When it comes to error-free writing, despite some typical spelling and grammatical errors, you have to check your punctuation mistakes too. I understand you don’t be ready to download a script or software, set-up, and use it for this specific purpose. But, at the same time, you can’t ignore these punctuation errors to ruin your content value. So, here are some of the best punctuation checker tools.
Indeed, you can’t use individual writing assistant tools for different writing error checks. The one you choose must eliminate your spelling, grammatical, and punctuation mistakes. The proficient English proofreading tool should help you to learn and improve your writing skills. Using which, you should make sure your content is original or plagiarism-free. So, you need all-inclusive English writing software. Anywhere you write from any device, use these online services to make sure your content is entirely flawless.
What If You Don’t Use Any Best Punctuation Checker Tools?
Punctuations are one of the vital elements that aid the readers to exactly read, understand, and follow the writer’s intended messages. It also helps the writers to improve their content readability, much.
Depending upon – where the punctuations are used or if they are used at all or not can impact the text delivery. More often, we confuse readers if we don’t use proper punctuation. Let’s take an example –
Correct: Let’s cut, kids.
It Kills: Let’s cut kids.
Check out the below two sentences that give us contradictory meaning when you don’t period where it requires.
I’m sorry. I still care for you.
I’m sorry I still care for you.
So, keep in mind; the improper usage of punctuations can interfere with the communication and mislead the readers. To the worst case, rely on any best free grammar and punctuation checker if you are still practicing.
Can The FREE Punctuation Checker Tools Help?
Even free punctuation checker software can help you fix some common punctuation mistakes. Indeed, mistakes are only meant for start-ups alone. Even writing experts would make mistakes like the missing comma, comma misplacing, etc. while writing fast and massive. They are aware of the writing rules, but it happens once they get into the writing flow. All I would insist is accompany some powerful punctuation checkers and correctors to express yourself better.
In this best punctuation checker tools, I include both complex and compound sentence punctuation checker (both free and paid tools). To some extent, free punctuation checking tools can help. But, to check advanced punctuation mistakes, comma splices, don’t hesitate to invest a little money. Especially, the authors, eBook publishers, story-writers, magazine writers, and students would need such premium punctuation checkers.
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3 Best Punctuation Checker Tools Online – Let’s Express Better!
Writing compelling content is ever-crucial, especially in the digital age, where the content gets you a good impression, trust in your brand, and credibility. You have to put extra efforts to make your content error-free and hence, impress or engage your readers. Make them stick to your content flow. The conversational-type content will work better to interact with your target users, where punctuations play a great role there.
In this article, let’s review and analyze 5 top and best online punctuation checker tools that will help you proofread your content.
#1 Grammarly – Best Online Punctuation Checker Software
I’m sure; you must know Grammarly as the best proofreading tool, plagiarism checker, spell and grammar checker, and so on. From my years of blogging experience and writing, Grammarly is my favorite writing assistant tool with neat GUI, detailed reports, and rich formatting options.
Today, in this best online punctuation checker tools article, Grammarly deserves to be the top player since it has a smart punctuation checking feature as well.
Copy-pasting your content or uploading a document or writing directly into the Grammarly editor, the tool cleverly identifies and highlights your mistakes. Here, I’m just feeding the sample content with punctuation errors to test the tool.
You can see Grammarly highlighting your punctuation mistakes under the “Correctness” category of its “All Alerts”.
Grammarly has its advanced AI-based algorithm to spot even any rare and complex errors in your writing. Hence, I believe in it and recommend it personally.
Also, clicking on the Green colored alert card, the mistakes will be fixed automatically. You don’t have to be re-writing or editing it manually.
And, Grammarly gives you a clear explanation on each error as if you want to understand the right logic or writing rule behind the mistakes you made.
Further, click on “learn more”. So that the Grammarly tool will expand its alert card and offer more detailed explanations with examples for better understanding. Here, Grammarly allows you to learn things and prompts you to avoid the same mistakes to happen in the future. Not to surprise, it aids you to improve your writing skills.
