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Let’s face it—the way we do business is changing too fast for most of us to keep up. Professionals and organizations alike face complex challenges that require highly specific knowledge and skills, many of which can be hard to acquire on the job.

But gaining that knowledge through traditional channels, like a graduate degree, requires a significant investment of time and money.

That’s where online certificate programs come in.

What is an online certificate?

Online certificates are credentials earned through virtual academic programs. Compared with degree programs, they are typically shorter and more targeted, focusing on developing specific skills and lasting weeks to months rather than years. This condensed format generally comes with a much lower price tag than a degree.

For many professionals, certificate programs hit the sweet spot of practicality, affordability, and flexibility. For organizations, they provide an opportunity to upskill or reskill employees quickly and effectively.

Is an online certificate right for you?

While online certificates offer a great opportunity to grow your skills, they may or may not be the right choice for your specific situation. Here are five questions to ask to make that determination.

1. What are your goals?

Aiming to take on new responsibilities, get a promotion, or switch roles? Consider what qualifications you need. Talk with colleagues or members of your network who are in similar roles to learn what skills are essential to their day-to-day responsibilities. If you plan to apply for stretch positions, online certificates show that you’ve taken the initiative to gain crucial knowledge.

Certificates are also valuable for professionals whose roles have changed due to emerging technologies or shifts in business practices. They provide a targeted opportunity to gain comfort and expertise with new tools and strategic approaches.

2. Is a degree program or a certificate a better fit?

While many top universities offer both online certificates and online degrees, the two are very different undertakings.

Online degree programs:

Usually 2-4+ years

Have a high weekly time commitment (often 20+ hours a week)

Can cost tens of thousands of dollars

Focus on a broader field

Online certificate programs:

Range from weeks to months

Have a lower weekly time commitment (Emeritus courses average 8-10 hours)

Have lower fees

Offer a narrower focus

Whether a degree program or a certificate is right for you will depend on your field and goals. Some companies may require a specific master’s degree or scope of knowledge beyond what certificate programs offer.

But for many roles, a master’s is not required and may not deliver the return on investment (ROI) to justify its higher cost and time commitment. Plus, many degree programs focus more on theory than on application. In these cases, a specialized certificate designed for professionals may be a better fit.

It’s no surprise then that the popularity of certificates is soaring—in fact, they now make up 22% of postsecondary credentials.

3. Is online learning right for you?

In addition to on-campus programs, certificates are widely available in virtual and hybrid formats. According to our research, more than three-quarters of learners would consider a course that is at least partially digital. However, the virtual environment has pros and cons.

The students most likely to thrive in online certificate programs are self-motivated, organized, and comfortable engaging digitally. The format is also well-suited to learners whose job commitments and personal life make full-time, in-person program attendance a challenge. Plus, online learning removes travel expenses from the equation.

On the other hand, students who struggle to maintain focus in a digital environment or prefer in-person interaction may be better served by an on-campus certificate program.

4. What is the ROI of an online certificate?

Are online certificates worth it for you or your team? While a specific certificate’s ROI is influenced by field and program, Forbes reports that certificates generally lead to a 13-25% salary boost. For many professionals, that means earning back the cost of the certificate dozens of times over.

Online certificates are also a valuable networking opportunity. Since many offerings attract global professionals from a wide range of industries, they provide the rare chance to engage with potential future colleagues you may have never met otherwise.

5. Which online certificate is most valuable for you?

But how do you know which online certificate is worth getting?

Once you’ve identified the skills that you’re hoping to develop, actually deciding on a program can be a challenge. Key questions to ask include:

Is the certificate associated with an accredited university?

Generally speaking, a certificate from a program conducted with a respected, accredited university will carry more weight than a certificate from an unaffiliated company.

Who is teaching the course?

Look up the course instructor to ensure they have specific academic or professional expertise in the field.

Does the program curriculum cover what you hope to learn?

Ensure the program delivers the content you need to meet your goals, like training in coding languages or social media programs.

What are the program’s fees?

Fees can vary significantly between certificate programs; compare options to identify a certificate that fits within your personal or professional development budget.

What is the program’s expected time commitment, and is the schedule flexible?

Will you realistically be able to manage the program’s workload in the time allotted? Is the program flexible enough to accommodate your work and personal schedule? Emeritus programs on average require an 8-10 hour per week commitment, but programs may vary significantly in their workload.

