Using Grammarly and Writing Tools with LaTeX Documents

The Writing Quality Gap

LaTeX produces beautifully formatted documents. It does nothing to help you write well.

Every academic writer knows the challenges:

• Passive voice that weakens arguments
• Sentences that run too long
• Grammar mistakes that slip through
• Wordiness that buries key points
• Inconsistent style across chapters

Writing tools like Grammarly, Hemingway Editor, and ProWritingAid address these problems brilliantly—but they weren't designed for LaTeX. They see your markup as content and flag commands as spelling errors.

This guide provides practical strategies for getting the best of both worlds: LaTeX formatting with professional writing assistance.

Why Writing Tools Struggle with LaTeX

When you paste LaTeX into Grammarly, it sees:

The \textbf{significant} results (see Figure~\ref{fig:results})
demonstrate that our \emph{novel} approach, as described in
Section~\ref{sec:methods}, outperforms prior work \cite{smith2024}.

The tool interprets \textbf, \ref, \emph, and \cite as words. It flags them as spelling errors, gets confused by brackets and braces, and can't parse the actual sentence structure.

This isn't a Grammarly limitation—it's fundamental to how text analysis works. These tools are designed for natural language, not markup languages.

Strategy 1: Write Plain Text First, Format Later

The cleanest approach separates writing from formatting entirely.

The Workflow

1. Draft in plain text. Use any text editor or dedicated writing tool.
2. Polish with writing tools. Run through Grammarly, Hemingway, or your preferred checker.
3. Add LaTeX markup. Convert the polished prose to LaTeX.
4. Add equations and references. Insert the technical elements.

When This Works Best

• Pure prose sections (introduction, discussion, conclusion)
• Documents with limited technical content
• Early-stage drafting when structure is fluid
• Collaborations with non-LaTeX users

When This Doesn't Work

• Technical sections with inline math
• Content where references are woven into sentences
• Revising existing LaTeX documents
• Iterative writing where you need to see formatted output

Practical Implementation

# Draft in plain text
The results show significant improvement over baseline methods.
Our approach achieves 15% better accuracy while reducing
computation time by half. Figure 3 illustrates this comparison.
 
# After writing tool polish
Our results demonstrate significant improvement over baseline
methods. The proposed approach achieves 15% higher accuracy
while reducing computation time by half. Figure 3 illustrates
this comparison.
 
# Convert to LaTeX
Our results demonstrate significant improvement over baseline
methods. The proposed approach achieves 15\% higher accuracy
while reducing computation time by half. Figure~\ref{fig:comparison}
illustrates this comparison.

Strategy 2: Check Compiled PDF Text

Work with the output rather than the source.

The Workflow

1. Compile your LaTeX document. Generate the PDF as usual.
2. Copy text from PDF. Select the section you want to check.
3. Paste into writing tool. Grammarly, Word, or any checker.
4. Review suggestions. Apply relevant corrections.
5. Update source. Make changes in your .tex file.

Handling PDF Copy Issues

PDF copy-paste isn't always clean:

Ligatures: The "fi" in "finally" might copy as a single character that tools don't recognize. Manual cleanup may be needed.

Line breaks: Hard breaks can appear mid-sentence. Join lines in your text editor before checking.

Columns: Two-column layouts might interleave columns when copied. Copy one column at a time.

Headers/footers: Page numbers and running headers get included. Delete before checking.

Tools for Better PDF Text Extraction

• Adobe Acrobat: Best text extraction quality
• PDF.js (Firefox): Good for simple documents
• Poppler/pdftotext: Command-line extraction

# Extract text from PDF cleanly
pdftotext -layout document.pdf document.txt

Then copy sections from the text file into your writing tool.

Strategy 3: LaTeX-Aware Tools

Some tools understand LaTeX syntax and can ignore or work around the markup.

ChkTeX: LaTeX-Specific Linting

ChkTeX catches LaTeX-specific style issues:

# Run ChkTeX on your document
chktex main.tex
 
# Common issues it catches:
# - Spacing after periods
# - Intersentence vs. interword spacing
# - Quote matching
# - Command usage patterns
# - Consistency issues

Example output:

main.tex:45:22: Warning: Intersentence spacing (`\@') should
                        perhaps be used after 'e.g.'
main.tex:67:15: Warning: Use either ` or ' as an ideographic
                        quotation mark
main.tex:89:1:  Warning: Putting a paragraph break before `\begin'

LanguageTool with LaTeX Mode

LanguageTool is open-source and has specific LaTeX support:

# Install LanguageTool
# On Mac: brew install languagetool
# On Linux: apt install languagetool
 
# Run with LaTeX mode
languagetool --disable LATEX_SYNTAX_ERROR main.tex

For better integration:

# Python wrapper for automated checking
import language_tool_python
 
tool = language_tool_python.LanguageTool('en-US')
 
# Read your tex file
with open('chapter.tex', 'r') as f:
    text = f.read()
 
# Remove common LaTeX patterns before checking
import re
clean_text = re.sub(r'\\[a-zA-Z]+\{[^}]*\}', '', text)
clean_text = re.sub(r'\$[^$]+\$', '', clean_text)
 
# Check the cleaned text
matches = tool.check(clean_text)
for match in matches:
    print(f"Line {match.offset}: {match.message}")

TeXcount: Accurate Word Counting

Standard word counters include LaTeX commands. TeXcount understands LaTeX:

texcount main.tex
 
# Output:
# Words in text: 5,234
# Words in headers: 156
# Words in float captions: 89
# ...

Useful for meeting word limits that count only prose.

