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P-ISSN: 2460-4046 E-ISSN: 2830-0327
JEEP: Journal of English Education Program, Vol. 9 No. 2, July 2022

THE USE OF GRAMMARLY TO ENHANCE STUDENTS' ACCURACY IN

WRITING DESCRIPTIVE TEXT
(A CASE STUDY AT EIGHTH GRADE OF A JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL IN
CIAMIS)

Aprilia Wismatul Fauziah Hadiat

English Education Program FKIP Galuh University, Ciamis, Indonesia
[email protected]

Wawan Tarwana
English Education Program FKIP Galuh University, Ciamis, Indonesia
[email protected]

Leni Irianti
English Education Program FKIP Galuh University, Ciamis, Indonesia
[email protected]

APA Citation: Hadiat, A.W.F., Tarwana, W., & Irianti, L. (2022). The use of Grammarly to
enhance students' accuracy in writing Descriptive text (A case study at eighth grade of a
Junior High School in Ciamis). Journal of English Education Program (JEEP), 9(2), 1-10.

Received: 15-07-2020 Accepted: 10-06-2021 Published: 1-7-2022

Abstract: The purpose of the study is to find out the use of Grammarly to enhance students’ skill in writing
descriptive text and to figure out the students’ perceptions on the implementation of Grammarly to enhance the
accuracy of writing descriptive text. This case study involves 30 students at class VIII as research participants.
The data of this study are gathered from the questionnaire, the interview, and the online classroom observation.
The data analysis uses four techniques including the frequency table, content analysis, coding, and triangulation
analysis. The findings reveals that the use of Grammarly can enhance the accuracy of writing descriptive text. The
findings also shows that most of students give positive perceptions towards the use of Grammarly in writing
descriptive text because it can make the students motivated to enhance their writing skill, makes it easy for them
to find out the mistakes in writing a text, avoid plagiarism, more thoroughly when there are writing errors, and
they are more confident when writing a text using Grammarly. Finally, future researchers are expected to conduct
the research quantitatively with similar topic to enrich this study..

Keywords: Descriptive text; Grammarly; Writing Accuracy; Writing Skill

INTRODUCTION
In learning English, students must be able to learn four skills, such as speaking, writing,
reading, and listening. Regarding the writing, in particular, as a main focus of the present study,
Harmer (2007, p.134) claims that writing can be a medium to express someone’s idea related to
their experience, thought and feeling. Likewise, Nunan (2003) as cited in Novariana, Samiati, &
Tarjana, 2018) and Hamadouche (2010) state that writing is the thinking process to invent ideas,
thinking about how to generate good piece of writing, and pour the thoughts into clear statement
and paragraph to be read. Furthermore, Patel & Jain (2008, p. 125), argue that writing means an
important part in learning a language because it facilitates a very good mean to correct the
vocabulary, spelling, and sentence pattern. Writing is a dynamic process that engages students’

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feelings, observations, and personal experiences (The Center for Teaching International Relation
of University of Denver, 1990, as cited in Shofiyah (2014).
Junior High School students in Indonesia should have the ability in writing skill, in particular
writing descriptive text that aims to describe an object such as place, animals, people, or things
clearly and detail as stated by Tompkins (1994). Stanley (1988) as cited in Anggun (2016) claims
that descriptive text is aimed to describe an object or a person that the writer is interested in. In
reality, writing is a difficult skill to learn; and consequently, students frequently make mistake in
writing such as grammatical error, miss-spelling, wrong punctuation and others (Kharma, 1987 as
cited in Novariana, et al., 2018). This leads to the students’ writing works which is not accurate.
While University of Cambridge (2015) states that accuracy is the condition of good grammar,
vocabulary, spelling and pronunciation without making mistakes and the writers usually focus on
producing language correctly. To overcome these errors, technology is needed to search for
mistakes and other writing errors as well as creating accuracy. To overcome these errors,
technology is needed to search for mistakes and other writing errors as well as creating accuracy.
In the modern era, technology has become a necessity and has affected people from various
aspects. As stated by Hanafizadeh, Ghandchi, and Asgarimehr (2017), “technology like computer,
internet, wireless tool, social network has changed people lifestyle in spite of age and gender”.
Education is also one of the aspect that is influenced by technological development, especially in
learning foreign languages like learning English.
In term of correct grammar, hence, the existence of grammar checker in writing is very
helpful to identify mistakes and other language errors in students writing. The grammar checker is
a software application or part of a software application that helps in checking the correctness of
grammar of the text. Moreover, grammar checkers are worked to identify mistakes and other
language errors. It works by using natural language processing and grammatical guidelines
(Techopedia, 2015, cited in Nuro’azah, 2019).
There are a lot of grammar checker that are used to identify mistakes and other language
errors in writing, such as White Smoke, Ginger, Reverso, Language Tool, Paper Rater,
Hemingway Editor, Pro Writing Aid, Spell Check Plus, Grammarly and the others. In this research,
the researcher chose one of the grammar checker namely, “Grammarly”. It is useful for the students
to search mistakes and other language errors in their writing (Daniels & Leslie, 2015, as cited in
Gain & Bhat, 2019).
Grammarly is a grammar and spelling checker tool that offers grammar, spell detector, and
plagiarism detector features that can be accessed online through gadgets, PC’s or laptops and can
be used directly through a web browser, desktop, or connected directly to Microsoft Office Word.
Grammarly Inc. makes this tool in 2009 in San Francisco, California. The founders of this software
are Alex Shevchenko, Max Lytvyn, and Dmytro Lider.
The researcher found some previous studies on related topic (Jin, 2018; Ghufron, 2019; Parra
& Calero, 2019. Those previous studies focuses: 1) on investigating the benefit of online grammar
checker in writing English; 2) on describing the teachers and students’ perceptions and attitudes
toward the use of ‘Grammarly’ and teacher corrective feedback and reveal the advantage and
disadvantage of ‘Grammarly’ and teacher corrective feedback in EFL writing class; and 3) on
conducting free Automated Writing Evaluation tools on students’ writing performance an English
Teacher Training Program. Unlike those present study aforementioned, the present study deals
with different area of research questions. The first is to investigate the way the students use
“Grammarly” to enhance their accuracy in writing descriptive text; and students’ perceptions on
“Grammarly” to enhance the accuracy of writing descriptive text.