By Rachel Hastings

Planning Your Next Steps

Emeritus offers online certificates to reskill and upskill within your organization in fields ranging from data science to innovation and design thinking. All our certificate programs are delivered in collaboration with leading professors from the world’s top universities, ensuring your employees emerge with skills and knowledge to set them apart. Get in touch with Emeritus to learn more.

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How Much Are You Worth Online To Companies Like Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Etc.

FOR SALE: YOU! Location: Internet! Your data is available through these sellers: Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and more! Cost: Unknown!

Ever wondered how much you are worth online?

We’ll talk about methods used to collect your data – both personal and browsing data – that might help you determine your worth online.

You Are Being Tracked!

I call them spambots and adbots. They follow you everywhere you go on the Internet. They record your activities:

What pages you visit,

Which pages retain you,

What kind of pages repel you,

Which part of pages do you spend more time on,

What are you searching,

Where did you login from,

What is your gender,

What is your age and more!

You might wonder what Google or any other company would do with the data it collects. Why would any company spend time and money on tracking your online activities? Fine, there are some so-called customer improvement programs that allow you to opt-out from being monitored. These are generally the ones you get when installing any software saying “Help us improve by sending us anonymous usage statistics…” An example is the image below.

Unchecking such boxes gives a sense of satisfaction – Google or any other company is no more tracking you. But that is an illusion: you are being tracked. You are being tracked not only by search engines and social media sites but also by different online ad agencies and third-party companies.

What Happens To Data Related To You?

And that is why Internet Explorer has a list of Tracking Protection in Internet Explorer (TPL). These lists help prevent tracking your activities when you are online. You need to install these TPLs manually. I would recommend adding the ones from Abine.

How To Protect Privacy On Chrome And Firefox

While Internet Explorer has the TPLs, there are some other extensions for Chrome and Firefox. Most such extensions are developed by the same companies and are customized for Chrome, Firefox, and even for other browsers like Safari and Opera. Easy List is one such company. Abine too has extensions for Chrome. I am not sure if it has any for Firefox, Opera and Safari as I do not use these browsers. I use an extension from Abine for tracking protection on Chrome. Check out the screenshot of what the extension displays when I visit the Microsoft website.

How Do Websites Collect Data?

This is such a complex topic that a research paper can be written on it. To summarize it, most websites have mini codes that they place on the site for different purposes – not essentially for tracking you.

The network is huge and presents all over the Internet. In fact, the Internet cannot function properly without these snippets and share buttons. If you have a website, you will want to put up share buttons so that people can share your posts easily. It is a different matter that these buttons also store data about what all you are sharing. As I said earlier, the process is complex and I can’t imagine how it works. All I could grasp is that you, as a customer, are an ID. All the data pertaining to your usage of the Internet is grouped under that ID. This data is then sold or used for profits.

How Much Are You Worth Online?

I would rephrase the above question as to how much does Google and others earn by using your Internet usage data. There is no definite figure but experts say it can be anything between 7 cents to few dollars per annum. The more you use the Internet, the more is your value. And in case it sounds like a very small amount, try to imagine how many people use the Internet daily or even monthly. Based on that estimate, you can try to calculate how much does Google and others earn by collecting and using your data.

If you are getting worried now, there are several free tools to fix and prevent data collection

10 Best Free Online Writing Courses With Certificates (2023)

There are many beginner professionals who want to improve their writing skills and get ahead in their writing careers. Moreover, it is also not feasible for working professionals to go back to school and improve their scribing skills. Thankfully, you will find many online writing classes on the Internet that help you polish and enhance your writing and authoring skills.

Following is a handpicked list of the Top Online Writing Courses & Certifications to gather knowledge about this subject. The list contains both open source (free) and commercial (paid) courses.

BEST Free Online Writing Courses for Creative Writers & Beginners

Articles effectively communicate complex ideas and stories in a friendly, credible, and easy-to-follow way. This course, Good with Words, helps you learn how to write and publish an article of your own.

This free writing course explains how you can determine your writing approach, pitch your story to a publication, completely research your subject matter, and write and polish your article content. This course also discusses how you can submit a complete package to editors.

It is one of the best free online writing courses for new writers. It helps you to learn the skills you need to write a well-crafted article that connects with readers.

Key Topics:

Determining Your Article Writing Approach

Techniques for adding nuance to your sentences and slogans

Creative ways to use syntax

Polishing and Submitting Your Article

Promoting Your work

This Creating Writing specialization course covers three important elements of writing genres: short story, narrative essay, and memoir.

In this course, you will master the techniques that any good writer uses to create a story full of memorable characters. This beginner’s writing workshop also helps you to analyze and constructively evaluate peer writing. It is one of the best writing courses designed for anyone, from aspiring short story writers to established novelists.

