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There are three main writing checker software on the market today: Grammarly, ProWritingAid and Ginger. I reviewed all three of these programs over a 2-week period. I put several of my students\u2019 assignments through all three checkers to compare their analyses.<\/strong><\/p>\n The result were close, but here\u2019s my verdict: <\/strong>Grammarly is still the best writing checker for students\u2019 essays<\/strong><\/a>. All three software would have dramatically improved the student\u2019s marks, but Grammarly was the easiest to use and most intuitive in all my tests. <\/strong><\/p>\n Grammarly won my tests hands down. I chose Grammarly because it appears to be the most accurate grammar checker. It picks out only the most important things to edit and doesn\u2019t give many bad recommendations.<\/p>\n Because it is so accurate, it will help grow your marks with only one edit.<\/p>\n I believe out of the three grammar checkers in this article, Grammarly produces the best results in the fastest time.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n The most important features of Grammarly are also easy-to-use from the very start. But, the advanced features might take some time to learn.<\/p>\n I decided to keep my subscription to the Premium version after doing these tests.<\/strong><\/p>\n ProWritingAid impressed me with its wide range of features. There was only a nose in it, but I just gave Grammarly the win.<\/p>\n So, why didn\u2019t I pick ProWritingAid?<\/p>\n I found ProWritingAid was too picky for me.<\/strong> With ProWritingAid, editing my work took too long because it suggested too many changes to sentences that didn\u2019t really need changing.<\/p>\n However, I would still recommend this option to PhD level students or others who are already good writers and want some software to push them to be their best.<\/p>\n I\u2019d also hasten to add that ProWritingAid is significantly cheaper \u2013 and the difference isn\u2019t huge. So if price is your squeeze point, consider ProWritingAid. I don\u2019t think you\u2019d be too disappointed.<\/p>\n I personally feel Ginger is a step below the other two, but still worth a try. There were fewer features and it identified less errors than Grammarly. But, it still managed to pick up most major errors.<\/p>\n Ginger is also easy to use and can be personalized over time.<\/p>\n I can see that there would be big fans of Ginger out there, so I wouldn\u2019t discount it for people who like a less complicated interface.<\/p>\n\n If you don\u2019t want to read too deeply into the tests, here\u2019s my overall summary:<\/p>\n I could tell you that I have a PhD, or that I\u2019m a professor, or that I\u2019m the editor of an international academic journal dedicated to helping students improve their writing and study skills.<\/p>\n And that\u2019s all true.<\/p>\n But there\u2019s a better reason why you should trust my review.<\/strong><\/p>\n If you\u2019re a regular reader of the Helpful Professor, you\u2019d know I don\u2019t recommend too many products. In fact, across over 200 unique pages on this site, this is currently the only product review article I have written!<\/p>\n So, I am quite conservative with my recommendations.<\/p>\n I chose to review the three top grammar checkers on the market because I have come to believe grammar checkers are very good for my students\u2019 grades.<\/p>\n In fact, getting yourself a grammar checker is one of just five products I recommend students get as part of their Student Success Starter Kit.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Why?<\/p>\n Because as a professor I mark over 1000 essays per year. And I believe many \u2013 very, very many \u2013 of my students would grow their marks<\/em> if only they got better at editing their work.<\/p>\n I also believe the tools in this review article help students get ahead<\/em>.<\/p>\n So, I decided to make an exception and review these products.<\/p>\n But, I didn\u2019t want to just put up a regular old review. I wanted to make it a serious analysis of the three programs.<\/p>\n So,<\/strong> to make this review as objective as possible, I created a test.<\/strong><\/p>\n The test was applied to all three pieces of software equally and I have based all of my analyses off the results of the test, plus my experiences of using the software during the testing period.<\/p>\n Grammarly has been the premium writing checker for years now. But, there are two other options worth checking out before making up your mind: ProWritingAid and Ginger.