Grammarly: the Best Free Grammar Checker to Keep You From Looking Like an Idiot

by | January 2020 | 0 comments

Blogging is essentially writing. So if you’re a blogger, you also want to be a good writer and make sure you’re using proper grammar. That’s where the Grammarly grammar checker comes in and saves the day!

How many times have you taken hours upon hours, even days, to write the perfect blog post? You were so excited to hit “publish” and start sharing your post everywhere across the internet.

Then you happen to take a second look and notice a grammar error that you swear wasn’t there before? (How the heck did I miss that?!) 🤦‍♀️

Grammar Errors

A simple grammar error can cause you to lose credibility with your readers and turn them off. You want to look professional and not like you just threw a blog post together without putting any thought or effort into it. You also don’t want your readers’ first impression of you to be that you’re an idiot who doesn’t know how to write properly.

After all, if someone is taking the time to read your blog post, you want to take the time to write a well-written blog post for them to read. Grammar mistakes happen though. We’ve all been there.

No matter how diligent you are about writing correctly and using proper grammar, mistakes are bound to happen. We’re human after all. Believe it or not, even basic computer spell-check programs and other grammar tools miss typos sometimes. But I’ve had the best luck with Grammarly.

What is the Grammarly Grammar Checker?

The Grammarly grammar checker is an AI-powered automated proofreader and writing assistant that makes it easy to correct writing mistakes. You can use Grammarly for free to check for the following:

• Grammatical Errors

• Spelling Errors

• Incorrect Punctuation

• Misused Words

Grammarly also has a premium version. With Grammarly Premium, you’ll get everything in the free version, plus over 100 extra advanced grammar checks and features (keep reading for more on that below).

What I like about using Grammarly

I use Grammarly when I’m writing blog posts, emails, social media posts, basically anytime I’m writing something on my computer or phone.

English was my favorite subject in school, and I’ve always been big on grammar. So I LOVE using Grammarly for blog writing! I can’t even keep track of all the grammatical errors Grammarly has caught for me throughout the years.

Of course, you want to spell check, but there’s more to grammar than just spelling. For example, Grammarly will let you know if you have redundancy with the same word back-to-back (e.g. “I went to the store and and bought…”).

Most grammar checkers won’t catch that error because both words are spelled correctly. But they’re being used incorrectly together. So you definitely want Grammarly to catch those for you.

Grammarly can also tell if you’re using the wrong form of words that are commonly confused, such as:

• affect vs. effect

• there vs. their

• your vs. you’re

• lose vs. loose

• very vs. vary

• and more

You might know the difference between the common words above but simply confuse them when typing quickly (#beenthere!).

Another great feature of Grammarly is that it checks punctuation.  This helps with proper punctuation, such as where you’re supposed to use or not use a comma or an apostrophe. For example:

• its vs. it’s

• readers vs. reader’s vs. readers’

Catching punctuation errors and commonly confused words are my two favorite Grammarly features!

CONFESSION: I’m embarrassed to say that I get “there” and “their” as well as “its” and “it’s” confused A LOT. Grammarly has come to my rescue with those errors more times than I care to count.

The best part? You can use Grammarly for FREE!

How to use the Grammarly grammar checker

Start by signing up to use Grammarly for free! Then you can use Grammarly for anything you write online.

You have several different options for how to use Grammarly. Here are the different ways and places you can use Grammarly to check your writing:

• Online with the Grammarly Editor & Desktop App by starting a new document or uploading an existing document to be checked.

• Online with browser extensions (Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and Edge) for writing with Gmail, Google Docs, Facebook, and more.

• On your phone and mobile devices with the phone app (search the app store for “Grammarly keyboard”).

• On your Mac computer by downloading the desktop app and then dragging a file you want to be proofread into Grammarly.

• On your Windows computer with the MS Office Add-in to integrate with Microsoft Word and Outlook.

I use the super handy Grammarly Chrome browser extension and mobile apps ALL. The. Time. I highly recommend them!

How the Grammarly grammar checker works

When Grammarly detects a writing issue, the issue will be marked with a red, blue, green, or purple underline.

You can hover over or click on underlined words or phrases to see Grammarly’s correction suggestions. Then you have the following options to choose from:

• To accept and use a suggestion, simply click on it.

• If you’d like to ignore and remove a suggestion, click the trash icon to dismiss it.

• If a suggestion happens to be wrong or you’d like to report it, click the flag icon and choose your preferred option.

• If you want Grammarly to stop marking something particular as incorrect, click the book icon to add it to your personal dictionary.

• To see Grammarly’s explanation about a correction suggestion, click the three dots at the bottom of the alert.

Keep in mind that grammar checkers don’t replace human proofreading. But they sure do help, especially Grammarly! Even if you’re a stickler for proper grammar, basic mistakes are still bound to happen.

Grammar checkers make it easier to see errors. But you always want to proofread your work to be on the safe side before you hit the post or publish button.

The Grammarly Premium Plan

The free version of Grammarly is awesome in itself. But you may want to improve your writing even more and take Grammarly’s grammar checking to the next level. In that case, you should consider upgrading to Grammarly Premium.

With Grammarly Premium, you’ll get everything in the Free plan plus advanced checks. The Premium plan includes suggestions for vocabulary enhancement, sentence structure, word choice, tone, and more. You’ll also get the plagiarism detector and explanations of grammar rules.

Grammarly offers 3 different premium plan options starting at just $11.66/month.

If you want to be a professional blogger Grammarly is an absolute must. Try Grammarly and become a better writer today. You’ll wonder how you’ve lived without it!

If you want the full list of 70+ Blogging & Blog Writing Tools I use and recommend, be sure to download the FREE Ultimate Blogging Tools Checklist!

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Briana Nickas of Next Destination Unknown

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Hey there! I’m Briana, a blogger, hiker, traveller, RVer, photo-taker, and National Parks lover who is passionate about exploring the great outdoors while practicing clean living for a healthier lifestyle to continue doing the things I live for. My goal is to inspire others to live a life focused on wellbeing and wandering. Join me!

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