Grammarly access

Policy

In compliance with ACLED’s IT security policies, users must adhere to the following:

• Generative AI: Do not use the generative AI features. This feature has been disabled by the administrator as it violates the organization-wide AI policy. 

• Data protection: To avoid unknowingly exposing sensitive information, keep the Grammarly extension disabled by default. Only turn it on when it is actively being used. 

• VPN: When the Grammarly extension is enabled, or you use the web app, you must be connected to ACLED’s NordVPN “ACLED Gateway.” 

Access

Grammarly gives access to up to 5 devices per seat. Please do not share your access with anyone else, as this may cause issues for other users. If you think someone who writes frequently for ACLED should have access, please contact Niki Papadogiannaki (n.papadogiannaki@acleddata.com). 

To sign in for the first time, use LastPass to launch Grammarly, and the shared username and password will automatically be filled out. It should keep you signed in until you log out.

If, for any reason, the password needs to be changed, please contact Yann Luthi, from Operations. Please do not try to change the password on your own.  

Tools

Chrome Extension

Add Grammarly to your browser by downloading the Chrome Extension. Once downloaded, the Grammarly icon will appear with its distinctive green circle at the top right of your browser window. 

Keep Grammarly disabled until you need to use it. When it is disabled, the green circle will show the red label “off.”

Enable Grammarly for Google Documents

To enable Grammarly, first turn on the ACLED Gateway VPN. Next, navigate to any Google Doc and click on the Grammarly icon. A menu will appear with “Quick Settings.” For “Check for writing suggestions on Google Docs,” select “ON.” 

Your page will refresh automatically, and two small green and red icons will appear at the bottom right corner of your screen. Along with these floating icons, you may see red, blue, and grey underlining on your document. These are edits or suggestions based on ACLED’s grammar rules or the style guide. 

When you click on the red circle, a sidebar will appear with a full breakdown of Grammarly’s suggested edits. 

Note: Grammarly sometimes does not detect edits made to a Google Doc in suggestion mode. When you make a suggestion, the line under the "error" may remain, and Grammarly may make a strange suggestion because it thinks it detects an error. Using Grammarly directly on a Google Doc may cause it to lag, particularly if the document is large.

Never blanket accept all of Grammarly’s suggestions. It’s a correction tool, not an editor ;) 

Ι highly recommend this approach because you can have both the Grammarly Feedback and your Google Doc Draft side-by-side, so you can separately apply the Grammarly feedback as you see fit. 

ACLED style

Suggestions based on the ACLED style guide appear with a gray underline. The suggestion will always describe the rule and often give the correction. 

Correctness

Grammarly’s basic function, detecting grammatical errors or typos, appears as a red underline. The suggestion will provide a brief explanation, and usually a suggestion for correcting the error. Please be cautious when applying these suggestions. 

Clarity

Suggestions for improving the clarity of writing are indicated with a blue underline. These suggestions are often useful to identify potentially unnecessarily complex language or passive voice. The suggested change is not always the best alternative, but often is helpful in seeing where language can be simplified. 

Grammarly’s suggestions vary. For our general purposes, the Style guide suggestions are the most relevant and useful. 

Contact Niki Papadogiannaki (n.papadogiannaki@acleddata.com) with any questions!