<\/p>\n As a university professor, I get incredibly frustrated at my students\u2019 poor grammar in their essays. And yes, they do lose marks when poor grammar interrupts the message they are trying to communicate.<\/p>\n After two weeks of testing the three grammar checker apps, I\u2019m ready to make my verdict. I believe grammar checker apps<\/a> will definitely<\/em> help any of my college student grow their grades in all<\/em> their assignments.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n So, I will recommend them to my students from now on.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s why.<\/p>\n All three of the writing checkers I reviewed in the past two weeks could make your assignments far easier to read and more professional.<\/p>\n In other words, if you\u2019re a student interested in getting top grades, I\u2019d strongly recommend investing in the premium version of a writing checker app.<\/p>\n Usually not. And people who tell you that it is cheating don\u2019t get it.<\/p>\n Grammar checker software are designed to help you become your best. They ask you to check what you\u2019ve written and make suggestions for changes.<\/p>\n But at the end of the day, it\u2019s you who has to \u2018approve\u2019 or \u2018decline\u2019 the suggested change.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s what it looks like:<\/p>\n When you hover your cursor over words with lines under them a box will pop up that suggests a change. Here, you can see that you\u2019d need to change the sentence to \u201cAlthough there is a number of \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n So, Grammarly helped me to see that there\u2019s a problem here that I need to fix. And it gave a suggestion. But, it didn\u2019t quite give me the correct solution. Between Grammarly\u2019s advice and by own reflection, I got the sentence correct in the end.<\/p>\n So what does this mean?<\/p>\n It means that this sort of software helps you to check your work yourself. It points you towards sentences that it thinks (based on its algorithms) don\u2019t seem to be written well.<\/p>\n But, this software doesn\u2019t think for <\/em>you.<\/strong><\/p>\n And, it won\u2019t (and can\u2019t) do any intellectual work for you. You still have to come up with the content for your assignments!<\/p>\n It\u2019s up to you to decide whether the grammar checkers have given you the right advice.<\/strong> I find that I actually decline their advice a good percentage of the time.<\/p>\n What does this mean?<\/p>\n It means you can\u2019t use these checkers to \u2018cheat\u2019 in your essay. If you accepted every suggestion they give you, your work would get lower marks!<\/strong> Simply put, some of the advice is way off base.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s an example:<\/p>\n In this example, if you accepted the suggestion, your sentence would make no sense whatsoever.<\/p>\n It would change from:<\/p>\n \u201cAccording to Wiggins (2011, p. 40) the vague parameters of the critical theory may be perceived as overwhelming.\u201d<\/p>\n To:<\/p>\n \u201cAccording to Wiggins (2011, we may perceive p. 40) the vague parameters of the critical theory as overwhelming.\u201d<\/p>\n The referencing has been turned into a total mess here! Plus, the sentence now makes no sense.<\/p>\n Fail.<\/p>\n So, no. I don’t think Grammarly is cheating<\/a>. <\/strong><\/p>\n The software just gets you to look over your work once again and asks you: \u201cDid you really mean this, or did you mean something else?\u201d<\/p>\n So, at the end of the day, you\u2019re still in charge of making the right decisions. Grammar checkers are just useful tools that help you look for errors.<\/strong><\/p>\n Does a program like Grammarly do the job of a human tutor?<\/p>\n The answer is a big fat No<\/strong>.<\/p>\n All three of the apps reviewed here are far, far below the quality of a human tutor. And they will not be as good as a human checker for a very long time.<\/p>\n Why?<\/p>\n Two reasons:<\/p>\n One nice thing about Grammarly is that it offers a paid human checker option \u2013 but again, it seems to be only for grammar and style.<\/p>\n So, if you want an actual human tutor to help you with your work, I\u2019d point you towards one of the following two companies. I trust these two, because they\u2019re actually tutors who help you improve, not cheating services:<\/p>\n Okay, now let\u2019s get on with the four tests!<\/p>\n Winner: Grammarly.<\/strong><\/p>\n I asked five students who got an average grade on five different assessments if I could run their essays through Grammarly, ProWritingAid and Ginger.