Comments on: Warning: Microsoft Did Not Invent Grammar!

By: Ankush

Ankush — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 16:56:08 +0000

Much ado about nothing. Trash MS Word and go for some less fussy editor. Jarte?

By: Len Harris

Len Harris — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 12:28:32 +0000

I have a Windows Vista Home Premium operating system, but when I am in Windows Mail the spell checker facility appears to be turned off. Can you please tell me how I can install this facility?

Thanks.

Len

By: JRWhyte

JRWhyte — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 05:46:44 +0000

There are grammar checkers in British English. Grammar checkers are only tools that can help you with grammar. They don’t teach grammar to you.

By: AltMichael

AltMichael — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 04:42:13 +0000

I don’t want to defend MS. I don’t use Word (which should be called “Bug”), and I don’t use Windows. But spelling and grammar checkers are pretty crude. We simply do not understand grammar well enough to analyze it correctly. Language is one of those areas that requires too much processing power for a computer. The human brain is orders of magnitude bigger and more complex than a CPU.

A spelling checker simply flags words that are not in its dictionary. You can use it to warn you before you send out something with inappropriate language. E.g., if you sometimes write business letters (or emails), you might want to remove “idiot” from the spelling dictionary, just to warn you to change it, if it is for business purposes.

Perhaps we should remove certain common homophones, so it forces us to think about them first.

NOTE: Before you add a word to your spelling checker, make sure that it is not more likely to be typed as a misspelling of a more common word.

As a programmer with a B.A. in Linguistics, I can find an example to break any program that tries to analyze language.
It’s/Its: Its constantly crashing was the main reason for declining sales.

[Proofread with text-to-speech]

By: PreciseEdit

PreciseEdit — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 03:03:32 +0000

We recently edited a book that, according to Word’s grammar checker, had no grammar or spelling problems. (Of course, “erotic” IS a perfectly correct spelling, even if the writer meant “ironic.”)

We probably found 200-250 problems once we were done–both incorrectly spelled words and correctly spelled wrong words. Don’t even get me started on the punctuation and grammatical problems that Word missed!

Our advice to clients: Always use the grammar/spelling checker, but never trust it.