My Grammarly app has gone vegetarian
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Guest
My Grammarly app has gone vegetarian. It’s asking me to replace the word “beef”because some people might find it offensive. I couldn’t believe my eyes. Is anyone else having such issues?
Relax, it's just their insurance policy at work. -
Lauren
Wouldn’t vegetarians be offended by beef? Beef is a meat after all. Last I looked vegetarians didn’t eat beef.
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Brian
Microsoft Word did the same to me. I used the word "manhood" during a sex scene and it's review/editing said I should change it on the grounds of "inclusiveness "
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Andy
Like any app, like any algorithm or programme. They are not the final say.
You are.
In your cranium you carry the most most complex, multi-functional, portable, unique, continually developing, agile, constantly updating...
computer.
It's called a Brain.
Writers really need to depend more on this than apps.
Afteral... Dickens, Tolstoy, Shakespeare, Lawrence, Tolkien, no of these used a computer or an app, they just used their wonderful Brains.
You are.
In your cranium you carry the most most complex, multi-functional, portable, unique, continually developing, agile, constantly updating...
computer.
It's called a Brain.
Writers really need to depend more on this than apps.
Afteral... Dickens, Tolstoy, Shakespeare, Lawrence, Tolkien, no of these used a computer or an app, they just used their wonderful Brains.
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Dan
Some people would be offended by the words vegetarian or vegan too, but there's no reason to stop using them. If we start writing only what we're positive won't shock, offend, move, disturb, provoke or otherwise touch the reader, it sort of defeats the purpose of writing, doesn't it? I recall when I was editor of a newspaper, we ran a Far Side cartoon that was entitled Snake Cemetery and showed a bunch of little serpentine graves. A reader wrote in and said she was recently widowed and thought it was in bad taste to make her see that cartoon.
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Murray
It depends on what app you thinking about, even MS Word is an app but nowadays no publisher or agent would accept pages of a handwritten manuscript. If you are talking about An AI app that writes the story for you then I agree. But looking into the future I can see a time when if the writing is over a grade two level the majority of the population will not be able to read or understand what is written. One app pushes for many of our written works to be grade six level.
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Jay
What you have to remember is that Grammarly isn't designed for fiction writing; it's primarily intended for professional and academic writing. That's why it will almost always flag:
1. Non-inclusive, ableist, ageist, potentially racist, sexist, and other controversial terms.
2. Uncommon words and recommend word choices that are more Telling than Showing.
3. Split infinitives work great in literature, but are grammatically incorrect in professional/academic writing.
4. Prepositions at the end of sentences are considered informal speech.
For fiction writing, you can ignore a lot of the things Grammarly flags. If you're using it while writing a professional document for work, formal emails, or something as formal as a thesis or dissertation, it's a good idea to give the flagged terms some consideration (depending on the subject and audience). Obviously, the recommendations can be ignored if your word choice is appropriate for the topic.
For fiction writing, Grammarly is good for basic grammatical issues like dangling modifiers, verb agreement, punctuation, and pronoun usage in more character-heavy scenes where it may not be clear who is being referenced. It can also help tighten up sentences that are too wordy and be more concisely or powerfully written; I use that identification to revise sentences into something that will improve the flow or better communicate an idea.
Honestly, the biggest issue I have with Grammarly is it identifying pluperfect tense as passive wording.
1. Non-inclusive, ableist, ageist, potentially racist, sexist, and other controversial terms.
2. Uncommon words and recommend word choices that are more Telling than Showing.
3. Split infinitives work great in literature, but are grammatically incorrect in professional/academic writing.
4. Prepositions at the end of sentences are considered informal speech.
For fiction writing, you can ignore a lot of the things Grammarly flags. If you're using it while writing a professional document for work, formal emails, or something as formal as a thesis or dissertation, it's a good idea to give the flagged terms some consideration (depending on the subject and audience). Obviously, the recommendations can be ignored if your word choice is appropriate for the topic.
For fiction writing, Grammarly is good for basic grammatical issues like dangling modifiers, verb agreement, punctuation, and pronoun usage in more character-heavy scenes where it may not be clear who is being referenced. It can also help tighten up sentences that are too wordy and be more concisely or powerfully written; I use that identification to revise sentences into something that will improve the flow or better communicate an idea.
Honestly, the biggest issue I have with Grammarly is it identifying pluperfect tense as passive wording.
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Mike
This whole discussions has made me very concerned that this will only get worse. 
Last bumped by Anonymous on Sun Sep 11, 2022 9:42 pm.