<\/p>\n I ran a qualitative and quantitative analysis.<\/p>\n First, I tallied how many suggestions each of our three programs made in a single-paragraph segment of the essay.<\/p>\n Then, I tallied how many of these suggestions were accurate.<\/p>\n A quick note: It\u2019s great that these tests were specifically done on five pieces of academic writing, so hopefully they\u2019re in the right ballpark for you. But, it was simply my opinion about whether to accept or decline an error suggestion. Your results might (and probably will) vary.<\/em><\/p>\n Here\u2019s the results:<\/p>\n These results show that the most consistent software seemed to be Grammarly. While it identified less errors than ProWritingAid, I accepted more of its recommendations.<\/p>\n What does this mean?<\/p>\n Well, it seems to indicate that ProWritingAid identifies more potential errors but is less accurate in its recommendations.<\/p>\n Grammarly, on the other hand, appears great for helping students to quickly edit their work. It identifies errors that are easy to fix and is generally quite good at finding genuine errors.<\/p>\n I was very impressed with Grammarly\u2019s suggestions. They were good suggestions, particularly in regard to suggesting comma placement and adding or removing words.<\/p>\n Kudos to Grammarly.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Ginger came in third, identifying fewer errors than the other software while also having a poor accuracy rate.<\/p>\n If I used Grammarly on this essay, I would probably have submitted a more readable and professional looking essay than if I used either of the other two software.<\/p>\n So, here\u2019s the quick takeaway from my study: Grammarly is my top pick for an easy, accurate and user-friendly writing support to help students grow their grades.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n So why did I still choose Grammarly?<\/strong><\/p>\n Simply because Grammarly is more intuitive and less intrusive.<\/p>\n Grammarly seems to only highlight errors that it\u2019s sure about. I would bet that Grammarly\u2019s creators have programmed it to ignore potential errors if it\u2019s only 50% sure that it\u2019s an error.<\/p>\n This made my life far easier. Most suggestions Grammarly makes are accurate and helpful.<\/p>\n So, why didn\u2019t I choose ProWritingAid?<\/strong><\/p>\n ProWritingAid was actually able to identify many more potential errors and gave me more to think about during editing.<\/p>\n But ProWritingAid makes more suggestions but I ended up rejecting many of those suggested edits. I ended up being bogged down in checking ProWritingAid\u2019s edits. And, if I agreed to all its suggestions, they quality of the writing would have decreased<\/em> overall.<\/p>\n And what about Ginger?<\/strong><\/p>\n I didn\u2019t think Ginger competed at the same level as ProWritingAid.<\/p>\n Simply, it doesn\u2019t have enough features yet to be a competitive option.<\/p>\n However, I would give Ginger a thumbs up for chances to personalize the editing by creating your own personal dictionary. That was a feature I was certainly happy to utilize.<\/p>\n However, I felt Ginger did miss a lot of errors that Grammarly and ProWritingAid identified.<\/p>\n Therefore, I still give Grammarly the thumbs up for intuitive design and functionality.<\/p>\n Winner: ProWritingAid<\/strong><\/p>\n All three of the apps have the basic features you\u2019d expect, including spelling, grammar, punctuation and sentence style checkers.<\/p>\n All of them also allow you to switch between UK and US spelling seamlessly.<\/p>\n And, all three let you switch between writing styles such as: Academic, Personal and Business. I didn\u2019t find switching between writing styles made much of a significant difference for me in my two weeks of using all three versions.<\/p>\n ProWritingAid<\/strong><\/p>\n This category is where I felt ProWritingAid shone.<\/p>\n And it\u2019s why I am still happy to recommend ProWritingAid to anyone whose pressure point is primarily pricing.<\/p>\n ProWritingAid has some great features that I enjoyed playing around with. Here\u2019s some of my favorites from their aresenal:<\/p>\n In my opinion, ProWritingAid\u2019s range of features seem to touch on some of the biggest pressure points for students. Sentence length and inconsistent use of quotations in particular are huge issues.<\/p>\n So, it definitely shines in this category.<\/p>\n Grammarly<\/strong><\/p>\n Grammarly provides everything you would expect of a grammar checker app.<\/p>\n But, its features are slightly more hidden than ProWritingAid\u2019s, which allows you to conduct category-based manual tests much more easily via its menu bar.