I paid for Grammarly Premium so you don’t have to
By: Sarah Czarnecki
Tags: Writing, Self Improvement, Editing, Review, Grammarly

I Paid for Grammarly Premium so You Don’t Have to

Have you been considering shelling out money for Grammarly Premium? If you write a lot, it’s probably crossed your mind, but between Grammarly’s reputation and the high price tag, you’ve probably shied away.

So what do actually you get with Grammarly Premium? Is it worth it? Today, we investigate.

Below is about 250 words of unedited text describing my prior experience with the free version of Grammarly. Then, I’ll run that text through the paid version. Let’s see what happens!

This is the original text with only minor self-editing.

I spotted a few errors already, but I let them slide to allow Grammarly to do its thing. This has a score of 77 with 20 alerts.

I’m not a fan of Grammarly. Ever since it absolutely insisted that I meant “broken leg" when I was describing a forest floor littered with fallen logs and branches, the program has been on my shit list. It’s way too bossy and it hates repeated words, even if they’re contextually necessary. It's probably going to scold me for using the word "Grammarly" so many times. Worst of all, I’ve always been comma-happy, but Grammarly’s suggestions are a little much even for me. But I decided to bite the bullet and buy the premium version. I had a coupon and I figured if I’m going to take a career in writing seriously, I need to level up my grammar . I knew I especially needed guidance on writing engaging content. One of my short stories had “monotonous sentences" that were driving me crazy. I paid for Grammarly Premium and thanks to its suggestions, I figured out how to fix it. Not going to lie, it really was an improvement. I do care about my literary voice. Thankfully, my voice is somewhat casual and I’m a big fan of concise phrasing. "Don't get fancy" is something of a motto for me. This aligns nicely with Grammarly’s algorithm anyway, so I’m not concerned with Grammarly stifling my voice. If I were a poet or a longwinded writer, I wouldn’t use it. Now I’m looking forward to seeing what happens. Every writer has room for improvement, and hopefully Grammarly Premium will prove its worth.

photo from wordvice.com

Here’s the same text taking every single one of Grammarly Premium’s suggestions.

Not too bad. Unsurprisingly, most of the suggestions were to add more commas. I could not get past the comma after “fancy” in the last paragraph. It suggested I add it, then immediately suggested I remove it. Make up your mind, Grammarly!

It fixed a few clarity and delivery issues, but none were egregious enough to alter my voice. I do see a few spots where the corrections actually ruin the sentence (“make a writing career seriously,” “the name Grammarly,” semicolon after “Not going to lie” feels unnatural). The tone is set to formal but it allowed numerous contractions, the term “shit list,” and the cliche “bite the bullet.” Interesting side note — that particular cliche has detected a 3% plagiarism match with a mushroom leek risotto recipe.

So I don’t know.

The text below is considered a perfect 100.

I’m not a fan of Grammarly. Ever since it insisted that I meant “broken leg” when I described a forest floor littered with fallen logs and branches, the program has been on my shit list. It’s way too bossy, and it hates repeated words, even if they’re contextually necessary. It’s probably going to scold me for using the name “Grammarly” many times. Worst of all, I’ve always been comma-happy, but Grammarly’s suggestions are a little much even for me. But I decided to bite the bullet and buy the premium version. I had a coupon, and I figured if I’m going to make a writing career seriously, I need to level up my grammar. I knew I especially needed guidance on writing engaging content. One of my short stories had “monotonous sentences” that were driving me crazy. I paid for Grammarly Premium, and thanks to its suggestions, I figured out how to fix it. Not going to lie; it was an improvement. I do care about my literary voice. Thankfully, my voice is somewhat casual, and I’m a big fan of concise phrasing. “Don’t get fancy,” is something of a motto for me. My literary voice aligns nicely with Grammarly’s algorithm, so I’m not concerned with Grammarly stifling my voice. If I were a poet or a long-winded writer, I wouldn’t use it. Now I’m looking forward to seeing what happens. Every writer has room for improvement, and hopefully, Grammarly Premium will prove its worth.

Takeaway

Here’s who should pay for Grammarly Premium:

People whose grasp of English grammar and syntax could use some help

Writers who like concision

Content creators who just don’t have time for in-depth manual editing

People who can’t stop second-guessing themselves

People who absolutely love, to, use, commas!

Here’s who should not pay for Grammarly Premium:

Experienced and confident writers

Poets, people who like run-on sentences, and casual writers

Comma haters

People who have human editors

Anarchists

Bottom line

Grammarly is great for spotting errors in consistency that may go unnoticed, but it kind of stinks when it comes to keeping the writing human. For example, Grammarly is screaming at me for writing “in consistency” instead of “inconsistency” in that last sentence. The AI is also saying that my tone is sad and worried with very strong intensity. Does this article seem sad and worried to you, human? Let me know!

Am I glad I paid for this upgraded service? Yes.

Would I continue paying for it after my subscription runs out? No. By then, I will have learned enough from Grammarly that I’ll be able to spot corrections on my own.