Warning: Microsoft Did Not Invent Grammar!

Most people who advise on writing tell you to check the spelling and grammar on your work. This is good advice.

However, the trouble is that the tools we often use just aren’t up to the job. Many of us use Microsoft Word for writing, and its built-in spelling and grammar checker for checking our work.

In general, I don’t have an issue with the spell checker, though mine occasionally has a problem with the correct spelling of liaison. However, the MS Word grammar checker leaves a lot to be desired.

Grammar Checker Failings

I’m not the only one to feel this way. In fact, people have been complaining about it for years. Neurogrammar, which is admittedly biased, compares the results from its own grammar checker and Word. Ignore that if you want, but the Seattle Post Intelligencer, which presumably has no ax to grind, also wrote a piece on the failings of Word’s grammar checker.

These match my own experience with the tool. Generally, I write grammatically correct British English, but it only takes one typo to confuse the tool. The grammar checker will remind me about every instance of using passive sentences, but has some strange attitudes to noun and verb agreements.

Where Did It Go Wrong?

Proper names that end in an ’s’ also confuse the grammar checker, and that’s not all. The University of Washington has some demos of where the grammar checker went wrong. (Check out the letter from Karen for a laugh.)

The study concluded that the grammar check worked better for good writers than for those who needed a lot of help. So, what’s a poor writer to do? The answer is to get some grammar help from different sources, and to proofread. Once you accept that the MS Word grammar checker can get it wrong, it’s amazing how many mistakes you will spot.

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Sharon on February 15, 2008 | Filed Under Grammar

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23 Responses to “Warning: Microsoft Did Not Invent Grammar!”

M on February 15th, 2008 11:44 am

Speaking of Word’s English competence, I was extremely shocked when once it asked me if I wanted to change “they’re” to “their” and vice versa! I don’t if in America these words are now accepted as interchangeable, but in other countries they sure aren’t!

I would say that Word, is only a tool for typing and editing, not a tool for language correction. Minor ones that “taht” and “teh” and obviously typing errors, and with a bad or broken keyboard it can be worse.

My advice for those who have a recurring problem with spelling certain words is to write them out (ON PAPER!) and then type it into Word to see if it’s correct. If it isn’t DO NOT right click and choose the correct spelling. Re-write it, until you get the correct one. Also, by spelling it out aloud, verbally, like we all did when we were 5 (or 3), will give the brain extra help to remember it. Do this several times, regardless of how time pressed you are and I will guarantee your flow will improve.

In fact, I have a friend who does this; he types a word as he sees fit e.g. “conscious” as “concous” and then uses to Word to correct it for him. I noticed that he uses this trick many, many times. Although I told him about my little trick to remember words, he never did it. That was several years back and now, he’s still relying on Word to correct his typos.
Sharon on February 15th, 2008 12:32 pm

Properly used, it’s a great tool, M, but mistakes like the one you point out make it unreliable. Good tip, BTW
Misque Writer on February 15th, 2008 2:33 pm

Even the spell-check can be exasperating if you are trying to write a genre novel, say science fiction or fantasy romance, and you have unusual names for people, things and places. Although there is a private dictionary option, I’m always a little afraid to enter my new words into the dictionary in case I decide to spell them differently later on. As co-ordinator for a writer’s retreat which includes personalized editing for each writer’s manuscript, I also need to edit many different manuscripts, each of which may have specialized terminology specific to that book.

Christine
misque-writer.com
L. on February 15th, 2008 2:38 pm

Eye dont unnerstan waht u r talkin about. Lok at this sentence. Its find.
klgrant on February 15th, 2008 4:43 pm

Years ago, at the turn of the century, MS Word told me that “Millenium” (with only one “n” was the correct spelling). I haven’t trusted it since.

I find the best overall proofing method–if you have the time–is to let the piece “sit” for a day or two, then go back to it with fresh eyes. It’s amazing how much you can tighten up a piece when you have put a bit of mental distance between your “writer self” and your “editor self.”

