The good and bad sides of using Grammarly

Is Grammarly making students wiser or dumber? The many arguments boiling around the pros and cons of the app is basically trying to answer this question. Giving a straight answer is difficult. Teachers, students, parents and office users of Grammarly are all divided on the answer. We have compiled some of the most common points of view from both sides below.  

What are the points in favour of Grammarly?  
Let’s start with what’s good.  

• Grammarly’s chief attraction is its comprehensive and powerful spell-checker. The app uses both artificial intelligence and deep learning algorithms to analyse millions of usage examples and zero down on correct spelling and grammar 
• Typos and common errors around case, gender, tense etc are checked decently on Grammarly 
• Grammar improvements while constructing a sentence, especially in using active and passive voice, are appreciated by Grammarly users  
• Grammarly is the most time-saving app for students working last-minute on submissions and employees finalising reports / presentations  

What are the points against Grammarly?  
Now let’s look at the flip side on things:  

• Grammarly is deepening erroneous tendencies among students. As a result, when teachers ask them to turn it off during exams or class tests, they make more errors and typos than before  
• Test scenarios are also beginning to stress students more. As they become nervous, their speed reduces, and mistakes increase  
• Grammarly doesn’t autocorrect text, incorrect usage gets underlined in red instead. While this is a chance for the user to review and take a conscious decision, most users accept changes automatically without stopping to read. Grammarly’s own advertisements endorse this behaviour by stressing on speed rather than accuracy  
• Auto-correct suggestions sometimes do not make any sense as they are, after all, machine generated. Many users are not even stopping to correct auto-generated sentences that do not have meaning  

What is Grammarly’s claim about its users?  
Grammarly has claimed that 85% of its premium users have said that they are better writers. This is not accurate. The number indicates how many users have accepted changes suggested by Grammarly. It does not indicate improvement. Ultimately, using the app should depend on situation and personal requirement.