Grammarly's Tone Detector Called My Email 'Harsh.' It Was Right.

I drafted a frustrated reply to a vendor and Grammarly flagged the tone as harsh with a confidence I didn't expect. I reread it and yeah, it read like a tell-off. The fix wasn't grammar, it was one softer opening line.

The tone feature is the one I used to dismiss as fluff. After it caught me twice, I started checking it on anything sent while annoyed. A two-second pause beats a relationship I have to repair.

It isn't always right. Sometimes 'direct' reads as 'harsh' and I keep it. But when I'm heated, the flag is a brake. I write the honest version, let it warn me, then decide if the heat should ship. Usually it shouldn't.