METHOD
This study used case study design which was carried out in one of the junior high schools in
Ciamis, Indonesia. The sample was chosen randomly, consisting of 30 eight grade students. The
researcher administered three instruments in the form of the observation, the interview, and the

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questionnaire. The observation included classroom observation as well as online observation. The
online observation was conducted by joining and observing the teacher and students’ activities in
the Whatsapp group of the class. In analyzing the data, coding and transcribing were used
especially to analyze the observation and interview data, whereas percentage computation as
suggested by (Cohen, Manion, & Morrison, 2007, p. 147) to interpret the data from the
questionnaire.

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

As previously mentioned, the present study is addressed to the two major questions. The first
is “How do the students use “Grammarly” to enhance the accuracy of writing descriptive text?”
which employed observation and interview to obtain the data. The second is “What are students’
perceptions about using “Grammarly” to enhance the accuracy in writing descriptive text?” Its
main data was obtained from questionnaires. The following is the elaboration of the findings:
The students’ way in using “Grammarly” to enhance the accuracy of writing descriptive text
Online classroom observation was conducted to investigate the use of Grammarly by the
students to enhance the accuracy of writing descriptive text. The classroom observation was
conducted one times on 13th of July 2020. The interview session was conducted after the interview
on July 14th. In conducting the observation, the researcher involved as a non-participant observer,
in which the researcher only watched and recorded the process of teaching and learning without
intervening in the process. In addition, the researcher also elaborated on the data from the interview
and observation in order to support and validate the analysis of the data. From all the findings
mentioned previously, it showed that the first research question was answered based on
observation and interview. In the finding, the researcher concluded that the use of Grammarly to
enhance students' accuracy in writing descriptive text could enhance students' writing abilities.
This result of study is similar to the study conducted by Parra & Calero (2019) reported on
"Automated Writing Evaluation Tools in the Improvement of the Writing Skill".
The study result showed that there is improvement of the students writing by using
Grammarly tool. The data from the online observation can be concluded that the implementation
of Grammarly was suitable to be adopted in writing class, particularly in writing descriptive text
which relate to the finding of the study conducted by Ghufron (2019). On the other hand, the data
from the interview showed that the implementation of Grammarly was suitable conducted in
writing class, particularly in writing descriptive text.
The findings imply that the implementation of Grammarly to enhance the accuracy in writing
descriptive text could enhance students' writing abilities. It is similar to Parra & Calero (2019) who
conducted the study on Automated Writing Evaluation Tools to improve writing skill. The results
revealed positive effects on the students writing development by using Grammarly tool which links
to Ghufron (2019) who conducted the study on Automated Feedback Program ‘Grammarly’ and
Teacher Corrective Feedback in EFL Writing Assessmen.