Key Topics:

The Craft of Plot

The Craft of Character

Setting and Description

The Craft of Style

Features:

Self-Paced learning option for students

HD quality course videos

Practice quizzes

Graded assignments with peer feedback

Quizzes with Feedback

Programming assignments

Creative Writing is an online proofreading course that shows how to give your writing more impact, regardless of its purpose. In this online course, the writer and journalist Tom Geller help you to search reasons for writing with the demonstration. The writer also teaches you how to use those reasons to drive the words you select and the tone you take.

The author of this course also shares his understanding of grammar and sentence structure for writing with maximum impact. After completing this free online writing course, you will be equipped with plenty of practical writing tips to make your writing clear and crisp.

Key topics:

Meaning of writing with impact

Learning about your Readers

Understanding How People Read

Key Idea: Looking Inward and Outward

Features:

Helps you qualify for continuing education units.

Professional author instructor.

Certificate on completion.

Secret Sauce of Great Writing is a course designed by Shani Raja. This course will teach you the four main concepts of good writing: Simplicity, Clarity, Elegance, and Evocativeness. It will also help you learn how to add those ingredients skillfully.

At the end of this online writing course, you will have a good grasp of how professional writers create powerful and beautiful prose. In this online writing course, you can quickly identify your writing weaknesses, understand the principles, and fix and improve it significantly.

Key topics:

The Secret Sauce of Flair

The Four Crucial Ingredients

How I Discovered the Sauce

The Power of Simplicity

Simplicity Exercises

The Power of Clarity

Clarity Exercises

The Power of Elegance

Elegance Exercises

The Power of Evocativeness

Evocativeness Exercises

Features:

Online video content

Instructor Q&A

Instructor direct message

Essay Essentials: Improve Your Academic Writing is a video course that helps you learn how to write essays. This free writer’s course will help you find the essay writing success you deserve by learning essay writing foundations.

Key topics:

How the writing situation, process, and classroom resources.

Brainstorm to create and use ideas that help you to develop the essay.

Develop and structure introduction and conclusion paragraphs.

Write a clear, specific, and well-connected thesis.

Understand the organization of essay paragraphs.

How to create detailed, specific, and appropriate content.

Proof-read spelling and grammatical errors using helpful rules and tips.

Features:

Online video content

Certificate of completion accredited by universities.

Instructor Q&A

Instructor direct message

The author of this course, Clare Lynch, explains how you can change your message and tone according to your target audience and customer personality.

In the last chapters, you will learn about Create musical sentences that readers can’t resist.

Key topics:

Rules of Ad Copy Writing

Ad Copy Goals

Writing Ad Copy for various media

Understanding Your Audience

Personas and Tone

Do and Don’ts.

Craft Your Cover Letter is a short course where you will learn to use proven writing techniques to show why you are the best person to do this job.

In these writing classes for beginners, you will also learn how to research company values, target your writing pitch, and develop an authentic story. It offers the research and writing tools you need to show why you are the best person for the specific job!

Key topics:

Target your applications to specific opportunities.

Students are able to understand the purpose of a cover letter.

Write an effective introduction, body, and conclusion.

Features:

Rich Learning Content

Interactive Quizzes

Instructor videos

Learn by doing exercises.

Taught by industry professionals.

Write a Book is an online writing course offered by Udemy. This course explains how to organize and begin writing a short story, novel, or nonfiction book with concepts similar for each form. This online course is ideal for someone looking to grasp the fundamentals of writing using the English language.

Key topics:

Learn to write basics, like including punctuation, sentences, paragraphs, etc.

Learn to write short nonfiction books.

How to use MS PowerPoint to create a book cover.

How to discover your writing style.

Learn how to self-edit your book manuscript.

Features:

28 articles

Full lifetime access for students

Access on mobile and TV

Certificate of completion

Udemy offers a wide range of writing courses. This Complete Freelance Writing Course can be viewed on all devices connected to the Internet. You do not require any prequalification to take this course.

Udemy is an online platform that helps you create courses for business, writing, design, marketing, etc. You can develop new skills and achieve your goals by taking training and learning from the extensive library of various Udemy courses.

Features:

Understand different forms of writing styles and methods as per target audience.

Learn best practices for Blog Writing.

Learn how to do screenwriting to tell a compelling story.

Develop methods that help you to stay productive as a writer.