<\/p>\n Nonetheless, Grammarly seemed to be great for everyday use. It didn\u2019t drown me in additional features like ProWritingAid, but the compromise was that I had more trouble manually accessing all the tests I wanted.<\/p>\n So if I wanted a nitty-gritty detailed analysis I found myself turning to ProWritingAid.<\/p>\n Some of my preferred features of Grammarly included:<\/p>\n You can access these two features from the bottom right-hand corner of the Grammarly desktop app:<\/p>\n Ginger<\/strong><\/p>\n Ginger provided the grammar, style, spelling, punctuation and synonyms functions at a comparable level to Grammarly and ProWritingAid.<\/p>\n It also has a Chrome extension, which appears to be a basic requirement for grammar checker apps today.<\/p>\n But Ginger also has some cool additional features, like:<\/p>\n Winner: Grammarly<\/strong><\/p>\n This one wasn\u2019t a close contest \u2013 Grammarly won by a country mile. And honestly, here\u2019s where Grammarly eventually pulled ahead.<\/p>\n I made my decision on who the winner would be based upon you: the (probably undergraduate) university student. Most students don\u2019t want to be drowned in a bad user experience, and want a clean intuitive interface to tell them how to improve their work.<\/p>\n For this purpose, Grammarly won.<\/p>\n Grammarly<\/strong><\/p>\n The minute you install Grammarly a Goal Setting popup appears, which gives a really nice first impression. Here\u2019s a screenshot of it below:<\/p>\n I have mine set to \u2018Inform\u2019, \u2018Expert\u2019, \u2018Formal\u2019, \u2018Mild Emotion\u2019 and \u2018Academic\u2019 domain. You\u2019ll need to buy the premium version to unlock the academic style which is the best option for students.<\/p>\n The next thing I noticed about Grammarly was how easy it was to examine the recommendations.<\/p>\n The \u2018Assistant\u2019 tab pops up on the right-hand-side of Grammarly\u2019s app and you can easily toggle between options for editing your work. On the screenshot below you\u2019ll be able to see how you can toggle between \u2018spelling\u2019, \u2018grammar\u2019, \u2018punctuation\u2019 and \u2018conventions\u2019.<\/p>\n I found this format very easy to use.<\/p>\n All I had to do was toggle from one recommendation to the next to approve or decline.<\/p>\n A very nice design.<\/p>\n ProWritingAid<\/strong><\/p>\n While ProWritingAid boasted a really nice range of features, its presentation was clunky.<\/p>\n Grammarly have worked hard to make their design non-intrusive, intuitive and literally \u2018soft\u2019 using rounded edges and drop shadows on their stylizations.<\/p>\n ProWritingAid sometimes felt like a trip back to Windows95. (Was that too harsh?)<\/p>\n It has \u2018hard edges\u2019, both literally and metaphorically. The analysis options are listed in a bar at the top of the screen:<\/p>\n This in itself was fine, although clunkily presented. A good graphic designer could come in and clean it up for a new iteration of the software.<\/p>\n But compare the nice interface on Grammarly to way you have to toggle between options in ProWritingAid. It feels like looking through windows explorer for a file buried deep in the bowls of your hard drive:<\/p>\n Ginger<\/strong><\/p>\n Ginger felt very smooth, but also at times quite basic.<\/p>\n It offers on the top-right corner the option to toggle between \u2018translate\u2019, \u2018dictionary\u2019 and \u2018synonyms\u2019:<\/p>\n In the text editor itself, you can hover your cursor over underlined words to identify suggested improvements:<\/p>\n I actually came to really like the simplicity of Ginger\u2019s suggestions. It was nice not to have endless explanations of why verbs and adverbs don\u2019t agree with each other, blah, blah, blah. Gingerly just more or less said to me: \u201chere\u2019s a better option. Take it or leave it.\u201d And I liked that.<\/p>\n And lastly, in the bottom bar of the editor you get a quick snapshot of the number of characters, words and sentences written so far. On the right there\u2019s a count of how many grammar and spelling errors it has identified:<\/p>\n Unfortunately I feel these options have been (or will soon be) built into your regular writing software that comes with Microsoft Word, so I feel Ginger would need to up its game in order to entice me to buy.<\/p>\n Winner: ProWritingAid<\/strong><\/p>\n I have not included the exact prices of the products here because they may change after the publication of this article.