Here is another punctuation mistake that Grammarly catches – the missing comma in a sentence with a series of words, phrases or clauses, and after the introductory phrase.
You can name Grammarly as comma corrector, comma inserter or comma checker or punctuation corrector app, or anything you like.
Not only the commas, but it also deals with any punctuation marks like apostrophe, colon, and semicolon, a hyphen, period, exclamations, quotations, question marks, and everything.
So, we have seen how Grammarly is effective in making your content free punctuation errors. But, only for that reason, you can’t make a decision that Grammarly must be the best punctuation checker tool. There are still more awesome features that prove Grammarly as a user-friendly, flexible, and comprehensive English proofreading and writing assistant tool.
Assist you anywhere you write online – Grammarly tool is available in various forms. You can either use it as an add-on for browsers, native desktop apps for Windows or MAC systems, Grammarly keyboard for smartphones, and so on.
Complete proofreading tool – Not just punctuation mistakes, it eliminates spell and grammatical errors, checks for plagiarism, helps you improving your vocabulary, checks genre-specific writing style, etc. and polishes your content.
User-friendly – Undoubtedly, Grammarly has a neat GUI and dashboard for easy-accessing. Indeed, you have multiple options to input your content into the Grammarly editor – upload the document, write directly, copy-paste the text, or integrate Grammarly with your on-the-go writing editor.
Comprehensive alerts – As we have seen above, Grammarly gives you detailed explanations of each mistake. Also, the tool lets you learn from the mistakes, flag inappropriate suggestions, and add specific words or names to the dictionary. Enabling “Auto-Jump to the next alert” in its Editor Settings panel, Grammarly will automatically scroll to the next alert soon after any previous alert is applied or rejected.
Formatting options – Like any other writing software, you have rich text formatting options format your content. It includes bold, italic, heading tags, bullets & numbering, etc.
Detailed insights – Grammarly is smart enough to analyze and report strategic insights about your content. Anything from content readability score, word usage, sentence length and variations, and more.
Distinct features – As one of the to-go tools in the writing arsenal, Grammarly proves its capability offering more distinct features. For example – Set goals to get tailor-made writing suggestions based on your writing goals and audience, Tone Detector to experiment how you want to sound while writing, and even more.
Frequent Updates – Compared to other best punctuation checker tools, Grammarly comes with frequent updates and set of new features, more often. In that series, now ‘clarity suggestions’ is a part of that in beta version. Rather highlighting each individual error in a sentence those make a sentence ‘hard to read’, Grammarly suggests replacing the entire sentence with a click.
Either you can let Grammarly to replace the version or you can manually make changes allowing Grammarly to recheck the particular sentence again.
Flexible pricing plans – Don’t stick to Grammarly at the very start spending money. Try Grammarly free, test its features, and then go premium. Also, if you just need it occasionally, then go for its monthly or quarterly plans.
Pros
- Free tool available with limited features
- Seamless integrations with 3rd party writing editors
- Desktop apps for Windows & Mac OS
- Quick and reliable results
- Free Chrome add-on
- Group plans available for corporate workers
- Grammarly EDU for students and academic professionals
Cons
- Little expensive when you choose short term plans
- No MS Office integrations for Mac users
User Opinion
Though I don’t say Grammarly is like human proofreading, it is the only tool that comes close to it and exceeds (sometimes) having some cool features.
#2 ProWritingAid
ProWritingAid is yet another cloud-based punctuation checker tool that gives fierce competition to Grammarly. No way, it lags behind Grammarly having an almost similar set of features and reliability.
Heading over to its web editor, you will see its list of tools and options categorized in its main toolbar. Like Grammarly, ProWritingAid also integrates with other writing platforms seamlessly.
That good! Still, let’s see how good ProWritingAid is in identifying and correcting your punctuation errors.
