Use Grammarly to Catch Documentation Consistency Issues

What This Does

Grammarly's AI checks your documentation for more than grammar — it flags inconsistent terminology (using "admin" in one paragraph and "administrator" in another), passive voice, unclear phrasing, and tone mismatches. It catches the consistency errors that spellcheck misses.

Before You Start

• Grammarly account (free tier works; Business adds team style guides)
• Grammarly extension installed in your browser OR Grammarly desktop app
• Documentation draft ready to review (Google Docs, Word, or browser-based editor)

Steps

1. Open your documentation in an editor with Grammarly active

Open Google Docs or Microsoft Word where Grammarly runs in the background. You'll see the Grammarly logo in the bottom right of the document. Make sure it shows as active (green circle).

What you should see: A green Grammarly badge in the bottom right of your document. The number on the badge shows how many suggestions are available.

2. Click the Grammarly badge to open the review panel

Click the green circle to open the side panel. You'll see suggestions organized by category: Correctness, Clarity, Engagement, and Delivery. Click "Clarity" to focus on documentation-specific issues.

What you should see: The right-side panel lists each suggestion with the flagged text highlighted in the document.

3. Review Clarity suggestions first

Clarity suggestions are most relevant for documentation. These flag:

• Passive voice ("The button is clicked by the user" → "Click the button")
• Wordy phrases ("in order to" → "to")
• Unclear pronoun references
• Overly complex sentence structures

Click each suggestion to see the recommendation. Accept it with the blue checkmark or dismiss it with the X.

4. Review the "Consistency" tab (Grammarly Business)

In Grammarly Business, the Style Guide tab enforces your team's terminology choices. If "user ID" is in your style guide, Grammarly will flag "username" and "user name" as inconsistent. Check with your team to see if a style guide is set up.

For free accounts, use the "Correctness" tab and manually scan for terminology inconsistencies.

Troubleshooting: If Grammarly isn't catching terminology issues you care about, use Claude or ChatGPT to do a dedicated consistency pass — paste your content and your terminology list and ask it to flag discrepancies.

5. Set your document goal before reviewing

Click the target icon in the Grammarly panel and set:

• Domain: Technical (for documentation)
• Tone: Formal
• Audience: Expert or Knowledgeable

This calibrates suggestions to technical writing standards rather than casual writing.

Real Example

Scenario: You've written a 1,500-word admin configuration guide and need to review it before sending for SME review.

What you do: Open in Google Docs with Grammarly active. Click the badge → 23 suggestions. You click through Clarity suggestions: 4 passive voice fixes, 3 wordy phrases, 1 unclear pronoun. Total review time: 8 minutes. Document is tighter and more scannable.

What you get: A cleaner document where every sentence is active, direct, and clear — without spending 45 minutes manually editing.

Tips

• For documentation reviews, focus on Clarity and Correctness, not Engagement (Engagement suggestions optimize for persuasive writing, not technical precision)
• Grammarly's "Formal" tone setting is right for most technical documentation; use "Neutral" for informal knowledge base articles
• The free tier catches most grammar and clarity issues; Grammarly Business adds team style guides and terminology enforcement
• Use Grammarly in the browser when editing in Confluence — it runs on most web-based editors

Tool interfaces change — if a button has moved, look for similar AI/magic/smart options in the same menu area.