Besides reading aloud, another good tip that I perform when proofing a really delicate piece, is to read it backwards, word by word. Just start at the bottom and work your way up, from right to left. This is handy for finding spelling errors that you can easily miss if you’ve been looking at the same sentences for a long time.
James - DigitalKeyToInfo on February 15th, 2008 4:51 pm

There, They’re and their are not interchangeable in the US either. Good advice on getting a second opinion, just make sure it is a good source also.
Sharon on February 15th, 2008 4:51 pm

Hey, I remember that, KLGrant. I use the reading backwards trick, too. It works well for spelling errors. Of course, you have to read forwards to catch errors in meaning, which is when your first tip works well.
iHanna on February 17th, 2008 1:30 pm

Just the title of this post made me LOL!

I just installed a plugin that corrects the spelling in the browser! It has really helped me when blogging because English is not my native language!
CYeary on February 17th, 2008 7:10 pm

The afore-mentioned things have happened to me, too. Here’s one: I write Texas Historicals. Often the manuscript has something Word has never heard of. I wrote “red-eye gravy.” Word wanted me to change it to “overnight-flight gravy.” (for those of you who don’t know what red-eye gravy is: it’s the drippings from a cooked ham, slightly thickened or boiled down to make a very salty gravy.)This cannot be done with our over-processed hams, though.)
John on February 19th, 2008 4:24 pm

That should be University of Washington for the demofiles. (Univ of Washington is in Washington State. Washington University is in St. Louis, MO)
Craig on February 19th, 2008 7:19 pm

Try to get MS Word to spell check correctly for non-US english. No matter how I setup my PC and MS Office - it still tries to spell colour as color - drives my crazy!

Craig
Sharon on February 20th, 2008 10:40 am

Thanks, John

@Craig: it can be tricky - I keep having to force it back to UK English!
Kuchiki Byakuya on March 4th, 2008 1:58 am

Wow! I was amazed at how many mistakes the spellcheck didn’t find!
Sharon on March 4th, 2008 12:33 pm

@ IHanna: Yes, I use a spell check plugin in Firefox which is great when filling in web forms (including blog composing windows).

@CYeary: Some of the suggestions are hilarious.

@ Kuchiki: yes, and some of the ones it DOES find aren’t mistakes at all.
Gayle White on March 17th, 2008 3:28 pm

Hello,

Are there any software solutions to the grammar and spelling problems?
Graham Strong on March 19th, 2008 1:13 am

Back in the day when WordPerfect was owned by Corel, the spellchecker always highlighted Ottawa as a possible spelling mistake. It just wasn’t in its dictionary.

And where was Corel’s World Headquarters? Ottawa, Ontario.

Now that’s sad.

~Graham
Sharon on March 19th, 2008 10:40 am

Yes, that IS sad, Graham

@Gayle: I’ve heard of some software that I’m checking out. I’ll say when I know more.
M on March 19th, 2008 11:14 am

Graham, that’s ironic. Like these:
http://theworldofm.wordpress.c...../irony-is/
Erin on March 28th, 2008 9:02 am

I was very excited when I first learned that you could turn off the ‘check as you type’ features for spelling and grammar. It drove me nuts to see red and green squiggly underlines telling me I was wrong all the time, when I really wasn’t!

As for what it doesn’t catch…
Recently, I had a piece of fiction to turn in for one of my college classes. I wrote it up in a bit of a hurry, and I ran out of time to check it thoroughly. Later on, I was rather embarrassed to see that I’d passed out a story to my entire class with a stupid mistake that MS word 2003 didn’t catch at all. “She looked through door’s the small window.” I’m still trying to figure out how that would make any sense at all.
Sharon Hurley Hall on April 1st, 2008 2:35 pm

It’s amazing what it misses, Erin. Turning off that feature is a good start.