Grammarly is my new best friend.*, but they need a lesson in "with" and "on"

It won’t raise a problem unless it offers a solution.  It gently corrects my mistakes.  When I ignore its suggested corrections, it does not take offense. It’s always there when I need it. Again, my new best friend. 

However, no one and nothing is perfect.

When working with clients on a large strategic planning project we do a lot of writing for them – reports, strategic plan overviews, community-facing plans, implementation plans, etc. Grammarly is always right by my side (just like now as I write this post).  

However, when you spend too much time with someone, you learn a lot about them.  After several reports, summarizing the findings from hours of data-gathering, I began to see a problem:  Grammarly is not asset-based.

Here’s what I mean.  

When I write a sentence, something like, “Your programming is making a huge impact with the community.”  Almost every time, Big G highlights “with” and suggests the word “on.”   

I have a beef with that because in the work we do with clients, we are working with humans.  They are not objects, and the impact our clients make is not something that is done “to” humans.  Instead, the desired change is done “with” the community or the individual.

This is important.

Someone once told me, and I have found it to be true, people don’t necessarily resist change - instead, they are often resisting loss (they feel they are losing something with the change) or they are resisting coercion (something being done to them).  

Doing “to” (or “for”) and not “with” no matter how well-intentioned often does not lead to lasting change, but only momentary change.  True change takes place when shared understanding and visions of success are in place.  When we work together toward the same goal.  That is the change we seek with our clients, and they, in turn, seek with theirs.

And though Grammarly is not perfect, it has had a great impact ON my writing.  Which is great, because it saves me time so I can focus on impact with clients. 

 

*This is not a paid endorsement of Grammarly, and I do have plenty of IRL friends…just not as cool as Grammarly.