This is an honest review of Grammarly. Here we try to understand if this academic writing tool is worth the hype. Does it have any value in academic writing?

Grammarly has been around for some time and is now the most popular AI-enabled proofreading tool for writers. It is much more powerful than the inbuilt proofing tool in various word processors, be it Google Docs or Microsoft Word.

So, is Grammarly worth it? Well, definitely, though it has some of the limitations. Thus, here we look at the reasons to use it in academic writing. However, we will also look at its limitation. In fact, knowing the limitations of any tool is even more important.

In this article, I also share my personal experience with this academic writing tool, considering that I have been using it regularly for the last seven years and have edited thousands of articles and more than 10 million words of text with this tool. Thus, it is not a usual product review but a practical or real-life introduction to Grammarly as an academic writing tool.

What is good about Grammarly for academic writers

Whether English is your mother tongue, first language, second language, or language you have learned through years of hard work, Grammarly is for everyone. It is just much more than a regular spell checker you would find in Microsoft Word or in any other word processor.

In-built proofing tools of most word processors are just too primitive, and they have improved little in the last two decades. They are just good for spell check and nothing more. When it comes to spelling checks, an inbuilt proofing tool of any word processor like Google Docs or Microsoft Word is perfect. They are as good as Grammarly. However, here all the comparison ends.

Grammarly is not just a spell checker or basic grammar checker. It has been created by keeping in mind the writing best practices. Thus, it can check for all possible grammar mistakes, along with spelling errors. For example, this AI-based tool is context aware. Thus, unlike inbuilt tools in word processors, it can detect if a specific word fits into the context. Hence, for example, it can understand which word is right in any context, like “whether” or “weather,” though both the spellings are correct.

All this means that Academic writers can focus on the quality of content rather than worrying about silly spelling and grammar mistakes in their articles. Hence, you can write your article by focusing entirely on the context, ensuring you provide the highest quality information. Furthermore, once the article has been written, you can proofread it using Grammarly, ensuring that it is just error-free.

But Grammarly is not just about getting rid of spelling and grammar mistakes. It is much more. It can be quite helpful for people who do not have a command of English and those who struggle to produce good articles in English. It may also improve clarity and help your English sound natural.  

It is also worth understanding that you can set writing goals in Grammarly. Grammarly will use AI to make suggestions that are right for your audience. Thus, before proofreading, always adjust goals like formal or informal tone, whether the article is for knowledgeable or for experts.

Further, it also gives a choice about the domains like academic, business, technical, casual, creative, and so on. Although, it is an area where it also needs much improvement.

So, yes, Grammarly is quite helpful, and it takes the worry of proofreading out; instead, writers can focus on the content. It is definitely a tool that must be part of your writing process.

And one more thing, it is also a useful academic writing tool for editors, as its online app allows creating detailed reports about any article. Thus, if you are editing an article for someone and do not intend to correct mistakes, Grammarly can analyze the article, underline various errors or corrections, and create an excellent scorecard. All this can be downloaded and sent to the client in pdf format.

And, by the way, Grammarly has an excellent addon for Microsoft Word, and it now even has an extension for Chrome and Android. However, keep in mind that the Microsoft Word addon or other addons are not as powerful and good as the online app. They still lack some functionality the online app offers, like the ability to create a pdf report of the article.

What is its limitation in academic writing

Before using Grammarly or going for its premium version, one has to understand its limitation. If you do not write very often, you might be well off without it. Such a tool is a better fit for those who write regularly and not just a few academic articles now and then.

Additionally, there are some severe limitations of such AI-based tools, too.

For example, it often tries to create variety in your writing and suggests that you do not repeat the same words. However, it has its own character and prefers certain kinds of words. Thus, for example, the AI algorithm tells it that shorter or concise is always better. However, that is not always the case. Hence, if you write, “I am able to do this,” it will always try to correct you and say that better to write, “I can do this.” It simply does not understand that “able to do” and “can” are not the same (or “not the same” and “exact” are different words – yes, it tried to correct me here, too 😉). Similarly, it prefers using “several” instead of “number of times.”

These are just some examples. But keep in mind that AI cannot understand your text. It just uses the algorithm. Thus, it often makes mistakes when it suggests synonyms or tries to improve clarity by suggesting shorter words. After all, it is rightly said that no two words have exactly the same meaning. However, it will take decades for AI to understand that.

Further, remember that most proofreading tools these days are allergic to passive voice. However, in scientific writing, quite often, you cannot produce a manuscript without extensively using passive voice. It is true that passive voice may affect SEO (thus, influencing search engine rating). However, SEO is rarely a primary concern when it comes to academic writing. If your article is sound, original, interesting, and unique, it will be cited by others. Moreover, SEO principles for scholarly articles differ significantly from blogs. However, it appears that tools like Grammarly are still not perfectly tuned for academic writers, even if you adjust the goals.

Finally, a word about plagiarism detection tools in Grammarly. Well, it is barely reliable. Regretfully, one expects much better results from such a premium academic writing tool. However, remember that the plagiarism checker in Grammarly is more for blog writers and not for academic writers. It simply lacks access to many research articles by leading publishers, as those scholarly articles are behind the subscription plans. Furthermore, Grammarly’s plagiarism tool mainly checks your manuscript against freely available information. Thus, it is not even close to tools like Turnitin.

So, what’s the take-home message? Well, Grammarly is quite a versatile tool. It is good for correcting your spelling and grammar mistakes and moderately good for enhancing the manuscript’s clarity, engagement, and delivery. However, like any AI tool, it has its limitations which must be kept in mind when using this fantastic tool.