This option would be very helpful.

Where to start?

I would suggest a set of options be turned off at the same time, based on selecting a writing style. Ie: Technical, Creative or Formal

For Formal Writing Style: Leave Everything On

For Technical Writing: Turn off Passive Voice, Synonyms, etc (someone more proficient in this style should comment here)

For Creative Writing: Turn off (or reduce) Contractions alerts, Sentence Fragments, Informal Dialog, etc.

The software makes me OK over and over again the use of the word "you".  It tells me "The personal pronoun, “you”, may not be appropriate for formal writing.  Consider removing this pronoun, and rephrasing your sentence.       Formal writing should be impersonal, so personal pronouns – possessive or otherwise- are generally not used.  Personal pronouns (i.e. I, you, we, my, mine, your, yours, our, ours) assume the information in your writing applies only to specific readers.  By using impersonal pronouns (he, she, one, they, his, him, her, one’s, their), any reader may make their own personal connections to the information being discussed.         Hint: replace you, I and we with one, and replace my, mine, yours and ours with one’s."  I have already made that decision for myself, and then for the software many times.  Thank you so much for listening to your users!  Chris Williams

I would like to be able to determine for myself which rules I'd like to use for rechecking my work. For example, ending a sentence with a preposition is not the no-no it used to be. It would be good to have the option of verifying how frequently I end sentences with prepositions by going through the text once and then being able to turn off the rule.

I would like to be able to run a check, get a score (for example, 53 out of 100), and then work it down. However, if I choose to retain my wording rather than correct it according to the program, it appears that I can't significantly improve my score! And I hate to receive the same guidance again and again, especially if I have legitimate reasons not to take it. 

Having the option of turning off rules after we are satisfied with our own choices could be very psychologically satisfying to those of us who tend to be overachievers.

Thanks for asking.

Fran Ponick

Another comment: I just discovered two things that make Grammarly a show-stopper for me. First, it is not possible to download the Office Add-In to the Mac. Second, the formatting is lost after copying my text from Grammarly back to Word. (Granted, it was only bolding, but these were the subheads in the chapter of a book.)

I think Grammarly is a wonderful concept, but at present it doesn't have the flexibility and capability I need. Thanks anyway. Fran Ponick

There should be a way to turn off the "plagiarism" check.  It matches up with my own document which had been previously published on the web.

As far as listening to customers, it does not seem to be happening.  These comments are from Sept/10 and suggestions have not been implemented.  I emailed customer support several weeks ago and have yet to receive a reply.  I subscribed for one year, and while I've found grammarly very handy at times, the bugs that exist and in the inability to customize the checking negate the benefits. Based on the lack of customer service response, I don't think I'll be handing over any more $.

Dear Sal,

You can actually turn off the plagiarism check. Please perform the following steps:

1. Login to your account;

2. Paste the text you need to check into Grammarly text field;

3. Place your mouth cursor on Start Review button prior to clicking on it;

4. Click on "Plagiarism check ON" in the drop-down menu which will appear. By doing so, you will turn off the plagiarism check.

Dear Karen,

You have submitted one request as of Jan 12, 2011. We have responded to it withing 24-hour frame.  If you have any requests/ suggestions, please do not hesitate to write to us at support@grammarly.com. We do our best to improve the service every day.

great idea but I'm a bit shocked at how few options there are on offer. I'm really annoyed that I have paid for this. Its basically making me do a ton of work just to get it reformatted and back into the original document. The synonyms are dreadful and are killing me. They take forever to work through are completely useless. Although I can see the value of this product. It is making me do way too much work for the price you want me to pay. A refund would not be unreasonable.

Dear Mr. Butler,

May I suggest disregarding Grammarly alerts if you believe that no changes should be applied to your text. According to our billing records, no payment has been made. You have canceled your account on the same day it has 
been created. 

Is there a way of getting the program to accept a word that is a noun "affect" - it pick up affect as if it were not a noun. I mean the word affect in this way - "The innate affect system has primacy in matters of motivation".

I am a teacher and would like in some cases to change or eliminate an individual correction comment.. For instance,  in 1 case there was a choice of 2 possible errors for the text.  The student is ESL and would not have enough basic grammar understanding to make that choice.  I would like to be able to change that particular comment,  to label the comment as a single error instead of a choice and give appropriate feedback for that one error.  In some cases an individual comment may not be appropriate for a certain student, and I would like to turn off only that particular comment completely. I would also like to be able to turn off certain types of error check options individually .  For instance, if a student has a particular problem with run/on sentences, I would like to be able to set the program so it only checks for run/ons and not for other types of errors.Students make pattern errors.  I would like to be able to show the students what their particular error pattern is.  That knowledge helps them learn to self correct faster.   Is there a way to do those things?  If not, I would like to make those suggestions.  They would make the program much more appropriate for my purposes.  

Also, after I have gone over your comments to see if they are appropriate for a certain student,  I would like to give him/her a copy of your report.  Obviously, I cannot tell my students to just go out and buy the program. The most it is appropriate for me to do is tell them that Grammarly is the company which makes the program that is commenting on  their grammar errors. Is giving a student a copy of your report on their individual paper, legal?  I certainly don't expect them to sell etc. a copy of their individual English error report.  I would be giving them the report to help them learn to correct that particular assignment.  Since on their final paper, I expect no grammar or language use errors at all, allowing them to have your report and comments contributes positively to their grade in the class.  

Thank you for your consideration.

I also wanted to be able to change the content of an individual  comment on just one sentence, and the ability to turn on/off  a certain error check for 1 individual sentence, but to leave that error check on for the rest of the paper.  If I could do these 2 things, I could remove error choices that were inappropriate for an individual student's level of expertise.

Thank you for your research and forwarding part of my response to the development team.

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I would like to see synonyms as an option vs as a required check.

I would also like to turn off passive voice alerts. I do not understand why a single passive voice sentence in a seven page essay is cause for an 85/100 score.