Catch all those dumb little mistakes you swear you didn’t make.

Clean up your sentences so they don’t sound like you just woke up from a nap.

Suggest fancier words, because apparently “good” isn’t good enough.

Keep your tone and style consistent, so you don’t accidentally sound like you’re writing a breakup letter to your boss.

Download the add-in from Grammarly’s site. Easy enough, right?

Install it. If you see a shiny new Grammarly tab, congrats—you didn’t screw it up.

Log in. If you forget your password, welcome to the club.

Grab the add-in from their website.

Install and activate it. Yes, you might have to click through some annoying popups.

Turn it on before you start writing. Let it nag you in real time and maybe you’ll make fewer mistakes. Maybe.

Click the underlines for explanations. Sometimes they’re helpful, sometimes you’ll want to scream.

The side panel is where the real action is: grammar, clarity, engagement, delivery—basically, everything you’ve ever done wrong.

Hit that “Goals” button. No one else will, but you should. Set your intent, audience, and all that jazz so Grammarly can judge you more accurately.

Premium lets you check for plagiarism. So if you’re “borrowing” ideas, you might want to see how original you actually are.

Run full reports. It’s like getting a 10-page essay on why your writing sucks. But hey, it’s thorough.

Use the summary for a quick “here’s what you did wrong” overview.

You can tweak what it checks for. If you’re writing a sci-fi novel, maybe turn off the business jargon checker.

Highlight a word and dive into the thesaurus or word explorer. Because sometimes “nice” just doesn’t cut it.

Want an all-in-one roast? Use the Combo feature and watch your ego deflate in real time.

Only want to check a paragraph? Highlight it, and spare yourself the pain of a full-document critique.

Don’t just click “accept” on every suggestion like a zombie. These tools are smart, but they’re not perfect. Sometimes they try to “fix” things that were actually fine.

Take a minute to read the feedback. You might accidentally learn something.

If you really want to cover your ass, run your work through both tools. They’ll catch different stuff, so you can feel extra paranoid.

Let’s make commas a little less terrifying and a lot less random. Here’s what you need to keep in mind:

1. Slap a comma before those little joining words in a compound sentence.

If you’re stringing together two complete thoughts with words like and, but, or, nor, for, so, or yet, throw a comma in before the conjunction.

Example:

I wanted pizza, but I only had ramen. (Honestly, isn’t that just the story of my life?)

2. Use commas in a list, because chaos isn’t cute.

Got three or more things? Separate them with commas. The Oxford comma (the one before “and”) is optional, but seriously, sometimes it saves lives.

She packed sandwiches, chips, soda, and cookies.

(“Let’s eat, Grandma” vs. “Let’s eat Grandma.” Commas: keeping your relatives alive since forever.)

3. Intro? Comma. Always.

If your sentence starts with some kind of intro—like a phrase, word, or clause—give it a comma.

After a long day, I just want to nap.

However, I have work to do.

(Relatable, right?)

4. Extra info? Wrap it in commas like a burrito.

If you’re tossing in some bonus info that isn’t totally necessary, put commas around it.

My neighbor, who always wears pajamas, just mowed the lawn.

But if you actually need that info to make sense of the sentence, skip the commas.

The guy who always wears pajamas just mowed the lawn.

5. If your adjectives are fighting for attention, separate them.

If you can stick “and” between your adjectives and it still sounds right, use a comma.

It was a long, exhausting day.

But don’t overdo it.

He wore a bright yellow shirt. (No comma, because “bright yellow” works together.)

6. Talking to someone? Comma their name.

Direct address means you set off the person’s name with a comma, otherwise you might end up accidentally inviting Tom to be dinner, not to dinner.

Let’s eat, Tom.

Tom, let’s eat.

7. Commas love dates, addresses, titles, and big-ass numbers.

On April 1, 2024, we saw a clown.

She lives at 123 Fake Street, Springfield, Illinois.

My friend Jamie Smith, MD, is here.

The prize was $10,000.

(If only that last one was my life.)

8. Sometimes, commas are just there so shit doesn’t get weird.

If your sentence could be misunderstood, a comma might save the day.

To err, is human. (But let’s be honest, to really mess things up, you need a computer.)

Bonus Round: Don’t Overdo It

Don’t go all Jackson Pollock with your commas. Only use them when you actually need to. Too many commas make your writing look like it’s had one too many drinks.