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Some of the best advice I received from my dad was to learn to write and learn to write well. It's some of the best advice I've received when it comes to my career and encourage everyone with the same, no matter what they are interested in doing.

Throughout the years, I've become reasonably confident in my abilities as a writer. However, my editing and grammar skills could still use some work.

I've loved reading and writing while at school. I thought it was fun, and I considered myself proficient and good at both. Finding me reading would not surprise many of my teachers, family, or friends.

When it came to looking over my writing, I tended to get sidetracked and more interested in the story than the particulars that managed to appear in my grammar skills. Seeing as how I don't have the money for a full-time editor, I quickly searched for a new grammar checker that wouldn't break the bank.

I first started using Grammarly's free option. I thought I was doing all right with my blog writing and could get by with the spell-check and tone indicator, but I learned I was entirely wrong.

Each article that I uploaded into a Grammarly document is checked and given a score. Your document's rating can improve based on your changes in your writing. Scores are based out of 100 and can vary depending on your writing purpose and ability.

Most of my writing was scoring low, mostly below 50. I knew I wasn't attracting the readers I wanted as my ideal clients, so I decided to make a change and ordered the Grammarly Premium package a few months ago.

After trying Grammarly Premium for a few months, I can attest it has positively influenced my writing ability.

Helpful Tools with Grammarly Premium

As I continue to write my blog posts and social media posts with editing suggestions with Grammarly Premium, I've gotten a few writing tips throughout my first few months. 

Sentence Structure

When I write, I tend to write conversationally. I try explaining or detailing how I usually would when speaking. I get confused as much as the next person and get caught up in what I'm talking about.

One of my main goals is to offer resources and advice to fellow small business owners so they can improve and grow their business. Writing, or blogging, has dramatically influenced my business plan and my ability to support and help those other small business owners.

To offer those resources, I'm also held to a higher standard to be as clear and concise as possible. It doesn't matter if my writing is through my blog articles, my site, or an email I send out to my subscribers. I must develop a clear and well-written piece to educate themselves; however, they see fit.

Sometimes, I'll have to completely rewrite or separate a sentence to make sense of what I wrote in the first place. I'm glad I can use Grammarly Premium to offer suggestions or help me understand why something within the sentence wouldn't make sense to a reader.

Commas, oh the commas

I'll admit, commas are not my friend. I typically use a lot of dependent clauses in my writing, along with wordier sentences. As an English and journalism major in college, I like to see variety in my writing style.

That said, I'm not the best when it comes to inserting a small squiggly line on my text's baseline.

I have the hardest time remembering when to add a comma in a compound sentence and when to remove it. You would think I'd learn by now, but apparently, I can't seem to retain it.

Active Voice

I've seen many errors for passive voice, and, thankfully, I found easy ways to correct them with Grammarly Premium.

It's relatively easy for me to confuse using to be as a verb and using it in the passive voice sometimes. I've learned a few ways to challenge my shortcoming with a few identifiers and tricks. My favorite is a piece of advice I've learned from other educators about adding 'by zombies' to identify the passive voice more clearly. 

Most of the time, Grammarly Premium can offer corrections to my mistake. Depending on the length of the sentence, I'm able to reverse my subject and object, while others require me to rewrite a more determinate sentence.

Engagement

I'm typically worried about how my writing can engage with others. I don't want to bore my ideal client to death and lose interest, to have them leave my site and learn a similar resource from someone else.

I try not to put too much stock into what Grammarly Premium offers me as engagement tips. However, it does provide me great advice to vary my writing style and create new ways to structure and edit my writing.

One of the most common and most natural changes to make in Grammarly Premium is my word choice. I don't have to make it upper-level word choices, but I can make it less monotonous throughout my writing.

Tone

While the free version of Grammarly shows you what your tone is when writing, Grammarly Premium offers you ways to improve your delivery throughout your writing. 

I know tone can be impactful on your ideal client. As a small business owner, you don't want to come off the wrong way when working or representing yourself to customers, and your writing will reflect that. 

While I actively check my icon on the lower right side of my screen to check my tone, it's always nice to have suggestions when editing anything to make sure I am sending the right message. My intent and formality are also checked to make sure my delivery and tone are proper with my customers.

You don't need a large blog following, but your blog writing should be consistent and error-free. 

If you want to learn more about blog writing and other business resources you can use, join my e-newsletter to grow your small business.