Grammarly

[kdammers]

Automated grammar and lexical correcting software is a reality. Teachers need to have a reasoned approach to the use of such material, on home-work, during class, and on tests.

It is important to be aware of the limitations of said software. Around Christmas time, I often read or assign as a story to read O. Henry's classic tear-jerker, "The Gift of the Magi." For kicks, I entered it into Grammarly's black-box. Here's the (free) report I got from
https://www.grammarly.com:
We’ve found 101 writing issues in your text and have also detected significant plagiarism.
Grammar 12
Spelling 9
Punctuation 32
Conciseness 12
Readability [Check mark]
Correct word choice 12
Additional writing issues 24
Significant plagiarism found !
[But no comment on how the money doesn't add up unless Della had an old two-cent or three-cent coin.]

[BethNicholls]

Grammarly is an amazing thing. I use it very often, and it helps me so much.

[kdammers]

My initial comment was not intended to dismiss Grammarly or its use. Rather, it was meant to be a humorous warning about Grammarly and other writing assistants, AI-related or not.

I occasionally talk to my students about Grammarly and suggest that they use . . . after they have learned correct grammar, and not as a substitute for properly learning a foreign language. For a grammar tool for other languages, consider the free program https://languagetool.org/spellchecking-german .