This has been bouncing around in my head, and I want to know what the forum thinks. I use a free grammar checker for all my major papers. For me, it's like having a second pair of eyes. It catches the typos and awkward phrasing that I miss because I've been staring at the same document for hours. But a friend of mine in my creative writing class says using one is "cheating" and that it makes your writing sound less "authentic." She thinks we should be able to catch our own mistakes.
I see her point, but also, isn't part of writing editing? And if a tool helps me communicate my ideas more clearly, isn't that a good thing? It's not like it's writing the paper for me. I'm still the one coming up with the arguments and the structure. It just helps me polish it. Where do you guys draw the line? Is using a free grammar checker a smart study aid or a crutch we should avoid? I'm genuinely curious what the general consensus is.
I see her point, but also, isn't part of writing editing? And if a tool helps me communicate my ideas more clearly, isn't that a good thing? It's not like it's writing the paper for me. I'm still the one coming up with the arguments and the structure. It just helps me polish it. Where do you guys draw the line? Is using a free grammar checker a smart study aid or a crutch we should avoid? I'm genuinely curious what the general consensus is.
No way. That's like saying using a calculator in math is cheating. It's a tool. As long as you're not stealing content, polish away, AnnaCross.