Polishing a Resume With Grammarly (and Knowing Where to Stop)
Grammarly fixes the writing. It will not fix a resume that has no verbs or no metrics. Use it for the surface, then do the real work yourself.
Run Grammarly on your resume for the obvious wins: tense consistency, repeated words, the comma you always miss. It catches the passive voice that makes bullet points sound like nobody did anything.
But Grammarly has no sense of recruiter psychology. It won't tell you a line needs a metric or a verb. I use it only after I've rewritten each bullet to start with an action and end with a number. The tool polishes; it doesn't strategize.
Turn off the 'enhance' suggestions for resumes. Its fancy rewrites tend to inflate and add words you don't have room for. A resume line should shrink under editing, not grow.
Final pass: read it aloud. Grammarly misses rhythm, and a line that trips your tongue is a line a tired recruiter skims past. The ear catches what the grammar engine doesn't.
Updated October 28, 2026: the order below still matters - strategy first, polish second.
Frequently asked questions:
Q: Will Grammarly improve my resume's content?
A: No - it fixes the writing, not the strategy. Rewrite each bullet to start with an action and end with a number first, then use Grammarly for tense consistency, repeated words and passive voice. It polishes; it does not know recruiter psychology.
Q: Should I accept Grammarly's rewrite suggestions on a resume?
A: Turn the fancy enhance rewrites off. They tend to inflate lines with words you do not have room for. A resume line should shrink under editing, not grow.