Key Courses:

Grant Writing for Nonprofits and Freelance Writers

The Complete Freelance Writing Course

How to Start a Freelance Writing Career

The Complete Freelance Writing Online

Freelance Copywriting: Write Dirty. Go Big

How to Start Profitable Freelance Writing Business in 5 Weeks

Skillshare is an online course platform that is focused on education. It includes various topics related to graphic design, data science, e-commerce, analytics, etc. This online course will expand your horizons to learn more about creative writing. You can try these online classes that teach about creative writing techniques, tools, and topics like character development, outlining, storytelling, creating a compelling plot, and how you can make your words more artful.

This course helps you to enhance and helps you to create character-driven stories with creative writing prompts. This online class is broken down into short lessons that include hands-on projects to complete and share.

Features:

Learn creative writing in various genres like fiction, poetry, humor, etc.

It helps you to find classes that are designed for real life.

Get ideas for writing daily journals.

Real creators teach the classes.

You can learn from any device.

Write A Feature Length Screenplay For Film Or Television teaches you how to write a feature-length screenplay for film or television or web-series. In this screen playwriting course, you will also learn to break down the creative process into components. You will also discover a structured process that helps you produce a polished and pitch-ready script.

Completing this online course helps you to improve your confidence in your ideas and abilities. After learning this online course, you will feel prepared to pitch your first script and start with the next one.

Key Topics:

Creating The Idea.

Logline and Dramatic Question.

Create your character profile.

The Three Act Story Arc.

Screenplay Formatting and Software.

Begin your screenplay.

Write the final section.

Table read your entire script.

Finishing things up.

12) Start Writing Fiction (Future learn)

Specs: Rating: 4.7

Start Writing Fiction is a course that helps you to create how to develop your ideas, which reflect on your writing and editing. This online writing class is intended for those interested in writing fiction or improving their fiction writing.

Key Topics:

Creation of characters in fiction

Different sources for characters in stories

Ways of presenting characters in stories

Reading as a writer

Writing skill like creativity, research, observation, and editing

Features:

It provides the freedom to keep access to any online course you’ve achieved a digital certificate of.

It offers the flexibility to complete your choice of short courses in your own time within the year.

13) English Writing Skills–Revised (Alison)

English Writing skills is a free online English language course that will guide you through the most important English writing styles. It shows you how and when to apply each one verb and improve your knowledge about the correct usage of punctuation and grammar.

This online writing course helps you express yourself clearly and effectively in your writing. This online learning material also helps you fulfill your dream of becoming a professional writer or improving your English writing.

Key Topics:

English Writing Skills

English-Writing

Story Writing

Descriptive Writing

Science Fiction, Nonfiction, Instructional, Opinionative

Reflective Writing

Other Useful Programming Resources you may like to explore

FAQ: 🏅 How to choose an Online Writing Course?

Here are some important guidelines for selecting an online writing course:

A. Identity your goal:

First, you need to find out your goal. Like you want to learn basic writing skills like improving your grammar, you want to learn notification writing, fiction writing, nonfiction writing, etc.

B. Set your course budget:

C. Pick a Commitment Level:

It is certainly the most important aspect for selecting the online writing course. How much daily or weekly time can you spend learning the course. There are many online courses that are completely self-paced, which means you work through the material on your own and take time as much as you want.

❓ What are the Pros And Cons Of Online Writing Courses?

Here are some important Pros and Cons of Online Writing Classes:

Pros:

These courses are meant for independent study, so you can learn at your own pace.

Some courses do not even have homework assignments, writing exercises, or time constraints.

Online courses give you exclusive information and learning materials.

You are able to interact and learn with other writers using online communities, which helps you learn to write skills.

Cons:

Online writing course sometimes not allows any personal touch of classroom writing courses.

You will never have face-to-face interactions with associate learners.

Some online writing courses have no instructor feedback.

The quality and price of online writing courses vary greatly.

⚡ What is the best app for writing letters?

Here are some of the best writing apps which help you to write professional letters:

Grammarly: Grammarly is a widely used writing enhancement tool. It offers numerous writing styles, suggestions for grammar, vocabulary, and syntax. You can use this tool via the website, as a browser extension, or as an app that you can download to your computer.

Prowritingaid: Prowritingaid is a tool that offers a world-class grammar and style checking facility. It helps you to edit documents faster. This software includes more than 1000 styles to improve your writing skills.

Microsoft Word: Microsoft Word is a writing app that helps you transform documents into web pages. It offers a real-time translation facility with just one tap. This program enables you to read and edit documents attached to the email.

