Grammarly

It has been a while since I’ve posted anything in my “Technology & Sciences” section (see the Index). For the most part, this is because nothing has really impressed me lately. All phones are flat rectangles no matter how much lip gloss you put on that pig. Tablets seem to have lost their market share. Smart watches just aren’t ramping up. In the software arena, there have been a few apps for Android that I like, but nothing to write home about. But then….

A couple days ago I launched Chrome browser and saw an ad for grammarly.com. This adds a plug-in to Chrome that actively monitors and recommends grammar improvements in a non-intrusive way. It is similar to spell-checking programs that underline misspelled words. It has caught my accidental use of periods where there should have been question marks. It has caught the wrong use of prepositions. It has caught noun-verb mismatches and more. For me, this is an absolute necessity. I am a fairly competent writer, but everyone makes mistakes. (From what I’ve read recently in online news articles, those writers desperately need help.) While working at Chevron Corporation (prior to AT&T), I was trained in a series of professional proofreading methods. I still have that documentation, but admittedly, I’ve gotten lazy about using the methods. Instead, I have relied on MS-Word for initial spell- and grammar-checking. I use a screen-reader from Microsoft (that is no longer available as a stand-alone program) for me to listen to my articles. Finally, I will just let the article sit for a day and come back to it, re-reading and re-listening to it before posting it. Yet, even after posting my blog articles, days will go by and I’ll notice some error or another. (That is why you may have noticed both minor and major changes in the first 3 or 4 days.)

So yesterday I posted a couple articles, copying it from MS-Word into Blogger’s edit window. Immediately Grammarly kicked in and started showing me everything I had missed. Love it! If you are a writer, a student in school, a manager in a business, or any other scenario where writing intelligently (so that you don’t make yourself look bad to others) is needed, you will want to use this plug-in. (Oh, I forgot to mention that it is free!)

Addendum (3/21/2017): I wasn't expecting this, but Grammarly puts out stats. Here's mine for my first week of use:

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