ProWritingAid Messed Up!
When I began my writing adventure in 2016, I was well aware that my grammar and spelling were below average. Nevertheless, I jumped into the deep end of the pool, and there has been a steady improvement in my skills. Fortunately, I got two big helpers around 2018, in the form of Grammarly and ProWritingAid.
Grammarly was the real heavyweight. That program did and still does an over-the-top job of finding all kinds of errors. Where has that been all my life?
ProWritingAid was not as powerful, but it located errors that Grammarly missed. The resulting one-two punch dramatically lifted my words to a whole new level, and now, nothing leaves my computer without a good scrubbing.
How do these programs work? One would think that when you click “install,” a database and sophisticated program are placed on the hard drive. Instead, both programs are tiny, and their function is to upload the text to powerful servers. Then, the corrections are sent back for the user to evaluate. This is because a sophisticated AI-assisted program is required, which would be too resource-consuming for a standard PC.
What is the user experience? Simple. Once the apps are installed in MS Word, an icon for Grammarly and ProWritingAid appears in the toolbar. When clicked, a simple menu appeared, allowing the user to start the analysis.
My documents looked ultra-professional, and the two services kept upping their abilities. The future was bright until last Tuesday.
I started MS Word and opened a document. Suddenly, a huge ProWritingAid window took up 1/3 of my screen. Annoying. So, I closed it, and a giant icon appeared on the right side of my screen, which covered the last word in a sentence. Annoying. Could the icon be moved away? Of course not. More annoying. And it occasionally covered the indicator showing where the last edit occurred. Even more annoying. When I clicked the icon, the same huge window appeared. Incredibly annoying.
After some curse words, I clicked on the ProWritingAid settings to turn off this feature. Except there was no option. More curse words. So, I dashed off a letter to ProWritingAid asking how to deactivate it. I quickly got a friendly letter back saying it was not possible to turn off the feature. I dashed off another letter asking how to switch back to an earlier version, which was also impossible. I dashed off another letter indicating my frustration and even offered to pay to have this feature removed. Again, not possible.
Here is my biggest issue. Writing is supposed to be fun. I get immense joy from seeing my little ideas spring to life. And when others read my creations? Wow! But now, when I open a document, ProWritingAid yells at me: “Your computer hates you!”
I like to put a writing spin on my articles. So, what is going on from that perspective? It was not immediately apparent, and I took a walk to think about things. Then it hit me.
In the last year, several big-budget movies were epic flops. They seemed to have the same pattern that began with a movie studio executive saying to their staff, “Let’s do this flashy thing. Yeah, it will really pop!” When they pitched their idea, there had to be somebody on the team who feared losing their job, but still said in a low voice, “Umm, I do not think audiences will like this.” And the response was, “We will tell them what they like. This is going to make so much money. Sweet!”
This looks like the same thing. Some ProWritingAid executive wanted a flashy menu, which disguised money-generating advertisement. “Hey! Look at me! I’m big! Use me! Tell your friends! Send us more money!” Yet, I bet there was a programmer who murmured, “Umm, I do not think the users will like this.”
The writing connection is that writers and programmers are the same; they are creative people getting paid for their work. In addition, these two groups have spent their careers understanding what consumers like and dislike. Yet, they have to earn a buck, and when the managers tell them to jump, they jump.
While writing is not my profession, I certainly have been in jobs where managers made me do something I knew the customers would dislike. So, I can certainly make the connection to a professional writer being told to write something that readers would dislike, and the same is true for programmers.
Still, I have been telling my friends (everybody who reads my articles and my actual friends) for years that ProWritingAid is an excellent tool. Really, it is. I am adamant that everybody who uses MS Word should install it. That was until Tuesday.
Now what? I do not want to be a hater, but the answer is to avoid this dumpster fire, no matter how much it improves grammar and spelling. Why? Paying for a program to slam an advertisement in the user’s face every time they open a document is beyond annoying.
What am I going to do? I began exploring other correcting options by installing trial versions of QuillBot, Sapling, and Wordtune on my “test computer.” This is an older machine that I use to try out new programs, install obscure programs, or run programs that require many hours. So, we will see how it goes.
Of course, there is another problem. I paid a lot of money for a ProWritingAid lifetime subscription. Will my hard-earned cash go to waste? Yeah…
UPDATE
The awful ProWritingAid annoy-the-customer experiment did not last long. On Thursday, I opened MS Word, and the splash screen and giant icon were not present. NICE!!!! It would seem that the ProWritingAid managers directed their programmers to eliminate this feature quietly. What a relief!
Still, there were consequences. At the very least, my trust in and dedication to ProWritingAid have been diminished. Meaning it still stings when I use it.
Is the pain really that bad? After all, this stupid feature was only present for a few measly days. The thing about writing is that it is 100% a solitary mental activity. I need tremendous effort, courage, self-discipline, and desire to get into the proper headspace. I truly believe that writing is supposed to be fun, and the slightest bump in the road can turn the experience sour.
This means I have not deleted those other grammar-correcting programs from my test computer. Instead, I am exploring their capabilities and strengths. So far, Wordtune is showing great promise, but the result looks a little too AI-generated.
And there is more fallout: this very article. Again, I do not want to be a hater because it is a deep privilege to be alive in this beautiful world full of amazing people and glorious possibilities. Yet, to be a good, moral, upstanding person, I must stand up against those who are trying to dim the lights of hope. Thus, I am going to conclude with, “The ProWritingAid managers really messed up when they took the fun away from my writing.”
