Grammarly and Microsoft Editor are both tools that help writers improve their writing. They both offer free spelling and grammar checkers, and you can install them as browser extensions or as add-ons for popular word processors like Word and Outlook.
While both programs can catch most of your mistakes, they aren’t foolproof. They also sometimes give erroneous suggestions, so you’ll want to be careful when choosing which ones to accept or ignore.
Grammar
Grammarly is an online proofreading tool that uses artificial intelligence to correct spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors. It’s been on the market since 2009 and regularly undergoes updates as engineers and linguists tweak its algorithms.
It’s available as a browser extension for Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Firefox, and other Chromium-based web browsers. It’s also an add-on for the Microsoft Word Windows and Mac app.
Compared with Word’s built-in spell checker, Grammarly consistently identified virtually all errors and suggested the right corrections. It also gave more detailed explanations for every correction it made.
Microsoft Editor is a new competitor to Grammarly that uses AI to help improve your writing. Its free features include spelling and basic grammar checking, while a paid subscription gives you clarity and conciseness checks, formal language suggestions, vocabulary suggestions, plagiarism checking (in its “similarity” feature), and more.
Punctuation
Grammarly and Microsoft Editor are two of the top digital proofreading tools available to writers. Both offer a variety of premium features that can improve your writing and help you spot copyright infractions.
The best part is that you can try both for free before you decide to upgrade to the paid version of each service. That makes them both affordable options for people looking to get the most out of their writing.
Both services are excellent for correcting basic grammatical errors and spelling mistakes, but Grammarly has more advanced features to improve your writing style over time. The premium version also includes a variety of other tools to help you communicate clearly and accurately.
The service also has a tone detector tool that analyzes your content and suggests changes to help it convey the right message. It even helps you set specific goals for your writing.
Style Guides
If you are writing for a publication, your editor will probably give you a style guide. Generally, these guides will document editorial standards for house or corporate style and genre or field, so you can follow their guidelines.
Some guides also provide a list of commonly misused words and phrases to help you avoid the most common errors. For example, the NLM and ACS style guides are good places to go for information on how to write scientific articles and chemistry research reports.
Grammarly has a free version that helps you correct simple grammar mistakes, but the premium version gives you more comprehensive tools. These include tone detectors, a wordiness filter, and setting goals for your audience. It can also detect offensive or non-inclusive language.
Tone Detector
The tone of your writing can be one of the most critical aspects of communicating effectively. Grammarly’s new tone detector uses rules and machine learning to identify subtle contextual clues conveying a range of tempers, like word choice, phrasing, punctuation, and even capitalization.
Tone Detector is an important feature for communication because it helps users understand how their message will sound to the reader, and then deliver that message accordingly. When it detects a tone that might not be the right fit, the tool will give you suggestions on how to change it.
In addition to this, it also provides on-demand editing from experts within the service. That means you can get feedback on your writing when it’s most important.
The product designer at Grammarly, Igor Skliarevskiy, had a challenge ahead of him when designing the tone detector. It had to be integrated into Grammarly’s main UI so it was immediately noticeable and useful.