Calmlywriter: Calmlywriter is free writing software. This online application is designed to help you focus on your writing skills. It has a “focus mode” option that can highlight the paragraph you are writing.

FocusWriter: It is a writing tool that enables you to access the interface by moving the mouse to the edge of the screen. The software helps you to translate the content into more than 20 languages. It helps correct spelling effortlessly.

❗ What can you expect from a Free Creative Writing Class?

There are many free creative writing courses that help you to learn how to express yourself in words. A free writing course gives you training about general grammar, writing style, and other important stuff related to writing instead of teaching any specific fiction, nonfiction, or scientific writing skills.

Are Laptop Cooling Pads Worth The Money?

Heat is the mortal enemy of all electronics. Unfortunately, high-power electronics like CPUs and RAM also produce significant heat. This heat must be exhausted from the system to ensure proper functionality and a long service life. Thanks to their compact designs, laptops must work especially hard to keep their heat-producing components cool. Sometimes, the built-in cooling isn’t up to the task, especially for high-load applications like gaming and rendering. If your laptop gets overwhelmed by heat, you can cool things down with an inexpensive laptop cooling pad.

Why You Might Need a Laptop Cooling Pad

A good laptop is designed with airflow and heat dissipation at the forefront of the manufacturer’s concerns. But even carefully-developed and expensive laptops can have heating issues. If your laptop slows down after long use, gets uncomfortably warm, or suddenly “throttles” performance, you might have heat issues. These issues appear more frequently as laptop age, and inexpensive laptops show the signs more frequently than pricey models.

However, even the newest, flashiest gaming laptops are not necessarily immune from heat issues. Jamming tons of hot silicon into a tiny plastic box will always produce heat dissipation challenges, and they’re not always solved correctly. Since you can’t easily open up a laptop to inspect the problem, the fastest solution is typically a cooling pad.

Overheating can cause strange problems that you might not immediately connect to heat. For example, certain early Sony VIAO laptops would lose Wi-Fi connectivity if they overheated. Apple’s MacBook Pros can slow dramatically when too hot in an effort to protect their hardware, and video playback might degrade dramatically on cheaper ultrabooks and netbooks when things get toasty. If a problem only appears after a certain amount of usage, you might try a cooling pad as a solution.

What Laptop Cooling Pad Should I Buy? Conclusion: Other Options

Alexander Fox

Alexander Fox is a tech and science writer based in Philadelphia, PA with one cat, three Macs and more USB cables than he could ever use.

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Grammarly Review: Is Grammarly Premium Worth It? (2023)

What is a Grammarly App?

Grammarly is basically an intelligent writing assistant that saves you proofreading time. It checks your grammar, spelling, sentence structure, and more. On top of that, it has a built-in plagiarism checker that’s handy for bloggers and content writers.

You can use Grammarly on WordPress, Facebook, Microsoft Word, Google Docs, and more, making it easier to spell-check your writing in real-time. However, as with any automatic tool, it has its share of setbacks. In this Grammarly review, we’ll look at the features, pros and cons, and price points.

Grammarly Premium Reviews & Ratings

In this article we have analysis all the features, pros and cons, other , how to steps, pricing info, and its best alternatives.

Grammarly User Interface

Since Grammarly is for everyone to use, it comes with a basic user interface that’s pretty easy to work through. When you open the app, you’re welcomed with a grid of your previous documents, or in a new account’s case, you’ll find a blank document that you can paste your content in for revision.

On the left, you’ll see your account’s settings, different Grammarly apps, and support.

Who Should Use Grammarly?

He is some common use cases of Grammarly:

Students to revise their writing and make sure their essays are mistake-free.

Professors to revise their papers and check for plagiarism.

Content writers spell-check their writing and optimize it.

Casual writers who occasionally write emails or articles.

Social media writers to spell-check their posts.

Non-native English speakers use it to enhance their writing skills and eliminate casual mistakes.

Key Features of Grammarly

Grammarly comes with a complete package of 11 key features. It offers four main checks: correctness, clarity, engagement, and delivery.

Each one includes various checks; here’s a rundown:

Correctness: Spelling, grammar, and punctuation.

Clarity: Full-sentence rewrites and conciseness.

Engagement: Tone suggestions and word choice check.

Delivery: Writing impression on the reader.

Here’s an complete overview of Grammarly’s key features:

Spelling, Grammar, and Punctuation: Grammarly basically does the proofreading steps for you. So, you don’t have to reread your work and chase tiny mistakes, use Grammarly, and it’ll point out all mistakes that have to do with spelling, grammar, and punctuation.

