The hard work and dedication put into an essay should not be thrown away by lax spelling and grammar. When it comes to the mark scheme, is it common to find between five and ten points that are assigned to these two aspects. Don’t throw these marks away; over the course of an academic year all those points for punctuation add up and could push a grade into a higher bracket.
Any essay writer worth their salt is used to proofreading and checking for grammatical errors themselves; however, there are alternatives for those pushed for time or if the grammar system is not their strong point. We accept and celebrate the fact that not all writers are grammaticians, so with that in mind, here are some of the best websites for spelling and, most importantly, grammatical error-checking.
1) Grammarly
These days no website or software suite comes close to Grammarly. There is a free version and a premium version. The upgraded Premium version of Grammarly has over 400 features not included in the free edition.
In addition to checking for grammar, spelling, and punctuation, Premium lets you check for other parameters like conciseness, readability, how compelling your vocabulary choices are, and whether your sentences are ‘lively’. All this is capped by a tone metric and a plagiarism checker.
The best thing about Grammarly is that it isn’t just a website, it’s available as a browser add-on, letting you check for errors while working in Google Docs or any other cloud-based suite. The GUI of the add-on fits in seamlessly with whatever platform you prefer to work on. Words and phrases are highlighted with different colored lines. Each line’s color refers to a different type of error – this is a familiar system to those who have used Microsoft Word.
2) Linguix
Linguix is developed by a crack team of content creators, linguistics experts, and programmers. Their AI-flavored grammar checker is designed to boost writing productivity. It hosts a bevvy of features like spelling, grammar, and plagiarism-checking.
What sets Linguix apart from the competition is its personalized language learning capabilities. Always spelling ‘definitely’ wrong? Not sure where to put the apostrophe? Well, the mistakes you make wind their way through some machine-learning matrixes and emerge as little gamified language training sessions. This feature can help you to level up your writing skills and maybe rely a little less on checkers in the future – it will also come in handy should you have to write with pen and paper.
Another great feature Linguix have developed is a kind of predictive text. The repetitive typing automation function allows you to allocate commonly used phrases to a specific, one-word shortcut. In essay writing, this means you can quickly get those commonly used phrases that start paragraphs.
Linguix has a free version and a premium version; the premium version has all the juicy features and is available as a free trial, so you can try out its grammar checking features before you commit to a subscription.
3) Ginger
Ginger is a checking system that can help any student improve their essay writing. The software includes a sentence re-phraser, with the content being checked against a large corpus of language; it will help you to use active voice as well as the correct tenses.
Ginger is perfect for students learning a language that is not their mother tongue; with over fifty languages available it’s sure to be a global smash hit. The personal training feature will also help you to improve your skills as you write and edit. Like the other services in this list, Ginger is available in free and premium versions.
4) Upwork
Upwork isn’t a grammar checker per se, but there are plenty of skilled editors and proofreaders available to hire there. You can set up a task, choose to pay hourly or by the project and then receive applications from a variety of talented freelancers ready to help with an essay.
This service is especially good for those working on long assignments, like dissertations, and allows you to converse with someone who has the right expertise for your specific project. Freelancers will be able to offer more in-depth reasons for changing language, and if they’re an expert in your subject they may be able to enhance the logic and flow of your essay as well. Service will be useful for those who choose to pay for paper writing.
5) Hemingwayapp
The Hemingwayapp will help you to write like one of the most famous novelists of the 20th century. Hemingway’s books are known for their concise and to the point language, and this is perfect for honing florid essays into sharp academic texts. The suite highlights lengthy sections and clearly illustrates where they might benefit from being cut down or split up.
6) ProWritingAid
Founded in London in 2012, ProWritingAid may not have a snappy start-up name, but it does serve as a fantastic writing tutor and grammar checker. The software integrates with Word, Docs, Open Office, as well as the niche screenwriting tool Scrivener. A browser add-on is available and ProWritingAid also lets users upload documents to their website to get checked.
The sidebar comes up with a report that alerts you to commonly used phrases and repeated snippets of text. By spotting these frequent repetitions you can improve your writing and make it less bland.
These platforms, websites and software packages offer some of the best grammar checking options to essay writers today. The list has presented solutions involving artificial intelligence and real-live freelancers. The choice between AI and human editors is up to you, with the paid versions of grammar checkers starting to approach the quality of a human proofreader, though they still lack certain nuances.
With that in mind, our top tip for essay writers would be to access the free trials of some of the grammar checkers mentioned above and see how each one responds to your writing quality. This tactic will let you use Grammarly, Linguix, and Ginger without spending a penny.