Using Grammarly
My experience with a writing tool
You write an article, story, or opinion piece on your favorite editor. The usual spell checks and grammar corrections come up, and after a few more rounds of editing, you are ready to submit or publish your writing.
I have been using Grammarly for a few months now, and I have mixed feelings about the tool. For the uninitiated, Grammarly is a tool that helps hone your language, sentence constructions, and grammar. The application itself is unobtrusive and installs as a plug-in or extension. There is no learning curve as it seamlessly works with Microsoft Word or any input text on the web (with the browser extension).
From the moment I installed Grammarly, I have been a prolific user. Every single writing piece runs through the sophisticated AI machinery and tells me what I need to change or delete. You can set goals on the emotion and intent of your text, and you get a score (out of 100) showing how well you did, based on Grammarly’s internal algorithms.
Writing is a very personal endeavor and brings out the writer’s technique, beliefs, and style. With Grammarly, your words are the fruits you put into a blender. What comes out is a homogeneous liquid with all the rough edges smoothened out. Often I find that Grammarly suggests words that though grammatically accurate, change the thoughts I want to convey. Also, it provides alternatives for words that may not suit the mood of the writing. There have also been instances where the recommendations are downright wrong. As a writer, you need to be judicious about accepting all advice blindly.
Grammarly can be distracting at times as I am more interested in getting a perfect score than writing what is in my mind. It is tempting to keep running Grammarly, and that interrupts the flow of thought and continuity.
I am finally coming to terms with the tool, for that is what it is. I use Grammarly as an enabler to my writing rather than as an end goal. It has been a learning experience but well worth the effort.
I enjoy using Grammarly, especially to detect passive voices, excessively long sentences, and monotonous lines. Over time, I have struck a happy balance between overly relying on all the suggestions and retaining my voice in the impassive algorithmic analyses of my writing.