Edit Suggestions: Instead of only pointing out your mistake, Grammarly gives you editing suggestions. For example, if it points out an incorrect comma, it’ll tell you whether to put a semi-colon or a period in its place.

The same goes for wrong word choices, where it’ll suggest correct words instead of incorrect ones.

Explanation Cards: Grammarly doesn’t only point out your mistakes and gives you suggestions. It also explains these mistakes so you don’t fall into the same trap twice.

Full Report: Grammarly gives you a full report of the content you paste into the editor. This report includes the readability score, word count, and performance highlights. It also tells you the reading time of your content. And overall score of the Article.

Browser Extension: Grammarly offers a browser extension that functions almost like the website editor. It gives you all the Grammarly insights you need while writing. You can integrate it into Chrome, Firefox, Microsoft Edge, or Safari.

The good thing about the extension is that it corrects anything you write, including social media posts, emails, and even chat text in real time. So, you don’t have to copy your content and paste it everytime for checking.

Grammarly Keyboard for Phones:

If you’re using Grammarly from your phone, you can use its keyboard feature, which shows you suggestions based on what you’re writing in real time. The suggestions appear right above the letters.

Website Editor: The website editor is Grammarly’s main feature. You can upload your documents or copy and paste your content into the editor. It’ll show you all suggestions on the right side. The editor is easy to use and shows you all the suggestions at once, so it may be more convenient than the extension.

Desktop Button: Instead of opening the website editor every time you want to check something, you can use Grammarly’s desktop button.

All you have to do is install the button on your desktop. Then, whenever you want to check a document, drag it to the icon and start editing.

Plagiarism Detector: Grammarly has a built-in plagiarism detector that checks your content against 16 billion websites. However, it’s only available for the premium version.

Grammarly’s plagiarism detector shows that may seem plagiarised from other websites. This feature helps in catching clear plagiarism instances.

Language Preferences: Grammarly lets you choose between different dialects to give you accurate suggestions. You can choose from American, British, Australian, and Canadian dialects, and Grammarly will give you suggestions based on your choice.

How to Use Grammarly

Grammarly is one of the easiest tools to use; you only have to get a basic idea of the app before using it. Let me walk you through it:

Step 1) Sign Up

The first thing you need to do to use Grammarly is to sign up and create your account using Gmail, Facebook, or Apple.

Even if you’re using the free plan, signing up will allow the app to save your data, and then you can upgrade to the premium plan.

Step 2) Create a Document.

After signing up, you can create a new document.

When you log into your account, you’ll see the main screen. It’ll have a blank document labeled ‘New’ on the left.

Alternatively, you can upload a new document. Grammarly accepts docx, etf, txt, and odf files.

Step 3) Download the Accessories

Since you’ll start using Grammarly to revise your work, it’s better to get all the accessories that come with it.

You can download the browser extension, desktop application, and mobile application so you can check the quality of your writing wherever you are.

Step 4) Start Editing

Now, your written piece is ready inside the document. What’s left is to start editing it according to Grammarly’s suggestions.

The 5 Different Grammarly Apps

Grammarly operates through five different apps.

Here’s a roundup of how each Grammarly app works:

Grammarly Browser Extension for Chrome, Edge, Firefox:

If you’re installing the Grammarly Chrome extension, you can pin it to the toolbar above, which makes it easier to turn it on and off.

Online Editor:

The online editor shows you all suggestions at once on the right panel, so it’s often preferred over the other ways to use Grammarly.

The suggestions will be divided into four main categories: correctness, clarity, delivery, and engagement. However, the delivery and engagement checks are only available for the premium version.

Microsoft Office Add-On: use Grammarly on your Microsoft Office programs, all you have to do is install its add-on. Here’s how to do it:

Step 1) Open Microsoft Word

Step 4) Type Grammarly’s name into the search and install it.

Grammarly Desktop App:

The Grammarly desktop app is useful for users who don’t always have their browsers open. You can use the app for faster access when you need to spell-check your work.

All you have to do is download and follow the instructions until the file installs. Once the application is ready, you’ll see the Grammarly button at the bottom of any writing application you use on your computer.

Mobile App: The Grammarly mobile app is smart, intuitive, and easier than ever to use. It’s basically a keyboard that keeps suggesting better word choices and correcting your mistakes as you write on your phone.

All you have to do to use the app is to download it. Then, log in to your Grammarly account, and every time you type something on your phone, the keyboard will show you suggestions.

