What are the best tools to check your grammar and spelling?

I struggled with poor spelling doing terrible typing jobs in my teens until one boss dropped a dictionary on my desk and suggested that I use it. It was a performance to check every second word but I learned. Now we have tools such as Grammarly. These are American so as an English writer my documents are littered with spelling "corrections". If I publish US spellings in the UK, I will get a bevy of readers' complaints. But it offends my OCD tendencies to see my text littered in red. Early Grammarly was easier to live with, concentrating on spelling and major grammar mistakes. Upgrading to a newer version, I found it had morphed: Four times the corrections, but also intent on annihilating your style of writing and "writer's voice".

I completely agree with these points! It's why I started using Grammarly at the beginning of 2022. Not only has that improved my writing and grammar, but it has forced me to reread everything I write. What kind of writing have I done in the past year? Over 6 million words. And the more I use Grammarly, the better my writing gets. People often say that "Practice makes perfect." But that's only half true. The full reality? "Perfect practice makes perfect."

Good fundamentals make your message matter. Your writing must keep readers engaged to be taken seriously as a professional while building your brand’s credibility. The messaging should be smooth from the first word to the last letter. Uninterrupted, the reader will connect with you: from curious, intrigued, or shocked to enlightened, engaged, and invested. But errors make us think; errors disrupt that flow. And when that flow gets interrupted, we shift our attention. “Good” writing can lose attention if boring; poor writing can ruin an entire impression. Leveraging tools like Grammarly or Hemingway Editor can help catch errors that would otherwise impact your credibility or your readers impression of you.

The best tool for learning to use the English language is education and hard work. All you do with a software tool is hand control of what you should know already to an algorithm.

I would highly recommend Hemingwayapp for grammar and sentence structure. This free website features a color coded user interface, which is especially helpful for visual learners. Difficult sentences are highlighted red, intermediate sentences are highlighted yellow, and so on. Hemingwayapp shows the word count, sentence count, average reading time, and even grade level of the reading material. It also offers gentle suggestions for improving the rhythm and flow of the words. Whether you copy/paste an existing project, or start from scratch, Hemingwayapp offers helpful insights on how to make your words more succinct and impactful.

The best way to find out the best tools for checking spelling and grammar is to go to the source of who uses those tools on a daily basis. In my case, those consistent users are my freelancers. So I put the question to them. They use and suggest: 1. Grammarly 2. Hemingway Editor 3. Quillbot I'll add that getting familiar with tools beyond checking spelling and grammar, such as scanning for if text was written by AI is equally important in today's quickly evolving content space. Originally.AI, GPTRadar, GPTZero and similar programs should be in any editor's tech tool stack these days.

Online tools are tremendously helpful for monitoring, improving, and correcting your grammar. There are several tools people use, but I personally use Grammarly. This application provides data about the volume of writing, accuracy of writing, and variation in word use. It breaks down writing errors and writing tone quantitatively. It's very good, and it helps me - But you still need to understand grammar rules. And you need to be cognizant that Grammarly does not understand jargon well. This means you can't accept all Grammarly recommendations without thinking about them. If you accept everything blindly, your writing could be worse than without it. By all means, use tools to help you. But review all recommendations critically.

I have found the Grammarly Chrome extension to be a MUST in any professional's workday. Once added to your Chrome browser, Grammarly will review what you have typed without having to copy+paste it into their desktop application. Whether you are writing an email, a draft in Google Docs, or a blog post on your website, Grammarly can check and suggest edits for grammar, spelling, punctuation, and sentence structure in real time. (Grammarly was reviewing this even as I wrote it on LinkedIn!)

Grammar is valuable for both conveying ideas clearly and making writing sound better. I like to gut check my grammar in one of two ways: 1) I step away for 10 minutes, and then come back and read my writing out loud. The separation lets me see with a fresh eye and listen with a fresh ear. 2) I ask a trusted friend or colleague (since I work from home, it's usually my wife) to read it out loud. That way, I can both hear the sound of the writing, and get a second opinion. If your idea is clear and your writing sounds good, chances are you've nailed the grammar.