Now that I have Grammarly, I run every chapter I write through it. I make the necessary corrections, and I'm done. Finished. No more going back over it and fretting. And most importantly, no more missing mistakes. As most of you know too well, after awhile you can no longer see the forest for the trees when reading your work for the 100th time. Grammarly never misses, though. I was practically giddy when I saw all that it was picking up on. Even as I laughed, I groaned to myself, "how on earth did I miss that?!" I don't worry about that anymore.
As an official reviewer for Reader's Favorite, I read a good amount of books that are still in desperate need of a proofreader. I can't help but think if they had only put their book through Grammarly, pretty much all of those mistakes could have been taken care of. I highly recommend running a test for yourself, you won't believe what you see!
As you can see on the right side of this screen shot, those are just a few of the things Grammarly searches your pages for. In the red highlighted area, Grammarly has brought to my attention the use of a double negative. This is one of those instances where you'll use your own judgment to correct it or leave it. Grammarly has pointed it out, but the program is unaware that the man speaking that sentence has a hillbilly accent and his dialogue is often over dramatized by using such words. All I need to do is hit the Ignore button and it moves to the next thing on the list. It just couldn't be simpler.
Click the link below to give it a try, you can test it free for 7 days! I know I won't ever publish another book again without running it through Grammarly first, and plan on putting the two books I have already published through it as soon as I can. It has made such a difference in the book I'm currently writing, and I've learned a lot just from using it.
Chameleon Author
I use it too, even though it has screwed me up a time or two. The best advice I can give when using this program is this: Don't rely solely on this program to "fix" your grammatical errors. It is after all a computer program, not a real-life editor. It's wonderful in so many ways, but it makes mistakes. As long as you're careful to not "fix" everything it says to fix, you'll be fine. Oh, and I shut off the plagiarism button because it kept giving me song lyrics and/or random posts for examples as to why I should change my sentences.
ReplyDeleteGood luck! In most aspects it's a great tool.
Sue, absolutely. There are quite a few instances where you will need to use your own judgment on whether to change something as it recommends. But what I love most about this program is that it draws my attention to absolute mistakes, as well as the possible mistakes. It sure beats staring at a white page with all those black letters trying to find a mistake that may, or may not, even be there. But if it is there, I know Grammarly will point it out, even if it turns out to something quirky that I intended to be there. :)
DeleteI bought it and downloaded it and it runs right in my word program. It has helped a lot. :)
ReplyDeleteSweet! It will help a lot, it has certainly helped me. The fact that it interfaces with Word so well is a huge perk, too!
DeleteThought I entered a comment but don't see it...this may be a duplicate. I've never heard of Grammarly but will certainly check it out.
ReplyDeleteTerry, it's a great program! If you have any questions, you know how to get in touch with me :)
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