Grammarly is a subscription-based writing tool which checks grammar and spelling, and can provide basic plagiarism detection. Using artificial intelligence, Grammarly offers suggestions on style, tone, word choice, and more.

Grammarly is not approved for use at USask.  

Grammarly’s collection, use and protection of data is governed by their terms of use and privacy policy. Grammarly collects “user content” – all text, documents, or other content or information uploaded, entered, or otherwise transmitted by the user in connection with their use of Grammarly. In other words, wherever Grammarly is being used, everything you type is being collected by Grammarly. Faculty and staff in particular are required to protect university data and personal information pursuant to university policies on data management, privacy, IT security, and IT use. 

Uploading your students’ work into Grammarly for plagiarism detection is not recommended. Grammarly may maintain a copy of a student’s intellectual property and use it for its own profit without benefit to, or permission from, a student. 

Additional information for why a service should not be used: 

Grammatical software used must: 

1. Be in compliance with the Local Authority Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (LAFOIP). 
2. Not require students to surrender ownership of intellectual property. 
3. Be better than free options like Google in finding plagiarism. 

Additional concerns regarding grammatical and other plagiarism-detection software: 

• Student intellectual property (IP), for example essays, are often kept by the service and used for checking against future submissions. Some services even require IP to be relinquished. Student work is retained in the database and the service profits from the use of it. 
• Student identifiers, like name or email address, should not be held with student work on non-Canadian/European servers.  When stored outside of Canada or Europe they may be searchable using the US's Patriot Act, for example. Some ideas conveyed in student work are potentially objectionable to foreign governments. 
• Students cannot be compelled, for example with grades, to be required to use non-approved services for academic reasons. However, students can choose to use a service for their own research purposes. 

The following tools perform similar functions and have been approved for academic use at USask:

• Microsoft Editor is available within the Microsoft 365 suite and is included in our licenses for students, staff, and faculty at no additional cost.   
• Microsoft Bing Copilot is a generative AI tool that allows for up to 2000 characters to be entered per session. This tool can make suggestions on the text entered to improve the writing style and more.

OR See all approved tools