The Students’ Perceptions about the Use of Grammarly to Enhance The Accuracy of in
Writing Descriptive Text.
The close-ended questionnaire was used by the researcher to figure out the perceptions of
students about the correctness of writing descriptive text by using Grammarly. It contained 15
items of closing statement and the students responded to each item. The questionnaire data were
obtained from 30 students on the 15th July, 2020, after they conducted the learning process of
writing descriptive text using Grammarly. The data from the questionnaire was elaborated by
means of the percentage computation adopted from (Cohen et al., 2007, p. 147) as given in Table
1,

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Table 1. The questionnaire’s results

No Question Answers (%)
Strongly Agree Neutral Strongly Disagree
Agree Disagree
1 Using Grammarly makes it easy for 36.7 63.3 0.0 0.0 0.0
me to write descriptive text.
2 Grammarly easy to use 23.3 70.0 6.7 0.0 0.0
3 Using grammarly helps me to find
43.3 56.7 0.0 0.0 0.0
errors in writing descriptive text
4 I adopt grammarly to make descriptive
30.0 60.0 10.0 0.0 0.0
text
5 I often use grammarly to write
10.0 70.0 13.3 6.7 0.0
descriptive text
6 Using grammarly makes it easy for me
36.7 60.0 3.3 0.0 0.0
to avoid plagiarism
7 Using grammarly to write descriptive
text motivated me to improve my 43.3 46.7 10.0 0.0 0.0
writing skill
8 I think Grammarly is ‘language
checker’ is beneficial for me to 43.3 43.3 10.0 3.3 0.0
eliminate errors in my essay
9 I think using Grammarly help me to
improve grammar accuracy in my 40.0 53.3 3.3 3.3 0.0
essay
10 I must have Grammarly in my mobile
20.0 73.3 6.7 0.0 0.0
phone
11 After using Grammarly, I believe
Grammarly can check for 43.3 53.3 3.3 0.0 0.0
grammatical errors in my essay
12 I am more confident in writing
36.7 60.0 3.3 0.0 0.0
descriptive text by using Grammarly
13 Accuracy (grammar, punctuation, etc)
43.3 56.7 0.0 0.0 0.0
in writing descriptive text is needed
14 Using Grammarly make me more
thorough when something goes wrong 33.3 60.0 6.7 0.0 0.0
in writing a text
15 I feel there is a very significant
improvement in my grades after using 40.0 50.0 10.0 0.0 0.0
Grammarly for my academic writing

From the Table 1, it could be described that the half of the participants answered “Agree”
indicating that they feel there is a very significant improvement in their grades after using
Grammarly for academic writing. According to the finding of questionnaire, the researcher
concluded that the students give good opinions on the benefit of the grammar checker (Grammarly)
to enhance correctness in writing descriptive text. The finding is relevant with the study conducted
by Jin (2018) who investigates the efficiency of Online Grammar Checker in English writing.
Thus, Grammarly tool is worth implementing in writing class.
In the finding, the researcher concluded that the implementation of Grammarly to enhance
students' accuracy in writing descriptive text could enhance students' writing abilities. It is similar
to Parra & Calero (2019) who conducted the study entitled "Automated Writing Evaluation Tools
in the Improvement of the Writing Skill". The results revealed positive effects on the students
writing development by using Grammarly tool. Hence, it can be concluded also that the data from
the online observation showed that the implementation of Grammarly was suitable to be conducted
in writing class, particularly in writing descriptive text. It links to Ghufron (2019) who conducted
the study entitled “Exploring an Automated Feedback Program ‘Grammarly’ and Teacher
Corrective Feedback in EFL Writing Assessment: Modern vs. Traditional Assessment”. Hence, it

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can also be concluded that the data from the interview showed that the implementation of
Grammarly was suitable conducted in writing class, particularly in writing descriptive text.
It has been answered the last research question about “What are students' perceptions about
using Grammarly tools to enhance their accuracy in descriptive text writing?” The result revealed
that the students have positive perceptions opinions about the benefit of the grammar checker
(Grammarly Tool) to enhance accuracy in writing descriptive text. It is relevant with Jin (2018)
who conducted the study on efficiency of Online Grammar Checker in English writing. The
conclusion showed that most students had good responses and claimed that the use of Grammarly
in writing descriptive text could enhance the accuracy of writing descriptive text.

CONCLUSIONS
All instruments has been constructed to complete the case on this study dealing with the
implementation of Grammarly tool to improve students' accuracy in writing descriptive text and
students’ perceptions about the use of Grammarly tool to enhance their accuracy in writing
descriptive text. Based on the data, most of the students agreed that the use of Grammarly tool to
enhance their accuracy in writing descriptive text really enhances their ability in writing
descriptive text. The conclusion is Grammarly is beneficial to improve the accuracy of writing, in
particular, descriptive text. The implementation of Grammarly usage in descriptive text learning
runs smoothly. The teacher gives assignments that are based on the lesson being studied.
Finally, the researcher also found that students’ perceptions toward the implementation of
Grammarly tool to enhance the accuracy of writing descriptive text is better. Almost all of the
students give positive perception and writing descriptive text using Grammarly results in students’
better improvements. Among others, they can make the students motivated to make their writing
skill better, make them easier to check their mistakes in writing a text, avoid plagiarism more
thoroughly when there are writing errors, and they are more confident when writing a text using
the Grammarly tool.

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