Okay, so I can’t speak for copywriters everywhere, but I can speak for myself as a 5-year Grammarly user who, as of 7/23/23, has had 7,862,707words edited by Grammarly (gotta love those stats that they email you each week!)

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I’m also currently on a 165-week writing streak, which really speaks more to my need for a week-long vacation than anything else! 

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I’ve been encouraging people to purchase Grammarly for as long as I’ve been using it, but I wanted to create a blog sharing my favorite things about it, so if you don’t use it yet, maybe I can convince you. 

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Also, just a caveat, I have been using the paid version of Grammarly, Grammarly Premium, for almost as long as I’ve been using it, and I will say for me, it’s worth every penny. 

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I’m usually someone who will get away with using the free version of an app for as long as possible, but Grammarly is one that I highly recommend just paying for Premium. The features included in Premium are truly what will make you a better writer and go far beyond conventional spell check.

Grammarly Helps You Catch When You Use a Word Too Much

Every writer does it—falls into a rut of using the same words over and over again. Even while editing your own work, you might not catch that you’ve used the same adjective three times in one paragraph.

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Using a diverse vocabulary makes you sound more intelligent and compelling. Using the same word over and over again sounds…annoying. 

Grammarly Promotes Conciseness

Is it safe to say I like to hear the sound of my own (writing) voice? Yes, yes it is. I have been accused throughout the years of being wordy, verbose, and I’m trying to think of another synonym to prove my point here. 

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I may have just turned in a project where I said I would deliver 16 200-word emails, and all of them ended up being 300-500 words each. I just can’t help myself, y’all. (And 200 words is VERY short!)

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But clear communication is concise communication. And this is probably my favorite thing about Grammarly. It calls me out and lets me know when I can say something more concisely.

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I don’t always listen to the suggestions. Sometimes I like my own way better, and I think it adds something to the project's voice. But more often than not, the suggestions are spot on.

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Example of a conciseness suggestion I didn’t listen to:

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In this case, I thought saying “a whole host of” sounded a bit more dramatic, and that’s what I was going for, so I kept it.‍

Example of a conciseness suggestions I did listen to:

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In this suggestion, “various” conveyed the exact same thing in fewer words.

Grammarly Helps You Sound Like a More Confident Communicator

Unfortunately, it’s so common, especially for women, to try to soften what we say to avoid sounding harsh or direct. I just listened to an episode of Armchair Expert (proud Armcherry 🍒over here) with a linguist named Valerie Fridland, and she talked a lot about how and why women do this. Fascinating listen if you’re interested!

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Listen Now

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Here’s how this lack of confidence thing shows up in our writing. Instead of saying:

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“This course will increase your understanding of what your body needs to function optimally.”

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We/I might be tempted to say, 

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“I think this course has everything you need to increase your understanding…”

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or 

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“I believe this course will increase your understanding…”

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Grammarly helps catch these moments, as well as when you use passive voice. Passive voice is another way our message gets diluted. Grammarly spots passive voice and often just suggests you reword the sentence. And usually, after being super irritated by this suggestion, I find that after rewriting my sentence, the message is much more clear and direct.

Grammarly Helps While You’re Writing and During the Editing Phase

Remember the first time you saw that jagged little line under a misspelled word in a word processor? I do. I was doing a group project, using a bigA$$ desktop computer in my friend’s basement. I was very unnerved by this jagged red line—and for the life of me and my project partner, we could not figure out what it was for or how to make it go away!

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Fast forward 25 years, just like the editing tool in your word processor, Grammarly helps you catch mistakes while you are writing. Can’t remember how to spell privlege? Priveledge? Privledge? Frick! 

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Grammarly is there for you. Privilege. 

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And all off the other corrections pop up are you go too—with different colors for different types of corrections.

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Red=Correctness

Blue=Clarity

Green=Engagement

Purple=Delivery

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I personally choose to minimize these extra suggestions and deal with them all after I’m done writing, when I am doing my edit. I like to brain dump and then go back and polish—but to each their own!

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When I go back at the end for a round of edits—that’s when I open the full sidebar of suggestions and go into those clarity, engagement, and delivery tips.

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And to be completely honest, I accept about 50-75% of these suggestions. I definitely don’t feel like I need to take all of their tips. I mean, let’s get real. It’s still AI, and it doesn’t know me! 

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Okay, it knows me pretty darn well, but sometimes I want to say things my own way. 

Grammarly Has Made Me a Better and More Efficient Writer Over Time

I am Pavlov’s dog over here. Give me the same suggestion enough times, and I will start to anticipate the problems Grammarly will find, even as I’m writing. Sometimes I like to play a little game when I’m in my final editing phase.

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I see that colorful line coming up, and I think to myself, it’s going to want me to change, “in a concise way” into “concisely.” If I’m correct? Gold star for me.

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But truly, seeing the same corrections a few times does train me to catch many of my common mistakes while I’m writing. Well, except for privledge. Privilege! 

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And the more of those edits I can catch while I’m writing, the less time I have to spend editing. 

Try Grammarly Out for Yourself!

Of course, Grammarly is now dipping its toes into AI writing, and I haven’t played around with that yet. I’ll have to check it out and report back. For now, all I can say is, I love Grammarly and I would never turn in a project without using it.

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And it’s not just for copywriters like me. Anyone doing their own copy, or even someone that sends a lot of emails for work, can benefit from at least downloading the free version of Grammarly.

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Like I said, I think the paid version is completely worth it. But you should see for yourself! Download now!

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