Writer's online grammar check FAQ

• Real talk. Is Writer (or Grammarly, or any premium grammar checker) worth the money?
  • Good-enough grammar and spelling checkers are built into most word processors today, whether it’s Microsoft Word’s Editor or Google’s home-grown system. Tools like Writer and Grammarly allow you to take these grammar systems with you outside of these editing tools, anywhere you write, whether you’re composing a tweet, an email or an iMessage.
  • If you write for work, a complete writing AI assistant like Writer will also help you make sure you are using the right tone, writing style and terminology for your audience.
• How does the Writer grammar checker beat Grammarly’s?
  • Most grammar checkers use rules to identify English writing errors and suggest corrections. This works well when the problem isn't contextual, ie, a rule that says, anytime someone types teh they actually meant the. However, the vast majority of errors we would want to catch are contextual. There are relatively few always-true, easy rules that can be programmed. Even with an army of linguists, you just couldn’t cover all the possible English grammatical errors. There are too many ways for the English language to work, so a mostly valid rule could break in some contexts.
  • That's why Writer uses techniques from artificial intelligence, such as deep learning. Deep learning systems start out with the capacity to learn, and then are trained to recognize patterns by being shown many examples. For example, we teach the Writer deep learning grammar error correction system to correct subject/verb agreement by showing it many examples of subjects and verbs. We might show it Writer's AI writing assistant helps everyone at your company write with the same style, terminology, and brand voice and tell the model that this is a good sentence. Then, we would change the verb "write" to the incorrect "writes": Writer's AI writing assistant helps everyone at your company writes with the same style, terminology, and brand voice and tell the model that this is a bad sentence. Writes should be write. We do this millions and millions of times, and the model learns. It doesn't just memorize examples, but gets a "feel" for things. And at Writer, we are very careful about the training data we feed our model, because good data helps the model generalize well.
  • The ability to generalize is a real differentiator between grammar error correction systems, including Writer and Grammarly’s. Our data is the only data set built specifically for the writing that matters most — the writing that happens at work.
• How does Writer compare to other writing assistants?

  Like many writing assistants, Writer is a comprehensive grammar and spell checker. However, unlike most writing assistants, Writer provides some unique features for stronger, better writing:

  • It works everywhere: A browser extension, Word plug-in and Google Document add-on so that you can take Writer with you everywhere you write on the web. Yes, Writer has a great web editor too, when you want a full-screen, distraction-free editing experience.
  • Artificial intelligence: More content coming here from the answer above.
  • Built for professional use: Writer is built for the writing we do at work. You don’t talk to your boss the way you do your best friend, and Writer understands that. You can also use Writer with a team, making it easy to share a writing style or set of preferred terminology with a group of people.
  • More content checks than any other writing assistant: In addition to AI grammar and spelling checks, Writer checks your content for:
    • Clarity
    • Readability
    • Approachability
    • Conciseness
    • Writing style
    • Terminology
    • Tone
    • Brand voice
    • Uniqueness
    • Bias
• Why is Writer the preferred Grammarly alternative for professionals?

  Professional users need an AI writing assistant that provides consistently excellent corrections and suggestions everywhere they write online. Writer achieves that for professional writers by providing the following features:

  • Grammar AI that understands some rules are meant to be broken: You have a style and we get that. Not all grammar rules are meant to be followed. Writer’s false-flag rate is lower than any other tool, because the underlying machine learning models are trained on data from people writing at work — not students or people just starting to learn English.
  • Brand voice guidelines: Customize Writer’s voice suggestions to suit you. Are you formal, but approachable? Or friendly and casual? Make sure everything you write is aligned with your brand voice preferences.
  • Customizable content styleguide: Your editorial guidelines should be your own. From date formats to punctuation use to capitalization preferences, select your own, and then share them with a team. Writer is the most customizable writing assistant available, and the choice of professional writers.

  Interested in learning more about the differences between Writer and Grammarly? Check out this breakdown of the differences by an independent content strategist who analyzed both online grammar check tools for professional use.