Procurement Gives Grammarly a Try

Whether we like it (or acknowledge it) or not, we’re all prolific writers. For many of us, our jobs involve writing proposals, reports, plans, and, of course, veritable mountains of email. Most of this writing seems so transactional and so tangential to the actual thing we’re trying to achieve that it’s hard to find time to focus on how we could improve our writing. Beyond the obligatory spell check, we often don’t pay attention to things like grammar and tone. 

Luckily, there are several tools available we can choose from to help us hone our writing in approachable ways.

As part of an overall sharper focus on their department’s communications, PSDS recently identified the app Grammarly as a tool they wanted to try.

Two months into their commitment to use Grammarly for one year, the team in PSDS is enjoying their transformation into more confident and professional business writers.

Many readers may be familiar with Grammarly and may even use the free version, but Raegan Harouff Gaye, a member of a volunteer coms committee in PSDS, says the premium version offers so much more.

“Those of us who think of ourselves as fairly good writers have already seen great improvements in our writing,” she says. Harouff Gaye adds that in the world of email, it’s especially encouraging that the app gives feedback on the tone of one’s writing. 

“It’s nice to get that positive reinforcement that you’re actually achieving that helpful tone you were trying for when you’re trying to solve a problem for someone,” she says.

PSDS team members have especially enjoyed the weekly reports sent by the Grammarly app, which detail patterns in writing errors, use of tone, overall writing output, and even your vocabulary.

So resoundingly great has PSDS’ experience been that several UVAFinance colleagues outside of Procurement have tacked on to the PSDS contract in order to use the program.

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Interested in Grammarly? 
If you’re in UVAFinance and would like to take part in the current trial mentioned in this story, contact Scott Adams  
If you’re out of UVAFinance, talk with your local IT support professionals.