Arguably, it proves itself as an online punctuation checking tool detecting some typical punctuation errors in the sample text.
But, it fails to detect all the errors that Grammarly spots diligently. Like the missing comma in the sentence that has a series of words, clauses or phrases, the missing hyphen in error-free, the missing comma after any introductory phrase, etc.
One great thing about ProWritingAid is – it is a manuscript based editing software with hundreds of hand-coded rules. Based on this, the tool detects the any style-related errors in your piece of text.
On the plus side, clicking on the ‘i’ button, it allows you to refer to some valuable resources that discuss the particular topic in detail. So, that’s the learning curve to develop your writing grade.
Especially for students or any academic-centric professionals, ProWritingAid is ideal with strategic reports and manuscript rules. Though it gives you clear explanations on any errors, it fails to offer tailor-made explanations with examples like how Grammarly does.
Other Features
Better integrations – It easily integrates with MS Word, Outlook, Google Docs, Scrivener, Open Office, Final Draft, and so on. Also, there are browser extensions available for Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Safari that lets you check your writing even writing on social media platforms.
Style editor – Not just checking spelling and grammatical mistakes can ensure good writing. Style suggestions and corrections improve your content quality and readability. With thousands of hand-coded rules that uncover vital style improvements, ProWritingAid must be a perfect style editor.
Helps you learning – With in-app suggestions, explanations, video tutorials, and quizzes allow you to learn things as you edit.
Ultimate word choices – It has plenty of resources like a thesaurus, dictionary, reverse dictionary, alliterations, collocations, etc. you can find the rights words that suit your content flow better.
Customize options – The tool allows you to create your own style guides and dictionaries. As a team or even individuals, you can set your rules and maintain consistency across the projects.
In-depth writing reports – It offers more writing reports than any other writing and editing software. The elements that those reports highlight are vague words, repetitive words, passive voice, sentence length variation, and even more.
Pros
- Free add-on available for Chrome browser
- Easy integration with other writing platforms
- Free trial for advanced checks and complete integrations
- In-depth writing reports
- Easy switch between different versions of English (US, UK, etc.)
- Charts and graphs offering valuable insights
- Academic-centric writing assistant tool
Cons
- Sometimes, it fails to detect advanced errors (as we have seen above)
- No monthly plans for short-term projects
User Opinion
It must be the great editing, style, and grammar checker software out there. The tool is intuitive, and its features are easy to access from the toolbar. I loved the tool just within ten minutes I started using it.
#3 Ginger Punctuation Checker
It is one of the top punctuation websites online to make your content free from typical comma, apostrophe, semicolon, or any punctuation mistakes. Based on the perfect sentence context, the Ginger online punctuation checker puts patent technology to work to check and detects any punctuation errors.
Ginger’s online punctuation checker online is free to access, but, you can check only around 120 words.
Look at the below sample results. We must agree that the Ginger punctuation checker is really good at detecting almost all the punctuation mistakes.
But, you don’t get any explanations. That’s a major drawback. Without knowing the cause of the error or rule behind, you will have to go with the tool suggestions.
Here is another image captured from Ginger free desktop-app tested with the same text.
You can either click on the alert card to apply the corrections or ‘X’ to ignore.
To unlock the word limitations and get more detailed explanations on each mistake, you have to go for Ginger premium plans. Let’s check out its other features that inspire more people while struggling to learn, read, and write English as a non-native English speaker. If you are looking for a punctuation checker app for iPhone, then try this.
To unlock the word limitations and get more detailed explanations on each mistake, you have to go for Ginger premium plans. Let’s check out its other features that inspire more people while struggling to learn, read, and write English as a non-native English speaker. If you are looking for a punctuation checker app for iPhone, then try this.
Other features
Text Reader – Other than Ginger Software’s top-notch spell and grammar check features, its Text Reader tool allows you to read the particular set of texts louder and check how it sounds-like to the readers.
