Support for Indie Authors discussion

I visited the Grammarly website to check the current cost. I saw the prices for Premium Services, but also saw a statement that it's free for MS Word. I had downloaded a free 30-Day trial earlier this year, but uninstalled it at the end due to the price. Is it really free now for MS Word? Does anyone have any experience with it? Thank you. Hugs.

There is a free version of Grammarly that includes the MS Word add-in. You don't get access to all of the features (mainly the advanced grammar check and word usage improvement), but you get all the basic checks for spelling, grammar, and punctuation.

I used the free version to check my manuscript before self-publishing. It caught a lot of mistakes, but still missed quite a few. I'm not convinced the paid version would've been able to detect things like "on" instead of "in" and so on.

My recommendation would be to use it as a coarse filter and then have another set of eyes take a look to catch whatever Grammarly misses.

Kent, Thank you for answering. In your opinion, do you believe it actually catches errors that MS Word might overlook? I know nothing will catch wrong word spelled correctly issues and that nothing beats several sets of good eyes. Thanks again! : )

You're welcome. :)

Yes, I would say the free version catches more than MS Word. One of the major areas it focuses on is comma usage. If you wrote something like "Within a few hours everyone was gone" or "He went to the store, but couldn't find butter," the Grammarly check would suggest a comma after "hours" and removing the comma after "store." MS Word wouldn't suggest either of these.

Also, I noticed there is a difference between MS Word's dictionary and Grammarly's. I can't remember specific examples, but there were at least 5 occasions where MS Word said I had spelled the word correctly, but Grammarly said I didn't. Upon further research, it turned out that Grammarly was correct.

One thing I really appreciated about Grammarly was that it allowed me to analyze the sentences/words in question before making a decision on the fix. Comma usage, in particular, is more of an art form, so it's up to you on whether to follow what Grammarly suggests.

I think Grammarly also does a better job with preposition usage, although it's not perfect by any means.

Ah, and one other cool feature is that you get a weekly report that tells you how many words were checked and how many errors you had in relation to the other Grammarly users that had words checked that week. I had no idea how many unique words I had in my novel, but Grammarly was able to give me an answer.

Grammarly definitely catches more errors, even the free version. I always use it. The free version of Hemingway can give some interesting insights too.

I own the full enhanced version. I always use before sending my novels to my professional editor.

Hmm, good information here. I'll be using it from now on then.

I used the free version installed over MS Word. I found the pop up menu annoying. It definitely found more errors than the grammar checker in word. It was a bit of a pain with UK English (I am from the UK). The limited version that I used allowed a small number of scans/month. It was good enough to justify installing and using it.

I uninstalled because of the intrusive pop up, but will reinstall it temporarily for use before my next publication.

I don't know the benefits of the full version.

Sam (Rescue Dog Mom & Writer) formerly known as Sue wrote: "I visited the Grammarly website to check the current cost. I saw the prices for Premium Services, but also saw a statement that it's free for MS Word. I had downloaded a free 30-Day trial earlier t..."

I tested the free version to see what would happen. (Caveat: this was quite some time ago). For our writing, the overall failure rate was over 80% to 90%: that is, the combination of things Grammarly said were wrong that were not, and the errors (some of which I deliberately introduced) that it missed.

I concluded that if you write the way the people who built Grammarly think you ought to write, it recommendations may at least be correct. But if you don't, it breaks badly. Overall, I consider the version that I tested inappropriate for fiction.

Kent, Thank you for that detailed information.

Angela, Thank you. I will check out Hemingway.

Martin, Thank you. Do you pay service fees?

Anthony, Thank you for the heads up on the pop-ups.

Heidi, Thank you. I will check out ProWritingAid

Owen, Thank you for this information.

Thomas, Be sure to check out Hemingway and ProWritingAid as suggested here.

Sam (Rescue Dog Mom & Writer) formerly known as Sue wrote: "Thomas, Be sure to check out Hemingway and ProWritingAid as suggested here."

Will do!

Ginger is also good. Like Grammarly, they have a free version you can test out. I found that if I used both of them in conjunction, they picked up most of my mistakes. Both also suggest a lot of wrong changes. Grammarly in particular seems to despise commas for some reason.

