The Grammarly Review

For those who may have been living under a rock these days, Word spell check is so 2016 and Google spell check? You have got to be kidding me!

This is the 21st Century, and we demand chrome extensions or apps and nothing else!

Ok, lets be serious now. 

Do you struggle a lot with your writing, maybe you blog a lot and you want a tool to help you check spelling, grammar and just give you a critical eye over your work?

If you answered yes, then you are the same as me. I suck with writing, my grammar is about as good as a 5 year old, and I constantly write my blogs in the wrong tense. How do I know this? Grammarly likes to remind me!

If you break it down into it's core components, Grammarly is a FREE extension or app, that works with Chrome, Microsoft Office and more recently Windows as a whole.  This nifty little app then helps you improve your grammar, and your spelling.

If you are connected to the internet, then you can also you a Google Docs type of dashboard, that allows you to create documents that are checked in real time as you go. Super handy if you want to come back to a document later, but don't have SharePoint or Google Docs! 

If you are an Android user, you can also download the Android Keyboard, but more on that later!

It's a little like looking at a 21st century version of Spell Check...If you want to be really picky. 

But actually, Grammarly goes beyond just showing you little red lines under all your poorly spelt words. 

It actually provides you with useful examples and advice on how you can improve your spelling and grammar. 

It will tell you in plain English, why it has picked up your mistake, as well as ways of avoiding it in the future. 

If you check the above image, you will see a snapshot from a blog post that I uploaded to their online dashboard. 

You can clearly see that Grammarly picked up on the fact that I wrote my article in British English, but I had spelt centre as the Americans would. Nifty. 

What else does it pick up on?

• Spelling errors
• The standard issues like misplaced apostrophes or the none existence of such things... 
• Repeating multiple words (I have a huge habit of doing it, as my brain goes faster than my fingers sometimes)
• If your sentences become too long, and require breaking down
• Passive voice or tone, again another I am hugely guilty of!

Being constantly reminded or informed of the errors and learning why you are making them is massively helpful. 

I have had Grammarly installed for nearly 4 years now, and my Blog writing has improved massively, and I am getting better at self correcting myself. I still trip over certain grammatical points, or get myself in a muddle, but my god I am slowly getting better!

So, the baseline or free version of Grammarly provides you with the basic spelling and grammar check. 

The enhanced version, which currently costs as little as £8.49 a month (if you pay for it annually and I suggest you do), or if you pay for it monthly, it will cost you £21.81 (basically $25). does come with a ton of extra features.

If you are a blog owner, an author or even someone who just writes a lot for a living (emails, training documents etc) , then having Grammarly is going to help you massively. 

The free version provides you with the basics, it's quick and it's simple to use. If English is your second or third language, and you have trouble sometimes, using Grammarly is going to help you, but also give you guidance.

The premium version is worth the money, again if you are someone who spends a lot of time writing, possibly checking multiple documents throughout the day and need them looking spick and span!

As I said above, you are not required to pay for the basic version. 

So I used the free version for a few months, I did upgrade for a year, but then dropped back down to the free version, as it started having issues with the builder I use for WordPress. 

I use it every single day, and I did for a while run the keyboard app that they released, and it was decent, but it wasn't quite as good as the native Google keyboard, so I slowly removed it from my phones. 

At the end of the day, the paid for version is not mandatory, or even essential, but it is an app that I find useful, easy to use and affordable.