Summary

A writer reflects on the utility of Grammarly, acknowledging its assistance with grammar and punctuation but emphasizing the importance of the writer's judgment in crafting meaningful content.

Abstract

The author received a notification from Grammarly indicating a substantial number of words checked since September 2019, with a significant portion written in the last week. While impressed by the volume of writing, the author critically assesses Grammarly's limitations, noting that it does not evaluate the depth, relevance, or effectiveness of the content. The author stresses that tools like Grammarly are valuable for grammar and punctuation but cannot replace the writer's responsibility to convey a clear message and ensure the overall quality of the writing. The writer concludes that the true measure of good writing lies in the writer's ability to edit and refine the message, which is a task beyond the scope of any automated tool.

Opinions

Grammarly is a useful tool for checking grammar and punctuation but should not be relied upon for evaluating the overall quality of writing.
The writer acknowledges a personal tendency to overlook the Oxford comma, which Grammarly helps to correct.
Grammarly may suggest changes that are not aligned with the writer's intent or the desired style and tense.
The author believes that the ultimate responsibility for the content's clarity, resonance, and message lies with the writer, not with grammar-checking tools.
The writer humorously acknowledges the production of subpar content, emphasizing that Grammarly can only make such content grammatically correct, not inherently better.
The author values the motivational aspect of receiving word count updates from Grammarly but recognizes that the true accomplishment is in crafting impactful writing, not just a high volume of words.

A writer’s Life

That’s A Lot Of Words

Grammarly Helps But It’s Not The Be All

I received an email notification from Grammarly this morning, which caught my eye. Most of the time, I just hit the delete button and sail on by, but this one made me sit up and take notice. This is a direct copy from the email, and I didn’t “airbrush” a bit of it.

4,878,930 total words checked by Grammarly since Sep 22, 2019 (176,470 last week)

As I said, I usually just delete these notifications, but then I looked at the number again. Four million, eight hundred and seventy-eight thousand, nine hundred and thirty total words (words I’d written) checked since Sep 22, 2019. And then it just suckered punched me with — oh btw P.G. of those one hundred seventy-six thousand, four hundred and seventy were written and checked last week.

Well, being the math poly not that I am, and understanding the rudimentary functions of a calculator, I, of course, answered my quandary in sixteen seconds flat.

Just last week alone (I admit it. I’m a blog whore) I wrote twenty-five thousand two hundred and ten words.

Okay, I’m just going to say it here. Get out your flaming pens of scorn and write scalding comments calling me a show-off, a puffin (yes I know what a puffin is — it’s the stuff you bake using the Pillsbury doughboy or maybe it a bird. No it’s the Pillsbury doughboy.) a grandstander, a grandsitter, a rogue and a ragamuffin.

Muffin. Hmmm. Muffin. Didn’t I use that word earlier?

Long story even longer. I’m prolific.

So Grammarly says I’m fantastic, but does that mean my writing is? Maybe not. See, using Grammarly can and often does catch a lot. In my case, my disturbing tendencies to forget about the Oxford comma. But Grammarly often suggests you change things you don’t want to change, structures your tense present when you want it past.

And something else Grammarly can’t do.

It can’t tell, nor will it ever tell you when the piece is too long, too shallow, doesn’t make a resonate point, nor convey the message you want or need to communicate.

Grammarly doesn’t give a sh*t. It’s only checking all the words. If you write something backward, Grammarly may or may not look at it and say, huh?

Huh say and it at look not may or may Grammarly.

Case in point, I just ran the sentence above through a Grammarly check, and this is what it told me.

“It seems you are missing a comma. Please consider inserting a comma.”

So if Grammarly isn’t checking your story content to ensure what you’re writing is the best possible writing you can do, who is?

You are. Or at least, you should be.

Think of this it this way. There are five essential tasks every writer needs to do each time they sit down to write way before they even think of hitting the publish button.

Write the words
Edit the words
Write the message
Edit the message
Edit the message

Which one of these steps should you rely just a bit on Grammarly? Here’s a hint. If you’re using Grammarly on every step other than two, you may want to consider changing the way you write.

I know some folks swear by Hemmingway and some people extol the virtues of Grammarly. I will admit, based on the numbers I showed you at the top of the piece, I use Grammarly a ton.

But Grammarly doesn’t spawn the ideas, nor does it emote a message which can resonate with readers. Only the writer can do that. I don’t use Grammarly to pair my words together or develop a message I wish to convey. That, my friends, is all on me.

Which means it’s all on me when I write something that stinks to high heaven.

Take it from one who has written a lot of stinky poo in my day. If you, as a writer, are cranking out a lot of sh*t pieces, Grammarly doesn’t give a rat’s patootie. It will merely correct your sh*t and make it grammatically correct sh*t.

But guess what? It’ll still be sh*t.

Remember. Turning that sow’s ear into a silk purse is your job as a writer. Grammarly or any other word or sentence checking tool is only the first step to writing a good story.

The rest is up to you.

But I still think it’s pretty cool when I get an email telling me how many words I’ve written over a specified period. I’m just glad the emails don’t mention how many of those words were used to make pieces of sh*t.

Thanks So Much For Reading

Let’s keep in touch: [email protected]