Grammarly Premium has greatly helped me, but…
In my books, I have had trouble with typos and minor grammatical errors. I have only twice used professional proofreading/editing – my debut book and the second book. The results? Well, not perfect. And costly. I’m not good at proofreading my writing. I consider it exceedingly difficult and boring. I miss out on far too many minor errors, although I painstakingly go through my writing several times.
Sometime ago, I began using Grammarly Premium, which helped quite a lot. But I have mixed feelings because errors keep showing up, after running my writing in the app. Grammarly Premium has indeed improved my awareness of minor grammatical errors, typos, and awkward sentences. However, it isn’t perfect: It doesn’t always get the meaning of sentences correctly or spotting every minor error.
Recently I tested a short passage from a best selling novel. The sentences are simple. I was curious though not surprised with the app’s evaluation.
I chose the following goals (in the app):
Audience: General
Formality: Neutral
Domain: General
Tone: Neutral
Intent: Tell A Story
[The passage contained four sentences in a row:
“He couldn’t stay on the farm forever. He needed tobacco, sugar, tea. He needed Aspros. He woke with a headache every morning.”
Grammarly’s assessment:
(1) Monotonous passage. These sentences seem repetitive because they all follow the same pattern. (I liked the passage.)
(2) Grammarly also recommends a synonym for “forever”.
