I am an English guy – no, I’m not from the UK – I just really enjoy writing and grammar. I even taught ELA for two years before entering my current career. I am married to a math teacher, so in our house, if you need math you see my wife. If you need grammar help, you see me.
Even though I love grammar, I’m not always 100% sure I’m following the rules. Enter Grammarly. John Mansel-Pleydell wrote a Tech Tips article about Grammarly back in March, but I wanted to follow up and add some more.
If you don’t know what Grammarly is, in a nutshell, it’s a Chrome extension that will help check your grammar and spelling within Chrome. For a more in-depth explanation, check out John’s article. It works on most websites (including Gmail), but as of this writing, Grammarly still is not supported by Google Docs.
This week, Alice Keeler tweeted that Grammarly is beta testing integration with Google Docs. Until that happens, the workaround is to cut and paste your writing into the online Grammarly Editor and check it there.
But there is more to Grammarly than just a Chrome extension. Did you know that Grammarly is available as a native app for Mac and Windows? Just go to grammarly.com/native and you can download the correct version for your platform.
Still using Microsoft Office on Windows? First off, I’m sorry 🙂 Second, Grammarly has an add-in for the Windows version of Word and Outlook. Mac users will need to use the Web Editor.
Finally, did you know that as of this year, 50 percent of workplace communication and collaboration happens through mobile apps? Good thing that Grammarly now has keyboards for both iOS and Android.
You can use the keyboard to check your grammar when writing texts, emails and more on your mobile. Here’s a quick video to show how it works.
You can find the mobile versions of Grammarly in the App Store and Google Play. They are both free.
Grammarly is free, but there is a premium version that costs $139 a year. That version gives you some cool features including plagiarism checking, sentence structure, vocabulary enhancement and proofreading services. Grammarly Premium is even available for school districts.
Now there’s no excuse to be afraid of grammar!