The short answer to this question is no.
Grammarly cannot replace a professional editor.
And I’m not just saying that because I am one.
But if you still need convincing, let’s get into the details of why this is true.
In this post:
- What Grammarly is
- Should writers use it
- Pros and cons
- Is it good for editing a book
- Is it as good as an editor
But first, what is Grammarly?
Grammarly is a software editing program that can help fix errors in your writing.
There are several ways to use it: desktop app, chrome extension, Microsoft Word plug-in, etc.
And there is both a free version and a paid subscription.
The free version helps with basic spelling, grammar, and punctuation, as well as some conciseness and tone suggestions. The paid subscription offers more in-depth help with word choice, plagiarism, and sentence phrasing.
I’m not going to go into depth here with the how-tos but if you want to learn more about Grammarly and how it works, you can check out their website here for more information.
Should writers use Grammarly?
Yes! Any tool that helps you write better is useful. Grammarly is a great tool for surface-level proofreading and to catch minor errors. But, as we will discuss in the pros and cons section, it definitely has its limits.
Even professional editors use it for their own work. I sometimes use it for blog posts like this one as a final check before posting.
Although I love that it catches things my eyes have glazed over, I do find that I end up rejecting the majority of the suggestions because they are either wrong, out of context, or attempting to alter my style and voice.
It’s not my intention to bash Grammarly or suggest that you not use it. Even I believe that it has its place and purpose. It can be a step in the right direction for editing your writing.
But it’s only surface-level at best when it comes to editing a novel.
Let’s dive deeper into the pros and cons of using Grammarly.
Pros:
We’ll start with the good stuff.
Grammarly is a good tool for:
- basic proofreading
- short-form content
- academic and business writing
- simple errors of spelling, punctuation, grammar
This tool can help you catch minor errors in your writing, especially in more formal writing situations and content that is not too in-depth.
It’s a great start to making your manuscript more polished and correcting simple issues.
Cons:
Now let’s get into the reasons that Grammarly isn’t so great.
It’s important to keep in mind that it is simply a machine that makes suggestions based on codes.
And the fact is, the English language is seriously complex, with highly flexible “rules” that have many exceptions depending on circumstance.
Because of this, you’ll often find that many of Grammarly’s suggestions are wrong, out of context, or inappropriate for your intentions – which leads to the next con about using Grammarly.
You have to already have some level of understanding of grammar, spelling, and punctuation skills to be able to know whether to accept or reject the suggestions that the program gives you.
If you blindly accept everything you will definitely end up with errors. So you need to have the know-how of when Grammarly is providing you with feedback that will actually improve your writing or not.
This is one reason why having a human touch (like hiring a professional editor) is important, because only a person can differentiate between when the language rules are being followed or deviated from appropriately.
Especially if the thought of scrutinizing spelling, grammar, punctuation, and more is not something you particularly enjoy, then using this tool may not be the most effective nor efficient process for you.
When it comes to editing a full length novel, Grammarly falls even shorter in its usefulness, particularly for fiction.
There are several different types of editing that every book needs to go through to make it the best it can be. Let’s look at each of those in turn.
Developmental editing is typically the first step. This looks at the big picture narrative structures of your story like plot, character arcs, transitions, hooks, etc.
And while copyediting (or line editing) does look at things like spelling, grammar, and punctuation, it also does so much more than that.
Copyeditors will help make your story stronger by analyzing sentence structure, style, voice, tense, point of view, word choice, imagery, showing vs. telling, readability, and more.
Although Grammarly offers some help with improving delivery and tone, it will not be taking into account your own unique narrative style and voice like an editor will.
Copyediting also ensures that your story content is accurately represented throughout.
Imagine a character with green eyes in chapter one and by chapter sixteen they’re suddenly blue because you decided to change it but forgot to go back and fix the previous reference (and I’ve seen this happen way more often than you would think). It may seem silly or trivial but readers will definitely notice it.
While Grammarly does offer some help with tone and word choice, it won’t be going through your book from the perspective of the reader, agent, publisher, or other knowledgeable professional in the industry.
Grammarly doesn’t understand things like regional or local conventions, dialects, reader expectations, genre standards, or even the publishing industry itself.
While it may help your writing have a more polished finish, it cannot replace the many other ways in which a professional editor will help you and your book.
Even professional proofreaders do more than what you would expect. They also look at supplemental material, formatting, numbering, spacing, etc. after your book has been formatted and typeset to ensure no errors remain before printing.
So when it comes to editing a full-length novel, Grammarly just simply can’t compete with an editor in any of the three essential editing phases.
I would also argue that for fiction (and fantasy in particular) Grammarly may not be the greatest tool since you may have a lot of unconventional words and phrasing.
Elements of narrative and storytelling are highly contextual and not something coded rules will be able to help you improve.
In summary, Grammarly has its place and purpose and can be a great tool for writers.
But when it comes to writing, editing, and publishing a novel, you most definitely need professional feedback.
So what’s the verdict….
Can Grammarly replace a professional book editor?
Definitely not.
And now you should hopefully have a better understanding of why that is.
While it may be a great way to do an initial proofreading to correct basic errors, it won’t be a satisfactory replacement for all the work that a professional editor will do for your novel.
Maybe someday in the future programs like this one will get better, but I can’t say I believe it will ever compare to the human discrepancy.
Publishing houses will always have human editors review books prior to publishing and if you are going to be independently publishing then you should too if you want your work to be considered on the same level.
And by all means, use every tool available to you to help you improve your writing skills! It can be beneficial to fixing things before querying an agent or sending to your editor (no need to pay for things you can easily fix yourself).
Use it for what it is worth.
But don’t expect it to be replacing your need for a book editor any time soon.
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