Use Grammarly's AI to Edit Copy for Tone and Style

What This Does

Grammarly's AI rewrites individual sentences or paragraphs to adjust tone — making corporate copy more conversational, passive constructions more direct, and hedging language more confident — all from inside your browser or Google Docs.

Before You Start

• You have Grammarly installed (browser extension or Google Docs add-on)
• You're on Grammarly Free (basic corrections) or Grammarly Premium (tone + rewrite features)
• Your draft is open in a browser-based editor (Google Docs, Gmail, or a web CMS)

Steps

1. Open your draft with Grammarly active

In any browser text field or Google Docs, look for the green Grammarly icon in the bottom-right corner. If it's green, Grammarly is active and scanning your text.

What you should see: Underlined suggestions appearing in your text — green for correctness, blue for clarity, purple for engagement.

2. Set your writing goal

Click the Grammarly icon → "Goals." Set: Audience (General, Expert, or Technical), Formality (Informal, Neutral, Formal), Tone (Informative, Analytical, Confident, Empathetic). For marketing copy, Confident + Informal is usually right.

What you should see: The suggestion count and type may shift after setting goals — Grammarly recalibrates to your target style.

3. Address engagement suggestions (purple underlines)

Click any purple-underlined phrase. These are tone and style suggestions. For marketing copy, focus on:

• "Rewrite sentence" — Grammarly offers a shorter, stronger alternative
• "Make it more direct" — removes hedging language ("it seems like" → "it is")
• "Confident language" — removes weak qualifiers ("might," "possibly," "a little")

Click "Accept" for suggestions that improve the copy; click the X to skip ones that don't.

4. Check passive voice specifically

In the Grammarly sidebar, scroll to "Clarity." Filter for "Passive voice" suggestions. Marketing copy should be almost entirely active voice. Accept every passive voice fix unless you have a specific reason to keep the passive construction.

Troubleshooting: If Grammarly isn't catching passive voice, make sure you're on Premium (free tier doesn't include clarity suggestions).

5. Review and use the result

After accepting suggestions, re-read the copy aloud. It should sound noticeably more direct and confident. Save the revised version.

Real Example

Scenario: A landing page draft for a B2B software tool sounds stiff and overly formal.

Original: "Our platform may be able to help organizations potentially reduce time spent on manual data entry by utilizing automation features that could streamline various workflows."

What you do: Let Grammarly's clarity suggestions work through it → accept "direct language" and "passive voice" fixes.

What you get: "Our platform automates data entry and streamlines your workflows — so your team does less manual work and more of what matters."

Tips

• Use the "Tone Detector" at the top of the Grammarly sidebar to see how your copy actually reads — before and after. It shows words like "Informative," "Direct," "Upbeat" that reflect the AI's read of your draft.
• For client-facing copy, check "Inclusive language" in the Grammarly Goals to catch phrases that might alienate specific audience segments.
• Grammarly's browser extension works in any web-based editor including WordPress, HubSpot, and most email platforms — no copying and pasting needed.

Tool interfaces change — if a button has moved, look for similar AI/magic/smart options in the same menu area.