The app will correct basic spelling mistakes and notify you about them in the bar above the keyboard. Meanwhile, it’ll only offer suggestions for sentence structure and word choice, and you’re free to either accept or dismiss them.

Grammarly Free vs. Grammarly Premium

The Grammarly free version is pretty useful for users looking for basic features on the other hand, Grammarly premium offers a full package.

Here are some basic differences between both versions:

Free Plan Premium Plan

Correcting basic grammar and spelling issues Plagiarism detector

Basic punctuation check Advanced grammar checks

Tone detector Complex punctuations checks

Language preferences Citation suggestions

Microsoft Office integration Readability and writing-style reports

Browser extension Tone suggestions

Grammarly Customer Support

Grammarly’s customer support is as good as customer support of similar tools can be. For the free plan, you can reach out to them through email, or you can get help from the chatbot that has answers to basic FAQs.

Note: For a live chat or phone support, you’ll have to subscribe to the premium plan.

Aside from the chatbot and email help, you can get Grammarly help through the variety of articles on their blog. These articles cover almost all factors related to Grammarly, like the difference between free and premium plans, tips for using the app, billing info, etc.

If you have any issue that needs troubleshooting, you can do it through the Help Center on the website.

Grammarly Pricing

Grammarly offers three plans: a free plan that has limited features, a premium plan that offers the full package. However, its premium plan is expensive, but it’s the only plan which offers all of Grammarly’s best features.

Here is table with the main differences and similarities between all plans:

Pricing Free Plan Premium plan Business Plan

$0/month $12/month annually, $20/month quarterly, $30/month monthly $15/month monthly

Grammar, Spelling, Punctuation Yes Yes Yes

Tone Detection Yes Yes Yes

Tone Suggestions No Yes Yes

Full Sentence Rewrites and Formatting No Yes Yes

Plagiarism Detecting No Yes Yes

Word Choice and Sentence Variety No Yes Yes

Style Guide and Brand Tone No No Yes

Expert Writing Help No Yes Yes

Analytics Dashboard and Account Roles No No Yes

SAML Single Sign On No No Yes

If you’re planning to try the Grammarly premium plan, paying the annual subscription would be your best option. It’d cost you $12 a month, while if you decide to pay monthly, you’ll pay more than double that.

You can also make use of Grammarly’s 7-day free trial before you pay. It’ll allow you to try Grammarly’s features and decide whether you want to proceed. However, you will need to add your credit card to do so, but you won’t get credited until the trial ends.

Pros and Cons: Is Grammarly a Good app?

👍 Pros 👎 Cons

Grammarly offers multi-platform support. You can integrate it into Google Docs, Microsoft Word, and Outlook for real-time proofreading. It occasionally gives inaccurate suggestions, so it still can’t replace a human editor.

It lets you determine the document’s writing style (academic, creative, etc.) to give you accurate suggestions The premium plan is a bit costly

Plagiarism checker tool is highly useful for bloggers. In MAC, it doesn’t support apps downloaded from Apple App store and apps built with Electron 11 or lower

Most basic features are available in the free plan.

Grammarly Alternatives

If you’re unsure about Grammarly, you can always try its alternatives and see for yourself whether it’s the best option. The two most popular Grammarly alternatives are ProWriting aid and Linguix.

Here’s a brief rundown of both:

ProWritingAid checks your content and gives you 24+ reports for it. These reports include checks for grammar, overused words, readability, writing style, and more aspects.

It offers a free plan, and it comes with browser extensions and applications, so you can use it anywhere.

It’s also quite affordable, starting at $10/month for the premium plans. However, ProWriting Aid has a major downside: its free version of Grammarly only checks 500 words at once.

Linguix offers the most basic features, like proofreading, sentence rephrasing, and grammar checking. On top of that, it has a built-in plagiarism detector, and it offers an application for iOS and Android devices.

If you want something similar to Grammarly but at a more affordable price, Linguix would be a good choice.

FAQ:

Yes, you can fully trust Grammarly. It’s used by millions of users globally, so it’s far from being a scam. Plus, the company only makes money through Grammarly premium subscriptions without selling any data.

Besides, the tool can’t access your passwords or any sensitive data you input, so it’s trustworthy.

No, Grammarly can’t replace a human editor because it sometimes fails to understand what a specific sentence means, and it doesn’t always understand the context of your sentences. It’s an ideal assisting tool, but it won’t work efficiently without human supervision.

