Grammar Checker

Does anyone knew/used any grammar checker? Which one you think the best?

I saw teachers’ comments in this forum and Wikipedia. They think grammar checker is not as good as human. I think they are right.

However, it’s not easy to find teacher who he/she can always help to correct writing errors. Even if I can find one, he/she won’t be always around. And progress in writing improvement will be very costly too in the long run.

I found the most popular grammar checkers are WhiteSmoke and Grammarly. I tried free trial version of WhiteSmoke. It was not good as I expected. They provided very basic grammatical rule in their error explanation. Although Grammarly have 7 days free trial, the trial can be used only if credit card no. is provided. (That is what I don’t want to give them before making my decision.)

I read their users’ comments and reviews in different sites. I don’t know who are real users. (I know some companies hire someone to pretend their users and write something good about their product. It seems fake users exist in both of them. I speculate some comments are from their competitors too.)

So, I’d like to hear comment from anyone knows them, their users (or other grammar checkers user) and/or teachers especially.

The price of WhiteSmoke is an annual license. Grammarly offers monthly, quarterly and annual subscriptions but I have no idea about their performance. Therefore, I hope I can collect as much information as I can before I make my decision.

Thank you very much in advance!

I will be able to answer your question about Grammarly soon- they are setting a account up for me to review it, so I will let you know.


I tried Twilocity, which is a site that specialising in improving essay writing:
Twilocity - Tdol's English Language Blog
You can submit one free as a trial to see.

Thanks teacher Tdol again! I will try Twilocity to see if it suits my need.


The first impression of Grammarly is not so good.

Their official web-site claim that “Checker Grammar Now! Instant reports with no registration”. When I tried it, they asked me to provide my e-mail address for login account. After I did it and clicked their “start review” button, it popped out something about clipboard (I know I.T. not so much; I don’t know what it will be caused.) but it didn’t allow my document to check if I clicked No. (Now, I know what it means to me. Their advertisements keep popping out on web-sites I visit. It’s a bit annoying!)

I had no choice to click Yes and submit my document, but it turned out that it’s just a data analysis report of my grammatically writing errors. They, of course, will further entice me to use their service by providing my credit card no. for a 7-days free trail. But their approach rings my alarm bell.

Truly, they aren’t lie. They gave you a report. However, I think they should know learners aren’t only need a data report. Learners need advise on which sentences and what mistakes they made, and how they can improve them.

WhiteSmoke at least gave me a true free trial in grammatically checking for 3-days although their explanation of checked writing errors are not good enough.

I just entered your post in their free service to test. The point about clipboard is a security issue with browsers- if your browser asks, then you should allow it to paste your text into the box. I got a list of areas for improvement, though no real details about them. I didn't register as I will be testing soon and don't want to complicate things. I didn't get any adverts through this process. Obviously, as a commercial operation, they are trying to draw you in- they suggested they had 18 writing issues and 16 vocab suggestions for your post. I will look at in more detail.

With the credit card, I worry less than you- they are selling a product, so by asking for those details, they guarantee that even if you choose not to buy, you are at least in a position to do so- if you have no credit card, then you are no use to them as you cannot buy their product. They've been around a couple of years, so any abuse of credit cards would have come through by now- they're just trying to filter out the timewasters, I think. It sounds like hard sell, but they are selling and not giving free stuff away.

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Originally Posted by Tdol

The point about clipboard is a security issue with browsers- if your browser asks, then you should allow it to paste your text into the box. ........ I didn't get any adverts through this process.

I don’t know why. But their advert is shown first and reappears when I open and use ESL site recently. It doesn’t look like the one I used before. (More adverts are posted.)

they suggested they had 18 writing issues and 16 vocab suggestions for your post. I will look at in more detail.

Thank you very much teacher Tdol indeed! :-D

With the credit card, I worry less than you- they are selling a product, so by asking for those details, they guarantee that even if you choose not to buy, you are at least in a position to do so- if you have no credit card, then you are no use to them as you cannot buy their product. They've been around a couple of years, so any abuse of credit cards would have come through by now-

I found their user complaint. It stated “…..Also, the program was advertised as having a 14 day free trial however my credit card was charged immediately….” From Valleydreamin11 months ago

http://www.streetsmartlanguagelearning.com/2010/05/grammarly-review-most-useful-for.html

As I said, I don’t know the user is real or not. And I forget if any other similar cases during my searching. But I think I better don’t use my credit card no. to test it.

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I want to say many thanks to teacher Tdol, other teachers and users in the ESL forum. You, especially teachers, always provide invaluable information in my English learning path. :-o

Do hold back- you shouldn't hand over details you don't feel safe about. I don't know if the comment is genuine- that's the problem of the internet, but working in ESL, I haven't heard people badmouthing it on credit card issues. That's no guarantee, though.

Thanks teacher Tdol remind me! I’ll wait for your review while looking for a good grammar checker.

That’s the reason I start this thread. I surfed on web-sites trying to get an idea of the products performance from their users (WhiteSmoke and Grammarly). But I don’t know which one is true or fake eventually. Some of them are a bit odd that I doubt their genuine as you said.

I may not made a good expression about Grammarly above. If you have time to read, I think I have similar feeling to the guy in the following link. Although Grammarly modified some wording at welcoming button, the outcome is similar to me.

It is just for information only if someone interests to know Grammarly more. Again, I don’t know it is genuine or not (or it is from their competitor?!)

http://www.streetsmartlanguagelearning.com/2010/04/grammarly-misleading-website-kills-my.html

I agree it is very reasonable to pay them if I use their service. But, as the guy said in the link, they should upfront about it in the beginning.

But the same site does go on to say that they listened to his complaints and made changes to improve things: Street-Smart Language Learning™: Grammarly: Impressive response to complaints reignites my desire to learn about their service

I am afraid that I have to go away as I am about to move to another country and have to sort out accommodation and stuff like that, so I won't be reviewing it till I get back. I will send you a message though when I have. ;-)

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Originally Posted by Tdol

But the same site does go on to say that they listened to his complaints and made changes to improve things: Street-Smart Language Learning™: Grammarly: Impressive response to complaints reignites my desire to learn about their service

I glimpsed those links in there too. It’s a bit odd and one of the weird things during my searching. Why he put so much energy and organized them so well in this issue??????? I don’t know, I may be too paranoid!

Nevertheless, he presents the similar feeling when I tried Grammaly although I’m not to that extent of his fury.

It’s not just Grammarly, something odd when I searched for information about WhiteSmoke too.

I am afraid that I have to go away as I am about to move to another country and have to sort out accommodation and stuff like that, so I won't be reviewing it till I get back. I will send you a message though when I have. ;-)

I’m sorry teacher Tdol, please don’t bother to reply me about this matter (whether any fake is present in there). I haven’t expected you will reply. I just want to share with you/others if you/somebody interest.

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No matter what the true is, I think the primary concern for us is their checker performance!