Sentence Rephraser – With this feature, Ginger software aids you to present your own text in better and different ways. Spice-up your content with variations like using idioms, synonyms, etc. You don’t have to rely on a dictionary to find the right words.
Personal Trainer – This tool allows you to practice English online with more personalized practice sessions based on your writing mistakes. The only tool that analyzes your weak areas and prompts you to learn the targeted topics to improve.
Translator – The great tool using which you can write on your own preferred languages and translate between more than 40 languages. So, you can better express yourself naturally in your native language.
Pros
- Free extension for Chrome, & Safari
- Ginger Page for iOS supported mobile devices
- Both cloud-based & desktop free tool
- More add-on features
- Has more online resources to learn English
- Separate Ginger software for Business & Schools
Cons
- No native app for Mac users
User Opinion
English isn’t my native language, so whenever I need to write something, I use Ginger software that corrects my every writing mistake.
FAQ on Best Punctuation Checker Software
Here are some of the typical questions on the best punctuation checker tools online answered. If you have any queries, drop it in the comments section. We will keep updating the posts. So, your queries will be clarified during the next updates.
1. Is there any free punctuation checker?
Yes, indeed. All the three commas and punctuation checker included are available for free too. For more advanced checks and integrations, you have to subscribe to premium plans.
2. How can I check my punctuation online?
As a learner, you can’t judge yourself about how good your writing is. So, rely on some online automatic grammar punctuation checkers altogether and make your content error-free.
3. How do I learn the punctuation rules to avoid mistakes while writing?
Most of the writing assistant tool helps you to both get rid of your errors as well as help you learn the facts on each error specifically. So, you can learn from your mistakes.
4. Should I need internet connectivity always to check my writing? Can I use the punctuation checkers offline?
Some tools like Grammarly need internet connectivity to run checks, whereas some desktop-based tools like Ginger software don’t require you to be online.
5. What are the commonly used punctuations in English writing?
Period, comma, apostrophe, semicolon, colon, a hyphen, quotations, exclamation marks, question marks, dash, braces, brackets, ellipses, etc.
6. Is free punctuation checker tool is enough?
It depends on the tool which you choose and use. If you take Grammarly, you don’t need to spend money and go for its premium version to check and correct your punctuation mistakes. And the results are reliable and helpful too.
Winner – Grammarly
What’s more special about Grammarly?
You are flexible to use Grammarly on several platforms – Mac, MS Word, Google Docs, social media, all popular browsers, and anywhere you write online.
Further, with its combined Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Natural Language Processing (NLP) – Grammarly checks for any contextual writing mistakes – that gets it closer to human proofreading.
Other than spell, grammar or punctuation checking, it comes with more extensive features like vocabulary enhancement, plagiarism checker, tone detector, goal-setting, and so on. So, what else, you need from an effective writing assistant tool? Give Grammarly a try.
Final Verdict
Arguably, I have listed only very few software here. But, these three must be the best punctuation checker tools in the market.
Which punctuation checking tool you should choose? Comparing ProWritingAid and Ginger punctuation checker – the latter one detects almost all the punctuation errors whereas the former one missed out something. But, as a comprehensive writing assistant tool for students, especially, ProWritingAid is ideal.
But, we have already tried, tested, and established that Grammarly is always ultimate in proofreading your English write-ups. Not to mention, Grammarly has witnessed its reliability in our real-time tests, and also we use it for years.
So, what’s your choice of punctuation checker online? Drop your comments below.
Hi,
Looking at some of the examples, I do realize how important it is to care about the usage of punctuations. Especially, for authors, e-book writers and magazine publishers, punctuations can be the boon or ban for their writings. Sure, these punctuation checker tools can help them greatly. I have been using ProWritingAid – it helps!
Becky,
Thanks for adding your valuable thoughts about using the best punctuation checkers here. Indeed, ProWritingAid is an awesome style checker.