3 Reasons Why You Should Stop Using Grammarly
Turns out the writing tool that claims to do it all, doesn’t measure up.
I was an English teacher for over a decade. And during that stint in education, I learned a ton. I even spent a great deal of time observing other teachers and evaluating them. I researched, I read up on new techniques, and I dedicated my life to helping students find their voice in writing and learn to appreciate the written word. And then one day, in walks Grammarly. Am I perhaps just a salty former teacher? Maybe. Do I also see tremendous flaws in their program and the catastrophic consequences for AI writing integration? Also yes.
So without further ado, here’s my 3 reasons why you should yeet the Grammarly extension out of your life.
1) Grammarly will make your writing worse.
Welcome to Education 101. Your first lesson is that education is a proactive, not a reactive act. That means that teaching is the art of proactively sharing information and coaching people on different topics. Teaching is not simply testing people and belittling them for their test results. If you don’t believe me, look to the millions of other teachers screaming about how standardized education sucks the joy out of learning.
Grammarly missed this message. Grammarly is just one big standardized test that follows you around word by word, eager to insult. You don’t learn from your mistakes, you simply keep making them and Grammarly fills in the holes. The result is that you’re literally becoming dependent on Grammarly instead of learning about the beauty of your language. Education is an act of art, incessant berating is an act of fear-mongering. Grammarly does the latter.
2) Grammarly is biased.
Beyond Grammarly, the study of grammar is already a very patriarchal concept in its own right. When we decide on rules we often choose the rules of those who are already winning the game. That means words that are common in marginalized populations are suddenly deemed wrong and worthy of the dreaded red underline. All the “ain’t”s and “yasss”s of the world are worthy and valid forms of communication that go missed by conventional rules of grammar. In fact, in our modern creative world of content writing, these words are actually what make people enjoy your work.
Despite this, Grammarly carries on the tradition of patriarchal exclusion. Want to guess who founded Grammarly? 3 white dudes. You know what the world is made out of? More than white dudes. Sure their business values include empathy, but how much of that empathy can you really extend if your founders are part of the system of exclusion.
3) Grammarly kills creativity.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, Grammarly stops creativity in its tracks. In fact, their core mission is to make writing merely “efficient”. What they seem to miss is that writing is a creative act. Sure there is a function to it, but that doesn’t make it devoid of art. In fact, it’s the beautiful combination of form and function that makes writers great.
If you succumb to the pressure of consistency every time you see a red underline, or if your body flushes with anxiety leaving them unchecked, then you’re simply experiencing the symptoms of repressed creativity. Grammarly is telling you, “Hey be less of yourself, and be more of what this robot thinks you should be.” and that’s a lot of mental noise to rummage through while you try to unlock your voice. Grammarly is the equivalent of giving a great artist a color-by-numbers and expecting them to create the Mona Lisa. Your writing can’t exceed expectations if it is continuously just meeting them.
