This may be a controversial blog for some. Sorry about that, but I feel strongly about good writing and voice, which are in danger when using AI grammar programs.
In the last blog, I wrote about the fastest ways to kill your voice and AI featured prominently. Today, I’d like to talk about integrated AI grammar programs that are designed to help you write better. The problem is they don’t. Not really. Not if you take them at face value and hit “accept all” changes.
Your writing demands more from you. It requires discernment and awareness that using AI often removes. Too many people turn to AI instead of thinking things through themselves.
Here’s my deep dive into the subject of AI-integrated grammar programs:
The Hidden Cost of AI Grammar Tools
Grammarly, Hemingway, and ProWritingAid promise better writing, but do the deliver?
Sometimes, but not often enough. Too often they strip away your personality, voice, and kill your rhythm. Those fragments you added for pacing? They’re taken out. The preposition you left on the end of a sentence to avoid awkward construction? It’s moved to be grammatical, but now you sound like a robot instead of a writer or natural speaker.
These programs prioritize correct grammar over style and tone. Use them with caution.
If you do choose to use them, default to the “ignore rule” button more often than not. Apply your own judgment before making any changes. Also be aware that those programs are correcting your writing on a case-by-case or sentence-by-sentence level. They don’t track the whole of your story or argument. It’s up to you to protect your pacing, story logic, and style.
Want to Sound Like Everyone Else?
This is a great way to do that. The grammar programs are set to a default style, devoid of quirks, idioms, and personality. If you blindly accept the changes they suggest, you will end up with robotic, bland, safe copy that sounds like everyone else.
Don’t let the program you are using to help, kill your voice and style. Good writing does not mean proper writing. It’s better to connect with your audience than to use stiff grammar that gets in the way of making your point. Yes, good writing depends on grammar, but this is one of those situations where knowing the rules and when to break them comes into play.
Use your brain and think about what they are suggesting before blindly accepting the changes.
Want to Distance Your Reader?
The key to connecting with your audience is achieving closeness. It means adopting a deep point of view and stripping away the barriers to engagement—one thing these programs are designed to insert.
Most “correct” writing (according to textbooks) sounds boring, distant, and detached, which is the exact opposite of what you need.
It’s your conversational tone that connects. Your pacing that draws readers closer. If you accept all of the changes suggested by AI grammar programs, you risk losing those emotional nuances and your style of expression. This affects blog posts, essays, and more creative works the most, but it infects all types of writing.
They Ruin Rhythm and Cadence
Good writing has a rhythm and cadence. It ebbs and flows. Long sentences followed by shorter ones. Sentences that contain repetition to establish a pattern.
None of these are deemed “acceptable” by the grammar programs. They flag the repetition as an issue and urge you to change it up.
Sometimes they attempt to thwart your efforts with arbitrary rules or rigid adherence to “proper” grammar.
Writing isn’t just about correctness—it’s about how it sounds to the reader. Listen to your words aloud before making any suggested changes. Defend your rhythm and cadences. They make up your pacing, style, and voice—the most important element of writing.
Lean Into Your Intuition
Grammar programs will disrupt your intuition. When we read our work, especially if we read it aloud, we usually know when things aren’t working. We have a sense of what works and what doesn’t. That intuition is key to good writing.
If you don’t feel like you have it, start reading your work aloud. Whenever you stumble over a sentence or have issues reading it out loud with ease—change the sentence.
If that isn’t working for you, try reading great authors’ works aloud. You will notice how effortless it feels to speak their words aloud. That is what you are working toward in your writing.
Now try reading an AI-corrected or generated passage aloud. Notice the difference?
It’s better to learn the aspects of good writing and storytelling than to rely on tools designed to make you correct, but not you.
Conclusion
AI tools can be useful but only if you know how to use them intelligently. You cannot check out when applying them as tools to “fix” your writing. Fight for your voice, pacing, style, and tone. Trust your instincts. Read your work aloud. Mark passages they suggest changing and go back on your own (reading from the top) and decide if a change is warranted and what that change might be—always keeping your voice and intent in mind. Don’t let AI erase all of your work in pursuit of being “proper” on the page.
Bonus: Here’s Where AI Grammar Programs Help
When they are helpful:
- Identifying egregious grammar errors, like subject-verb disagreement, tense changes, duplicated or missing words.
- As a proofreader to identify misspelled or misused words and for basic punctuation errors.
- When you are too close to the piece and need a second set of eyes. Try using the program as you would any Beta reader. They may be able to identify the issue, but almost always miss on ways to fix it. Note the trouble areas indicated and go back on your own to “fix” the situation (if you deem it necessary).