Grammarly for Technical Documentation

Grammarly is an AI-powered writing assistant that enforces prose quality, grammatical correctness, and style-guide consistency across all documentation. While Sphinx handles structure and ChatGPT accelerates drafting, Grammarly acts as the final quality gate before content reaches readers.

Where Grammarly Fits in the TW Workflow

        flowchart LR
  Draft["RST draft\n(written or AI-generated)"]
  Grammarly["Grammarly\nQuality Gate"]
  StyleGuide["Internal\nStyle Guide"]
  Approved["Clean draft\nready for peer review"]

  Draft --> Grammarly
  StyleGuide -.->|"Rules configured\nin Grammarly profile"| Grammarly
  Grammarly --> Approved

  subgraph Grammarly["Grammarly checks"]
    direction TB
    G1["Grammar &\nspelling"]
    G2["Passive voice\ndetection"]
    G3["Wordiness\n& clarity"]
    G4["Tone\nconsistency"]
    G5["Plagiarism\ncheck"]
  end

Feature Breakdown

Feature	Plan required	How technical writers use it
Grammar & spelling	Free	Catches typos and grammatical errors in RST prose blocks.
Clarity suggestions	Premium	Flags overly complex sentences; suggests shorter alternatives.
Passive-voice detection	Premium	Highlights passive constructions; prompts conversion to active voice.
Wordiness reduction	Premium	Removes filler phrases ("in order to" → "to").
Tone detector	Premium	Flags tone as Formal / Neutral / Informal — useful for audience targeting.
Consistency check	Business	Enforces custom word lists (e.g., "API key" not "api-key").
Style guide integration	Business	Imports rules from APA, Chicago, AP, or a custom style guide.
Plagiarism detection	Premium / Business	Ensures original phrasing — relevant when adapting vendor content.
Goals panel	Free	Set audience, formality, domain, and intent before each review.

Maintaining the Documentation Tone of Voice

Our documentation follows a helpful, direct, and objective style:

Principle	Example (before)	Example (after)
Active voice	"The token is refreshed by the SDK."	"The SDK refreshes the token."
Concise language	"In order to be able to make use of the API…"	"To use the API…"
Second person	"The developer should configure…"	"Configure the client with…"
Present tense	"The function will return a list."	"The function returns a list."
Specific over vague	"An error may occur."	"The request returns ``401`` if the token is missing."

Important

Grammarly is a supplement, not a replacement, for human review. It does not understand domain-specific jargon (e.g., idempotent, TTL, PKCE) and may incorrectly flag technical terms as errors. Add your glossary terms to a custom dictionary in the Grammarly Business profile to suppress false positives.

Integration Patterns

Browser Extension (Recommended for RST drafts in web editors)

The Grammarly browser extension activates automatically in web-based editors such as Confluence, Notion, and GitHub's PR description editor.

Supported browsers

Chrome · Firefox · Safari · Edge

VS Code + Grammarly Extension

For Docs-as-Code teams editing .rst files directly in VS Code, the official Grammarly extension provides inline suggestions inside the editor.

Install the VS Code extension via CLI

code --install-extension znck.grammarly

After installing, add the following to .vscode/settings.json to enable Grammarly checks on RST files:

.vscode/settings.json

{
  "grammarly.files.include": ["**/*.rst", "**/*.md", "**/*.txt"],
  "grammarly.files.exclude": ["**/build/**", "**/.venv/**"],
  "grammarly.config.documentDomain": "technical"
}

Tip

Set "grammarly.config.documentDomain": "technical" to reduce false positives on code-adjacent terminology in RST files.

Desktop App (Recommended for long-form reviews)

Paste full RST sections into the Grammarly desktop editor for a comprehensive review before raising a PR. The Goals panel lets you specify audience (expert), formality (formal), and domain (technical) for each document type.

Grammarly API (CI integration)

The Grammarly Text Editor SDK can be embedded in custom internal tools or documentation platforms to enforce quality rules programmatically.

Node.js — inline Grammarly check via Text Editor SDK

import { GrammarlyEditorPlugin } from "@grammarly/editor-sdk";

const plugin = await GrammarlyEditorPlugin.init("CLIENT_ID");
plugin.addPlugin(document.querySelector("#doc-textarea"));

AI Tools Comparison for Technical Writers

Capability	Grammarly	ChatGPT	Claude
Grammar & spelling	✅ Best-in-class	⚠️ Adequate	⚠️ Adequate
Content generation	❌ Not supported	✅ Excellent	✅ Excellent
Code documentation	❌ Not supported	✅ Good	✅ Excellent
Style-guide enforcement	✅ Custom rules	⚠️ Prompt-dependent	⚠️ Prompt-dependent
Tone consistency	✅ Tone detector	⚠️ Inconsistent	✅ Consistent
IDE integration	✅ VS Code plugin	⚠️ Via Copilot chat	✅ Claude Code (CLI)
File / repo access	❌ No	❌ No (without plugins)	✅ Yes (Cowork / Code)
Pricing model	Freemium	Subscription / API	Subscription / API

Stage	Tool	What to check
Live editing	VS Code extension	Grammar, spelling, passive voice inline.
Pre-PR polish	Desktop App	Tone, wordiness, consistency — Goals panel active.
PR description	Browser extension	Clarity of change summary for reviewers.
Translated content	Desktop App (paste)	Verify fluency and preserved technical meaning.