No, Grammarly doesn’t steal your work through any of the different apps it offers. The company explicitly states that the users have full copyrights and duplication rights to their work, so it’s basically illegal for them to steal your work.

Moreover, any data used on Grammarly is encrypted, and it’s entirely removed if you decide to delete your account.

Summary

Grammarly’s free version is ideal for checking your spelling, grammar, and punctuation. However, if you want to take your writing a step further, you can subscribe to the premium plan.

It offers a plagiarism detector, rephrasing sentences, tone suggestions, and help from expert writers, which are all useful tools for content writers, researchers, professors, and social media writers.

If your work is writing-oriented, Grammarly will serve as a nice assistant for honing your writing skills and polishing your work.

How To Decide The Best Way To Fund Your Business

No matter what kind of business you’re starting, what your growth model is, or what kind of team you’re starting with, you’re going to need money to get started. These days, it’s possible to launch a startup on a razor-thin budget, working remotely so you don’t have to pay for an office, scraping together resources you already have, and working with the smallest team possible. Even then, you’ll need thousands, if not tens of thousands of dollars to get what you need to build early momentum.

Fortunately, there are dozens of different ways you can fund your business. But this presents a problem of its own. With so many possibilities and all of them have strengths and weaknesses worth considering, how do you ultimately decide the “best” way to fund your business?

Funding Options for Your Business

You can start by charting out some of the most common and popular ways to fund a business.

These include:

Venture capital.

Among the most well-known options for startup entrepreneurs is working with a venture capitalist (VC). VCs can be people or companies, devoted to investing in small businesses. VCs generally get a lot of available funds, which makes them a perfect choice if you’re searching for a huge injection of money — they agent smaller prices too.

In most cases, the VC provides financing in exchange for equity in the business, forcing one to discuss gains in the future and/or forfeit some amount of management. Furthermore, VCs can be particularly aggressive, which makes it tough to stick out in the contest.

Angel investors.

An angel investor is a person (and normally a wealthy one) who’s ready to invest in tiny businesses. Angel investors are not as devoted to the clinic as VCs, so there is generally less competition for their attention. But they could be more difficult to find, based on your geographical area.

However, angel investors operate similar to VCs, offering promising young partnerships with cash in exchange for partial equity or some command in the company. Some angel investors also function in a mentoring capacity, providing guidance and direction to developing young entrepreneurs.

Crowdfunding

Crowdfunding is yet another popular alternative — and yet one which was not available 15 decades back. The idea here would be to entice tiny amounts of funds from a high number of micro-investors, instead of working with a single wealthy individual or big company. This distributed model frequently makes it a lot easier to find the funds that you want, however, there are a few logistical hurdles.

Personal funding.

Grants and loans.

Occasionally, you can finance a company with the support of loans and grants. Resources like the Small Business Administration and local Chambers of Commerce will help connect you with specific programs intended to incentivize company development.

In addition to this, you can use your lender to reassess loan choices, and possibly open a floating line of credit you’ll be able to tap into as you continue to help your company grow. Obviously, the drawback here is that lots of loans require payment with interest, and when your credit is not robust or when you borrow a lot, it may become a burden.

Special loans.

Partnerships.

You might also opt to finance your organization with the assistance of a partnership. Hiring a company partner with more cash to put in the business might be precisely the money injection you will need to produce the startup work. Obviously, that also means you ought to feel comfortable using a spouse within the long-term evolution of your business.

Determining Your Priorities

Clearly, each of these options has something going for it – and many of them have significant drawbacks that weaken them. So how are you supposed to make the decision?

Capital requirements. First, design the funding requirements of your business enterprise? This can look like an obvious question, however, also many entrepreneurs enter this distance with just a vague notion about what they really need. Spend some time creating a business strategy and pulling out the fiscal model. Be ready to ask just for the financing you want.

The desire for control. How much control do you want to retain over your business? Would you be okay with heeding the direction of investors? How much power are you willing to forfeit to get the funding you need?

Type of business. What kind of business are you hoping to start? Is there a flexible approach that can help you get access to more options? For example, can you start as a local company before expanding nationally to reduce your initial capital requirements?

Personal savings. How much do you currently have available in personal savings? Are you capable of funding this business independently, or are you totally relying on external sources of funding? How much would it take to close the gap?

Risk tolerance. Consider your personal and business risk tolerance. Do you have a backup plan in place? What would happen if things go wrong?

Hybrid options. There are usually few restrictions on the number of funding methods you can pursue simultaneously. If you want to compensate for the weaknesses of one funding method, consider simply supplementing it with another, complementary method.