Writers, Editors and Grammarly
Now that everyone is using Grammarly (or similar apps) and relying on it to create good quality content, I thought it is time to see how real writers fare on Grammar checks.
I started with JK Rowling. Here’s a snippet from The Goblet of Fire and its Grammarly report.
Looks like the great JKR needs some work on her Grammar. She needs to work on her correctness that has 8 alerts and her delivery, which is slightly off.
Flannery O’ Connor does better with 95, but she still has 7 writing issues! She also has 2 alerts for correctness and her delivery is just right.
However, my friend whose first language isn’t English scores way beyond these professional and influential writers! His correctness is looking good, he is very engaging and with delivery that is just right, he is doing better than the great JK Rowling!
By now you would have understood where I am going with this.
Maybe one day we will have tech that can write and edit or do other creative tasks, but till then don’t fire that great writer on your staff who has 20 years of experience. You will always need her.
Writers Write So That Editors Can Edit. Creators Create So That Critics Can Critique.
And Apps are none of these. They only check for simplicity, not panache. So if you want to sound like a machine writing for machines go for it, but if you want to make an impact, stick to writers and editors.
The Forbes quote right there in the Grammarly app gets it right — it is simply meant to help you avoid looking like a fool.
Don’t be one, by blindly trusting the app to replace your editor.
PS: This post has been edited on Grammarly :-)
