GRAMMARLY-- YOUR NEW WRITING ASSISTANT

Struggling to implement the most effective writing and grammar curriculum for students? Let me introduce you to Grammarly, a go-to resource for "English language writing enhancement"

I had heard of Grammarly before but was not fully aware of its complete capabilities. Grammarly is live-time grammar, punctuation, and spelling proofing for writers. Additionally, instead of simply correcting writing mistakes in a passive format, Grammarly provides a brief explanation of the error and correction so writers can learn to correct their common mistakes. ​

Grammarly provides students with an expandable writing card with suggestions for fixing mistakes and examples of the corrections in action.

Grammarly is available as a "free" Chrome Extension,  a downloadable Mac OS X application, a Microsoft Word add-in for Windows, and can even be used online through the user's Grammarly account. An extra benefit is that work created within the Grammarly App itself will automatically sync to all devices that are signed in with the user's account.

​Users should note that free version does have its limitations, as is true of most freemium programming nowadays. The full-version, paid premium features include:

In contrast, the free version provides 100+ checks, and does not include specialty document format checking, plagiarism checker, vocabulary enhancement suggestions, or professional proofreading. At first glance that may seem like the entire program's capabilities. Fear not, even in its free version, Grammarly provides enough functionality to serve as a solid jumping off place for student writers.

Applications for Learning

Students or IT administrators can download the Chrome Grammarly extension for free. Students then simply compose writing as normal and the program will automatically embed live corrections to their writing.

• Writing Card-- Students can expand the writing card for an errors to learn about the associated writing rule and see extra examples of the proper use.
• Plagiarism Checker-- In the paid version, the plagiarism checker be guide students with citation corrections before they submit final drafts to Turnitin.com.
• Speciality Documents-- In the paid version, students can select different document types, called genres, to receive even more relevant corrections. Current document types include: General (default), business, technical, medical, creative, casual.