I've Decided to Stop Using Grammarly Premium

I used to think Grammarly was the best thing ever. It helped me catch everything. In fact, you'll even see me praising Grammarly in some of my previous pieces. I even have one entitled, "Let's talk about Grammarly." (Published on Medium.)

Is this a retraction of that piece? Maybe. It's been a diffiult decision to come to. But I've finally decided to ignore the drasic changes that Grammarly wants to make to my writing.

The problem is the drastic changes to my writing

I used to love how Grammarly would catch all of my instances of passive voice. But then I began to be concerned about pieces edited using Grammarly because of the amount of the content that got flagged as AI text. Thus, I started to primarily focus on suggestions surrounding my grammar and more basic word choices.

(Perhaps this was too much caution, but based on what I read about this, it makes sense that the more suggestions you accept from an AI editing tool the more your work will sound like AI.)

Next, I started to notice that its clarity suggestions had become over the top. When I looked at some of them, I'd say, "That doesn't sound like me anymore." It decided to flip my wording on its head to a point where what I wrote was barely visible. So, I started ignoring its suggestions even more.

Finally, since I was only using it in its most basic capacity, I decided to cancel my premium subscription and save myself $144 a year. I guess that's something.

I want my writing to be mine

I remember reading something online about a conversation with a tatoo artist who was asked, "Why not just use AI to create your designs?" The discusssion that follows notes that the process matters and how artists don't want AI to take that process from them.

Similarly, as a writer, there's a certain level of pride attached to my work. It's someting I've labored over, thought about, and complained about. Every sentence is something I've had to think about and craft.

When we start editing with AI programs, the work becomes less and less ours. At some point, it feels like you can only take so much credit for the end product. Is that important when it's just a work email? Probably not, but when it comes to the stuff we write for clients or the creative work we publish, there's some line where you wonder, 'Is this really mine anymore?' Can I really accept what I'm being paid based on the level of help I'm receiving?

The free version is still useful

It is worth noting that Grammarly still has a basic, free version. I'm still using this, and it helps correct the most basic mistakes. It helps with finding commas and the misspelled words. Like my mom has suggested, this version is similar to asking a friend to look over your work for grammar mistakes.

Using this version, it will still show the underlined sections where suggestions would be available to me in Pro. But now, I'm able to see how the sentence is wordy and make the changes on my own. With this system, I'm taking fewer suggestions from AI and have more control over the editing process.

Figuring out where you stand in the AI debate

Every writer needs to take some serious time to think about AI and the place it will hold in their writing. Grammarly has been somewhat of a middle ground, since it's just correcting what you've already written. (It does have generative AI features, but I haven't used those.) It still has uses, and I understand those who want to continue using it. But when you lean into it too much, at some point, the work no longer says what you meant it to say.

It will be interesting to see how it all shakes out. I think what we're learning now is the potential dangers of AI as well as its limitations. We must move forward cautiously and recognize that AI is not the ultimate hack some people seem to think it is.

Maybe I'm just a bitter clinger or someone who's resistant to technology, but there are worse things to be. When it comes to creative writing, I would rather have somthing that's a little wordy than something that sounds like it got hijacked by AI.

Going back to the basic version of Grammarly, my writing feels more genuine, and I still get help with the commas. I don't know where I'll stand as time goes on, but even as the world fights over the AI issue, we need to take responsibility for the choices we make today. Ask yourself, is this what you want? Are these the tools you choose? Is Grammarly the tool for you, and if so, what does its capacity look like in your writing?

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