Strategy 4: Selective Section Checking

For targeted improvements rather than full-document passes.

High-Value Sections

Focus your writing tool time on sections that matter most:

1. Abstract: Every word counts; heavy reader scrutiny
2. Introduction: Sets the paper's impression
3. Conclusion: What readers remember
4. Key arguments: Central claims and evidence

The Process

1. Select one paragraph or section
2. Copy text content (excluding obvious markup)
3. Paste into writing tool
4. Apply corrections thoughtfully
5. Move to next section

This takes longer than automated checking but produces better results for important content.

Strategy 5: Built-in Editor Features

Modern LaTeX editors include writing assistance.

Thetapad's Writing Features

• LaTeX-aware spell check: Ignores commands, checks content
• Grammar suggestions: Basic grammar checking
• Readability metrics: Sentence length, complexity
• Style warnings: Passive voice, wordiness indicators

No export needed—corrections happen in your source directly.

VS Code with Extensions

• LTeX: LanguageTool integration for LaTeX
• Code Spell Checker: Configurable dictionaries
• LaTeX Workshop: Includes basic spell checking

// VS Code settings for LTeX
{
  "ltex.language": "en-US",
  "ltex.latex.commands": {
    "\\cite{}": "ignore",
    "\\ref{}": "ignore"
  }
}

Configuring Tools for Academic Writing

Building a Custom Dictionary

Academic writing uses specialized vocabulary. Build a personal dictionary:

Field-specific terms: methodology, stochastic, eigenvector Acronyms: LSTM, GPU, API, SOTA Author names: All cited authors (Smith, Zhang, etc.) Tool names: TensorFlow, NumPy, Matplotlib

Most tools let you add words when flagged. Over time, false positives decrease dramatically.

Adjusting Style Rules

Academic writing differs from general prose:

Passive voice: Sometimes appropriate in methods sections Technical terms: Not "simple words" substitutes Hedging language: "may", "suggests", "indicates" is standard Long sentences: Complex ideas sometimes require complex sentences

Disable or adjust rules that don't apply to academic writing.

Grammarly Settings for Academia

Settings → Writing Style → Academic
 
Adjustments:
- Passive voice: Awareness (not error)
- Sentence length: Longer threshold
- Vocabulary: Technical terms allowed

Writing Quality Checklist

Beyond automated tools, review your writing for:

Clarity

• [ ] Each paragraph has one main idea
• [ ] Topic sentences introduce paragraphs
• [ ] Transitions connect ideas
• [ ] Pronouns have clear referents ("this" refers to what?)

Conciseness

• [ ] No unnecessary words ("in order to" → "to")
• [ ] No redundancy ("past history" → "history")
• [ ] Active voice where appropriate
• [ ] Strong verbs replace weak verb + noun ("make a decision" → "decide")

Consistency

• [ ] Terminology is consistent (don't switch between synonyms)
• [ ] Formatting is consistent (Figure vs. Fig.)
• [ ] Style matches target venue

Academic Conventions

• [ ] Hedging appropriate ("may suggest" not "proves")
• [ ] Citations support claims
• [ ] First person is appropriate or avoided per venue
• [ ] Abbreviations defined on first use

Workflow Integration

Pre-Writing

• Set up custom dictionary with field terms
• Configure style rules for academic writing
• Prepare templates with correct structure

During Writing

• Use LaTeX-aware spell check in your editor
• Focus on content, not formatting
• Mark sections needing review

Post-Writing

• Extract compiled text for comprehensive checking
• Run ChkTeX for LaTeX-specific issues
• Check high-value sections with Grammarly/Hemingway
• Final read-through for flow and coherence

Per-Revision

• Focus on areas identified by reviewers
• Re-check modified sections
• Verify consistency after major changes

Comparing Writing Tools for LaTeX Users

| Tool | LaTeX Awareness | Strengths | Best For | |------|-----------------|-----------|----------| | Grammarly | None | Comprehensive suggestions | Polished prose sections | | Hemingway | None | Readability focus | Simplifying complex text | | ProWritingAid | None | Deep style analysis | Academic style improvement | | LanguageTool | LaTeX mode | Free, customizable | Automated checking | | ChkTeX | Full | LaTeX-specific issues | Style consistency | | TeXcount | Full | Accurate counts | Word limits |

Conclusion

Using writing tools with LaTeX requires workarounds, but the quality improvement is worth the effort. The most effective approach combines:

1. LaTeX-aware tools (ChkTeX, LanguageTool) for automated checking
2. General tools (Grammarly, Hemingway) for polished prose sections
3. Built-in features for real-time assistance while writing
4. Manual review for high-value sections

Good writing matters as much as good formatting. Your ideas deserve both clear expression and beautiful presentation.

Thetapad includes LaTeX-aware spell checking and grammar suggestions that work directly on your source code. Focus on writing—the editor handles the rest.