<\/em><\/p>\n To get up-to-date prices, see the pricing pages for each product:<\/em><\/p>\n Currently, the best value for money grammar checker app (in my opinion) is ProWritingAid. Not only does it have an extensive range of features, but it\u2019s also comparatively affordable. Grammarly is more expensive, but you would be paying for its intuitiveness and sleek design.<\/p>\n Ginger, while ranking lower in most of my tests, is nonetheless still costly.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s the other key takeaway:<\/strong><\/p>\n You save a lot<\/em> of money by buying the longer-term subscriptions.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n You could save yourself a lot<\/em> of money by buying an annual or (for ProWritingAid) lifetime subscription.<\/p>\n ProWritingAid<\/strong><\/p>\n ProWritingAid offers a 14-day trial before asking you to pay.<\/p>\n After your 14-day trial, you\u2019ll have to buy either a monthly, yearly or lifetime subscription. See their website for current prices.<\/p>\n But wait, there\u2019s more!<\/p>\n ProWritingAid gives a 20% discount for students! All you need to do is enter your academic email address.<\/p>\n Their FAQ section says that they accept \u201call .edu and .ac email address along with 100s of others.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s undoubtedly the best value you\u2019ll find \u2013 and this is the app that (in my opinion) has the best range of features!<\/p>\n If money\u2019s your pain point, it\u2019s a no-brainer:<\/p>\n Grammarly<\/strong><\/p>\n Unfortunately Grammarly doesn\u2019t have a lifetime subscription offer. It doesn\u2019t have a student discount offer either.<\/p>\n I told you I chose Grammarly as my top grammar checker despite it not being the cheapest.<\/p>\n I decided that (even though I\u2019d be paying more), I just wouldn\u2019t be able to handle ProWritingAid\u2019s clunky interface.<\/p>\n But, I\u2019m leaving the door open for ProWritingAid to improve their interface and if they did, I\u2019d make the switch.<\/p>\n Ginger<\/strong><\/p>\n Ginger\u2019s regular pricing is comparable to Grammarly\u2019s.<\/p>\n Ginger does offer some cool features including a Google Chrome extension, personalized dictionary, text translation to over 60 languages and a read aloud option.<\/p>\n But, I\u2019m not convinced their offering are competitive enough at their price point for me to consider it.<\/p>\n![\"Grammarly](\"https:\/\/helpfulprofessor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Grammarly-Review-Mobile.jpg\")
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![\"ProWritingAid](\"https:\/\/helpfulprofessor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/ProWritingAid-Review-Mobile.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Ginger](\"https:\/\/helpfulprofessor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Ginger-Review-Mobile.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n1. Why should you Trust my Review?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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2. As a Professor, why would I Recommend Writing Checker Software to my Students?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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3. Is a Grammar Checker Cheating?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/helpfulprofessor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Is-Grammarly-Cheating.jpg\")
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<\/p>\n4. Can a Grammar Checker Replace a Human Tutor?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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Test #1: Accuracy<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/helpfulprofessor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Grammarly-Accuracy-Test.jpg\")
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Test #2: Features<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/helpfulprofessor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Grammarly-Screenshot-03.jpg\")
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Test #3: User Experience<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/helpfulprofessor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Grammarly-Screenshot-04.jpg\")
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<\/p>\nTest #4: Price<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/helpfulprofessor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Grammarly-Screenshot-12.jpg\")
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Final Verdict<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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