Grammarly?

[DraconDarknight]

Since I'm having trouble finding a proper review, that didn't feel like it's just a secret advertisement for their premium accounts, in under 5 minutes: Does anyone here have more extensive experience with Grammarly?

For some reason, I'm not 100% sure about it, especially when it comes to setting commas, but there are other weird things too... - I'm using the free version btw.

Example:
Me:
Additionally, while most people would probably not notice it, the area gave off due to its dark history only reinforced the impression of the church being haunted. Which was probably not too far off.

Grammarly:
Additionally, while most people would probably not notice it, the area gave off due to its dark history only reinforced the impression of the church is haunted.


What actually concerns me is that neither I nor Grammarly actually caught that there are two missing words, until I actually started asking people using the above as an example.

The correct version would hence be:
Additionally, while most people would probably not notice it, the Aura the area gave off due to its dark history only reinforced the impression of the church being haunted.

And to be fair to Grammarly here, if I change it to"Additionally, while most people would probably not notice it, the Aura the area gave off due to its dark history only reinforced the impression of the church being haunted, which was probably not too far off.", it even stops underlining "being" Nevertheless, "is" would have been terribly wrong there, even if you completely erase the next part of the sentence.

 

[Samiwashere]

I'm studying Creative Writing and I use Grammarly to do final touch ups for editing. It's definitely proficient in basic grammar like commas, apostrophes, colons etc.. and thus, I find, is good for just the last glance over to make sure you didn't miss anything. However, I do not recommend depending on it. It gets easily confused by syntax errors and, as made evident in the example, is not very good at picking up missing words, which leads to it getting confused on which bit it's supposed to correct.

I should clarify I use the FREE version. I have no idea if the paid version is better.

 

[Squidziod]

I've not used it extensively, but I think that any writer is better off understanding the rules of grammar themselves, instead of relying on a computer program. From there, a writer forms an opinion on what reads best and why. For instance, without knowing the context the original sentence is framed with, I might rewrite your sentence as so:

"

While the villagers might not have realized why it was they were scared of the church, the surrounding aura from its dark past—subliminally or otherwise—only served to reinforce the superstition that the old stone building was being haunted.​

​

As long as the reader is able to clearly understand what you want to communicate, I think a large part of it falls to style and preference; to that end, a service like Grammarly can't really give you accurate consultation. As to Sami's point that Grammarly may be used to catch mistakes you've glossed over, my experience has been that the most reliable way to find errors is to read your work aloud.

 

[DraconDarknight]

My main use for it would be checking for any typos neither me nor libre catch. (I'd use MS office, but Libre has a WAY better dark mode...). Other than that, another intended function is removing all the commas that aren't really necessary : P.
Though I heard it has a tendency to add them after adverbs...
Eventually I'll probably get Scrivener + ProWritingAid (I found codes to get a lifetime sub for less than Grammerly's yearly sub). It hates adverbs but hey, it's better to not write them in the first place. However, There are some games that come first...

 

[Rawkiller]

You get a lot more out of the paid then free as then it starts to learn and pick up things you do and gives monthly reports on how to improve.