“I use Grammarly for proofreading because without TYPOS, I have less gray hair and then I look much, much younger*.”
(Read the entire blog to make sense of this opening quote.)
Of all of my skills and talents, proofing text is not one of them. In fact, if there were an award for the most consistent practice of missing those grammar gaffes, those punctuation oversights, or the spelling snafus, I’m sure I’d be a finalist.
I’m okay with this because I know I have many other valuable skills that these grammar gurus and spelling bee society members don’t possess.
I know these shortcomings drive my journalism-minded, editing buddies nuts. I’m okay with this, too. I do respect the English language. I understand that errors and bad writing reflect poorly on one’s professional image, and that’s not good brand-building.
Therefore, while I’m not convinced that the use of my time to master these skills is a good one, I do support tapping people and products that do proof well or can aid me in the process of just cleaning up my work. This is a worthy investment.
Reality.
With good intentions, I still sometimes put out work with typos because even when I hire people with better proofing skills than me, they sometimes miss stuff, too. Then I get brutally scolded by the Monday morning quarterback proofers, and I pledge to do better.
Secret confession.
As a serial bad speller and typo-misser, I do have private moments of joy when I see The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and other credible news sources miss typographic errors, too, especially on the front page.
A new tool.
The other day, I got an e-mail from a company that requested I blog about their proofing product for some compensation, a $100 Amazon gift card. The only requirement is that I include a specific line of copy as the front of my blog post. They requested I insert this line of copy at the beginning of my blog.
“I use Grammarly for proofreading because . . . and fill in the blank with something funny.”
Sure, I can do that. See the first line of my post today*.
They also gave me a two-week trial of this Grammarly service, so, today, I’m trying it out, and I’m reporting to you my opinion about the offering.
Wait a minute.
If I’m getting a kickback, how can I be honest? I thought about that, too, so here’s what I’ve come up with. I’m inviting you, my readers, to share your most egregious typo nightmare on my Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/Brandingdiva?ref=hl.
For an example: When I owned a PR firm in Houston, we once printed 2,500 brochures and misspelled Public Relations. Instead, we called it Pubic Relations, which is an entirely different service.
Win a $100 Amazon gift card.
This means you need to post on my Facebook page a typo you saw or let slip by. The most shocking, embarrassing, or just plain funny submission will get the $100 Amazon gift card Grammarly gave me. If it’s not transferable, I’ll buy you $100 of what you want on Amazon. The contest ends on November 1st, so don’t miss out.
My take on Grammarly.
I ran this blog through their proofing app. The service can cost between $11.00 and $26.00 a month based on the length of your commitment.
It was an interesting experience. It’s easy to use, and the app caught a bunch of mistakes. Before they start reading your document, you are asked what style of work your document is, an academic paper, a creative work, or a casual communication etc.
Your paper earns a score from 0 to 100. Each mistake they pick up on, you get an explanation and an example of a similar situation with the corrected grammar, spelling, or punctuation.
On my document, they did flag some spelling errors that, in fact, were not errors but either slang or made-up names, two being their own product names.
They do point out that their app should be used as a second set of eyes and should not replace a human proofreader.
This service was helpful. But for me, it does not cure my lame grammar and spelling disease.
Proofit, another service they offer.
Okay, then, if you are someone like me who is a high producer of grammar and spelling errors, they provide another safety net or extra layer of checking. This service is called Proofit.
I also used the Proofit service to check this blog after I ran it through the Grammarly app. Proofit has a pay-for-mistakes pricing model. The worse your writing is, the more you pay, and the fees scale is based on your required turnaround time.
For example:
Instant turnaround: 2 US dollars per mistake
3-hour turnaround: 1 US dollar per mistake
24-hour turnaround: 0.50 cents per mistake
Charges are assessed only for changes made to your document. Their professional proofreaders review documents and correct only writing, spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors. They don’t read for content credibility or validity. The interface is easy to use. They work around-the-clock. They provide a quote before they begin the project, and they guarantee their work.
In less than one hour, I had my document back. They corrected all of the mistakes in the tracking mode of Microsoft Word. My document, this blog had 51 mistakes in it after it went through the first online proofing app. Since they had quoted me a fee of no more than $38.00, they billed my credit card $38.00.
After I received the proofed document, I reran it through the proofing app and my score was 100!
I like what this companyis doing and recommend checking them out. They provide a couple of quality, low-cost, and around-the-clock proofing services for people like me.
