Whenever I’m tasked with writing something, I rely on an in-house editor to help polish my work before it goes out. Is it a cheat? Absolutely not. But has artificial intelligence helped me become a better writer in the meantime? Definitely.
How to Use Grammarly AI for Your Editing
Grammarly uses color coding to mark words and phrases that need your attention.
Getting started with Grammarly
Grammarly is available in Free ($0), Premium ($12/month) and Business ($15/month) versions. I’ve used Grammarly Business for clients and Grammarly Free on my own. For basic editing and education purposes, the Free version will certainly suffice. It’s available as a download to desktop, mobile or browser (via extension).
Like any new addition, Grammarly takes time to integrate with your system fully. When it first loads, there can be a bit of a delay in its use. You may find other programs running slowly. Regarding that, I want to note Grammarly’s settings: You can decide which programs the AI tool is used for, so if you don’t want to use Grammarly in emails, you can switch the tool off, temporarily or permanently. This can help with any delays while using other programs.
Since 2009, quite a few Grammarly competitors have launched, including ClickUp (2017), WordTune (2020), ProWritingAid (2013), and Lavender.ai (2020) — an extension of Sorter (2020), not to be confused with Lavender.
Something that sets Grammarly apart from its competitors is its early implementation of generative AI, with an assistant that’s “up to speed on your context and preferred writing style.”
How to use AI for your editing
I downloaded the tool almost two years ago, 13 years after launch. To get the most out of it, I recommend implementing it into three areas: your writing platform of choice — mine is Google Docs — emails and Instagram.