You’re the best -Bill
August 12, 2026
Grammarly was the real heavyweight. That program did and still does an over-the-top job of finding all kinds of errors. Where has that been all my life?
ProWritingAid was not as powerful, but it located errors that Grammarly missed. The resulting one-two punch dramatically lifted my words to a whole new level, and now, nothing leaves my computer without a good scrubbing.
How do these programs work? One would think that when you click “install,” a database and sophisticated program are placed on the hard drive. Instead, both programs are tiny, and their function is to upload the text to powerful servers. Then, the corrections are sent back for the user to evaluate. This is because a sophisticated AI-assisted program is required, which would be too resource-consuming for a standard PC.
What is the user experience? Simple. Once the apps are installed in MS Word, an icon for Grammarly and ProWritingAid appears in the toolbar. When clicked, a simple menu appeared, allowing the user to start the analysis.
My documents looked ultra-professional, and the two services kept upping their abilities. The future was bright until last Tuesday.
I started MS Word and opened a document. Suddenly, a huge ProWritingAid window took up 1/3 of my screen. Annoying. So, I closed it, and a giant icon appeared on the right side of my screen, which covered the last word in a sentence. Annoying. Could the icon be moved away? Of course not. More annoying. And it occasionally covered the indicator showing where the last edit occurred. Even more annoying. When I clicked the icon, the same huge window appeared. Incredibly annoying.
After some curse words, I clicked on the ProWritingAid settings to turn off this feature. Except there was no option. More curse words. So, I dashed off a letter to ProWritingAid asking how to deactivate it. I quickly got a friendly letter back saying it was not possible to turn off the feature. I dashed off another letter asking how to switch back to an earlier version, which was also impossible. I dashed off another letter indicating my frustration and even offered to pay to have this feature removed. Again, not possible.
Here is my biggest issue. Writing is supposed to be fun. I get immense joy from seeing my little ideas spring to life. And when others read my creations? Wow! But now, when I open a document, ProWritingAid yells at me: “Your computer hates you!”
I like to put a writing spin on my articles. So, what is going on from that perspective? It was not immediately apparent, and I took a walk to think about things. Then it hit me.
In the last year, several big-budget movies were epic flops. They seemed to have the same pattern that began with a movie studio executive saying to their staff, “Let’s do this flashy thing. Yeah, it will really pop!” When they pitched their idea, there had to be somebody on the team who feared losing their job, but still said in a low voice, “Umm, I do not think audiences will like this.” And the response was, “We will tell them what they like. This is going to make so much money. Sweet!”
This looks like the same thing. Some ProWritingAid executive wanted a flashy menu, which disguised money-generating advertisement. “Hey! Look at me! I’m big! Use me! Tell your friends! Send us more money!” Yet, I bet there was a programmer who murmured, “Umm, I do not think the users will like this.”
The writing connection is that writers and programmers are the same; they are creative people getting paid for their work. In addition, these two groups have spent their careers understanding what consumers like and dislike. Yet, they have to earn a buck, and when the managers tell them to jump, they jump.
While writing is not my profession, I certainly have been in jobs where managers made me do something I knew the customers would dislike. So, I can certainly make the connection to a professional writer being told to write something that readers would dislike, and the same is true for programmers.
Still, I have been telling my friends (everybody who reads my articles and my actual friends) for years that ProWritingAid is an excellent tool. Really, it is. I am adamant that everybody who uses MS Word should install it. That was until Tuesday.
Now what? I do not want to be a hater, but the answer is to avoid this dumpster fire, no matter how much it improves grammar and spelling. Why? Paying for a program to slam an advertisement in the user’s face every time they open a document is beyond annoying.
What am I going to do? I began exploring other correcting options by installing trial versions of QuillBot, Sapling, and Wordtune on my “test computer.” This is an older machine that I use to try out new programs, install obscure programs, or run programs that require many hours. So, we will see how it goes.
Of course, there is another problem. I paid a lot of money for a ProWritingAid lifetime subscription. Will my hard-earned cash go to waste? Yeah…
UPDATE
The awful ProWritingAid annoy-the-customer experiment did not last long. On Thursday, I opened MS Word, and the splash screen and giant icon were not present. NICE!!!! It would seem that the ProWritingAid managers directed their programmers to eliminate this feature quietly. What a relief!
Still, there were consequences. At the very least, my trust in and dedication to ProWritingAid have been diminished. Meaning it still stings when I use it.
Is the pain really that bad? After all, this stupid feature was only present for a few measly days. The thing about writing is that it is 100% a solitary mental activity. I need tremendous effort, courage, self-discipline, and desire to get into the proper headspace. I truly believe that writing is supposed to be fun, and the slightest bump in the road can turn the experience sour.
This means I have not deleted those other grammar-correcting programs from my test computer. Instead, I am exploring their capabilities and strengths. So far, Wordtune is showing great promise, but the result looks a little too AI-generated.
And there is more fallout: this very article. Again, I do not want to be a hater because it is a deep privilege to be alive in this beautiful world full of amazing people and glorious possibilities. Yet, to be a good, moral, upstanding person, I must stand up against those who are trying to dim the lights of hope. Thus, I am going to conclude with, “The ProWritingAid managers really messed up when they took the fun away from my writing.”
You’re the best -Bill
August 12, 2026
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