But, yeah, just for another option.

I use ProWriter to go over my manuscript. I picks up errors but I also find that it will give you some suggestions which you need to just ignore. I does check grammar and punctuation along with a lot of other things. I use it when I have to book together and am just polishing prior to sending to a professional editor.

Maybe it's improved in recent years but I had the same experience as Owen some years ago - false positives and things missed that should have been flagged. Came to the conclusion it wasn't really suited for fiction.

I have used grammarly and I found it annoying more than anything, which reminds me, I need to take the add-on off of Google Chrome. Definitely prefer Prowriting Aid, though it's not free.

Grammarly is not reliable. It tags things that are fine and misses things it should not. Using it for free is ok if you need a quick check but it isn't a substitute for a real editor.

Yes, Grammarly does tag things that are fine and does miss some other things. But, all in all, I find I have to make the judgment call. This is okay because it red-flags things I need to change, and after some time using it, I find that I am familiar with where it has the tendency to be deficient.

Mary wrote: "Using it for free is ok if you need a quick check but it isn't a substitute for a real editor."
Grammarly, like any other spellcheck, is not perfect. I'd argue it's better than most freeware out there, but it still has problem areas. Maybe one day they will create a perfect spellcheck, but until they do, it's not even close to a substitute for an editor.

I've used Grammarly, and it was pretty good, but it costs, or at least it did then. I'm going to give Typely a try.

I found autocrit very useful.

Just read the fine prints before accepting any program (paid or free). I've read scary things about Grammarly lately but it seems it may not just be them after all.

There is a free version of Grammarly and a paid premium version. The free version is handy. I purchased the premium version in the spring of 2015 at a 50% discount. It was helpful, but it does not handle large files, so I couldn't load my whole book-length manuscript into it at once. I had to break it up into parts. Some strange things happened to my formatting during the process; parts of words and/or sentences ended up on different pages. I did not intend to renew, but Grammarly only gives you an automatic renewal option. They do not notify you prior to renewal and they do not give refunds for renewal. So I got stuck paying full price for another year's subscription. It was my fault. I did not read the fine print as G.G. suggests.

I use ProWritingAid which is similar to Grammerly. I learned that doing it by chapters makes more sense, especially of you do the full scan for all problems. Also, it is cheaper at $40 a year for premium membership or $140 for a ilifetime membership. I haven't found any problems with the formatting changing when I paste things into it. If you would MS Word, you can have it as an add in and do the whole book but it'll take a few minutes for it to run. The free version worked well, but I wanted it as a extension to Word simply because I'm lazy and hate going between two screens.

I've used Autocrit and found it useful, especially concerning the highlighting of word and phrase duplication. And they are nice people to deal with.

Lots of great suggestions and advice here! Thank you all! Hugs

I have the free version installed on my Chrome browser. It is helpful as usually the only mistakes I tend to make normally is not putting commas in certain spots although it annoys me with the Oxford comma. It also puts a comma at the end of when someone is talking which I don't think is correct at all so maybe it's not the best tool but it has its moments.

The comma at the end of when someone is talking should be there if you follow it with a tag.
"I told you I wouldn't to that," said Jane.
If that is what you are seeing it is correct. Most of the programs who correct your grammar are decent, but none are perfect. I use ProWritingAid as I chose when to use it. I tried Grammerly and it annoyed me to no end. I'm more casual when talking to friends and don't need a program changing what I wrote like Auto-correct.

I use Grammarly but you have to be careful or it changes your 'voice' and if you are indiscriminate, and accept everything it suggests, your writing would become the same as everybody else's.
The free version is not really sufficient.

Grammarly is just a double-check.
There are a lot of ordinary errors it can catch. BUT-

The Oxford comma, as mentioned, is irritating. It insists on replacing "though" with "through". Other words will find the same problem. That dangling modifer issue could destroy a conversation by a person in your book (normal people don't have the grammar police following the way they talk). It has a limited synonym list.

But, among other things, it also serves as a comic relief.

Edmund wrote: "The Oxford comma, as mentioned, is irritating..."

Does that mean it favors the Oxford comma, or does NOT favor the Oxford comma.

Since that's really a style choice, I'd think they'd give you an option to use it or not.