhance your writing style, and make your messages more effective and engaging.
Who should use this program
Grammarly is a program meant for anyone who writes. It can be used by students to improve the writing quality on essays, theses, reports, dissertations, college entrance applications and various others. Even major corporations and schools use Grammarly to make sure that their printed work is top notch. Professionals in all sorts of field will find a need for Grammarly one way or the other. Regardless of the job, as long as English writing is involved, Grammarly will surely come in handy. It’s also especially useful for non-native English-speakers who are just trying to understand the languages. The corrections and suggestions the program gives will surely improve the learning process for such individuals.
The makers of the software have also taken time out to create organization specific versions of the programs. For schools and learning institutions, there is Grammarly Edu. Business and other organizations also have a market specific product; Grammarly Business, a version of Grammarly that helps businesses to incorporate the app into their team’s workflows with enterprise-ready controls and monitoring.
Grammarly also recently launched a mobile keyboard for iOS and Android devices that works directly as your personal editor for proofreading your writing on-the-go.
Who made Grammarly?
Grammarly was created by Alex Shevchenko, Max Lytvyn, and Dmytro Lider, a group of Ukrainians, in 2009. The backend for the program’s backend grammar engine was written in Common Lisp. Today, Grammarly is officially owned by Grammarly, Inc., based inSan Francisco, California. In grammarly’s first round of funding in 2017, the company raised $110 million. By 2019, in the second round of funding, they had successfully raised about $90 million and was valued for about a billion dollars.
Additional uses of Grammarly
Grammarly comes with a few additional features aside from helping your writing get better. One of the most interesting of these features is the plagiarism checker that is Included in your Grammarly account. The plagiarism checker is very functional if you’re writing academic content or reviewing a peer’s work.
It helps you verify if a certain portion of the text you have written has been inadvertently copied from research sources. This can help you edit your work repeatedly until it is 100% unique and different from the original source.
Pricing plans
Grammarly’s premium version is a step above the original free version. The free version has all of Grammarly’s basic tools except an advanced grammar checker, a plagiarism detector and some vocabulary enhancement suggestions. In other words, Grammarly’s free version is a simple and basic writing tool for writers and bloggers with a minimal budget for writing tools.
The premium version is the full package, though. With Grammarly premium, you get detailed information about each of your grammar mistakes in the correction pop-up box. This can help you understand your mistakes so you don’t make them again and is especially helpful for non-native English writers. Premium also gives you extra insights on your writing and adds the ability to set writing goals. Premium is also designed to detect a lot more mistakes than the free version.
This is a quick overview of Grammarly’s Pricing;
- Grammarly Premium monthly subscription costs $29.95 per month.
- Grammarly Premium quarterly subscription costs 19.98 per month, billed as one payment of $59.95.
- Grammarly Premium annual subscription costs $11.66 per month, billed as one payment of $139.95.
As mentioned above, Grammarly has a business version of their software. This version adds a whole lot of functions along with the features provided on the premium model. These extra features include;
- Admin and user management controls for privacy and security of your team’s work
- Priority 24/7 email support
- Centralized billing
- Monitoring tools for checking engagement trends
Grammarly for business’s pricing plan costs about $15 per member per month and could be a viable option if you’re a team in need for a grammar and spell checker tool.
Grammarly – Free Or Paid Plan?
When I started writing, I used to make millions of grammatical mistakes in my documents. Whenever I delivered my work to my editor or a client, the feedback would sometimes be disappointing. I had creativity. Yes, my delivery and flow of thoughts were unique, not to mention the few jargons I used to spice my writing. My work was one of the best, save for my poor grammar. At one point, as I was chatting with one of my fellow writers, he asked whether I have ever used Grammar. Well, I hadn’t. Previously, I had seen the platform advertise itself on most of the videos I watched on Youtube. However, it didn’t bother me at all.
After the talk, I chose to sign up for a free plan as I didn’t have enough money to pay for a plan. It was simple and took just a few minutes to create an account. That is one advantage of the free plan. Once you’re set-up, the account will be ready in a few seconds. There are no payments to be made and no advanced steps to be taken.
Besides, you get access to some of the basic grammatical corrections you probably never seen. Now, this is the best bit of it, and you get suggestions to mistake corrections. Not only that, the free plan helps you with alternatives and better options for your grammar. By the time you’re done with the editing tool, you would have written a masterpiece, which everyone will be happy about.
Now, from a financial perspective, Grammarly is free and economical. Whether you have money or not, this plan will serve you. You’ll get the basic grammar tips you need. There are more benefits to experience especially once you start using the platform.
But why is a Grammarly free plan not the best? Well, like any other plan, it has its own shortcomings. Grammar is not just about spelling mistakes. And there’s more. The free plan offers you only basic grammatical mistake corrections. When writing for platforms that entertain zero room for grammatical errors, this plan is not the best for you. Why is this the case?
For instance, a book written for publishing should have zero mistakes. Imagine readers going through your book only to find errors. You will certainly lose them all. Grammarly for free offers basic corrections with limits to advanced ideas. Therefore, this plan is good for beginners but not advanced writers. Furthermore, you will learn little as the corrections made at the advanced level may be probably what you already know.
Advancing your Grammar
There are stages in everything, and it starts with the novice level. At the intermediate level, you ought to grow, which will only happen if you make life changing decisions. One major step in improving your grammar is purchasing a plan Grammarly plan. There are different packages, and that depends on what you want to achieve.
At the intermediate level, you are expected to write content that is free from errors schoolboys make. Free Grammarly won’t help you much. You need extra features to come up with fine writings that will impact society for the longest time possible.
With a paid plan, you get access to more advanced features. These features allow you to improve your grammar to a great extent, and within no time, you’ll be among the best. When Grammarly gives you alternatives to your writing, you learn to look at things differently. Your perspective grows as well as your wealth of vocabulary.
Expressing yourself in words is not the easiest of things. Some readers believe some words have the same meaning, while others may not. Or, they could be closely related. Another instance is that of a writer who would use different words to mean the same things. For readers with expansive minds and a wide range of vocabulary, that would be misleading.
Grammarly helps you identify the correct words for the exact idea you have. But, to access this feature, you need the paid plan. It is not available with the free plan Grammarly.
Which one is better?
When given options to choose from, one must critically evaluate the options. A final decision must be made, but it is important to make decisions based on circumstances. For instance, the Grammarly free plan is suitable for learners. There’s no pressure to deliver and much to learn. It offers a great opportunity to learn. Besides, there’s no need to pay for the advanced features when you do not need much of your use features.
As you start to advance even in your competences, you become more needful of the advanced features. At this point, you can start paying for the cheaper plans. As you grow more, you’ll need to grow in your vocabulary, diction, and creativity. The advanced features give you space to achieve this. Although to unlock the platform’s full potential, you will have to pay for the premium package.
The premium package will help you get to the advanced level or maintain a high level. The only disadvantage is it is the most expensive of the packages. But that should not be an issue. The beauty of it is you get value for your money and greatly improve in writing. You also widen your perspective and creativity too.
Conclusion
The Grammarly plan you use depends on the level of writing you are at. As a beginner, it is advisable to use the free plan and go for the paid plans as you advance. Although, there’s no harm with using the paid plans even as a novice. It will prepare you for the future and even accelerate your growth. Advanced writers should always use paid plans. This is because of the access to advanced features, which is pivotal in better writing. As an expert, you want to write and create a story that will educate and impact the readers at the same time.