This article by by Mark Nichol for my favorite writing tips ezine, DailyWritingTips.com , says it all. I am using this great document
with permission from the webmaster.

The Problem with Grammar Check

A couple of years ago, a visitor to this site posted a comment asking
for help. In a Word document, this person had written the sentence

“The nouns and verbs are the main content words in this poem and without emphasis
on them, this poem has little to no meaning.”

Word’s grammar check admonished the writer to insert a semicolon in place of the comma following them.

What?

Errant nonsense, and puzzling advice, at that. One respondent erroneously agreed with Bill Gates, while two people associated with this site validated the original writer’s reluctance to follow Word’s word. But they didn’t explain why the grammar check had recommended this faulty course of action. I didn’t understand it, either, but then I looked a little closer.

As another poster remarked, a human editor trumps a computer-generated one.
Computers may be able to defeat humans at chess, but I doubt they’ll ever beat people
at editing.

Why? They can compute, but they can’t think.

Here’s where Word went wrong:

Read the rest of this article HERE …

The moral of the story? Word’s grammar check, like its spell-check function, can be helpful, but it can also misinterpret your intent as a writer. As the sage says, “Trust, but verify.”

I love the tips I get from this ezine, file all issues and often refer to the ones in my files.

I have noticed in doing my own editing assignments that Word spell and grammar check
and even my Thunderbird email spell checker DO, indeed, occasionally mis-read the intent
of the written document. I am learning when to go by the softwares’ suggestions
and when to go with my “gut” as a former straight A English and Spelling student.

Remember, I am a Virtual Assistant who LOVES to do editing, proofreading
and transcription assignments along with research, blog posts, article submissions
and social media maintenance!

Why not Schedule a Project now?

Can you believe we have a fresh, brand new year? We can accomplish
lots of new tasks and make new dreams come true.

It is 1-1-11 – that is so awesome! What do you plan to achieve with this fresh start you are getting? I am determined to make regular and loyal updates to my blogs, here and for my ezine of almost eleven years,
Rim Digest at Rim Digest blog AND my newest that I had wanted for years: Healthy Living, which is the one for my Health & Wellness Products Superstore.

I wear many hats, only one of which is of a Virtual Assistant , specializing in proofreading , editing , transcriptions and social media assistance.

As a proofreader, I bring to the table one of my all-time pet peeves that was drummed into my head by all of my English teachers in both grade school and high school AND later in tech school where I got my degree in Computerized Medical Office Technology.

Some of my editing clients prefer I leave it “as is”, so I do, but the article in
Daily Writing Tips , which I am using with their permission, really sums it up for me!

A Person Is Not a “They.” Neither Is an Army.

So you want to be politically correct, you want to be inclusive, and you would never assume that every nurse and every teacher in the world is a “she.” Right?

Right.

But sometimes this worthy thought leads us to perform some very clumsy gymnastics. Consider this passage from a guide for a doctor’s front office staff:

Show the patient how to use their medicine.

Does this patient have three heads with three mouths through which to ingest medications? Or maybe the patient is using a medication produced by several Big Pharma companies?

We can see the impulse behind this absurdity: whoever wrote this document didn’t want to suggest that every patient in the practice was a “he.” Or a “she,” unless the doc’ was a gynecologist. But this good intention led to a moment of bad grammar: pronouns need to agree with their nouns.

We have several alternatives that honor our desire for inclusiveness without sliding into the ridiculousness. One obvious strategy is simply to make the noun plural:

Show patients how to use their medicine.

Another is to change the pronoun (his, her, its) to an article (the, a, an):

Show the patient how to use the medicine.

Or, if it works in the context, we can change the singular “medicine” to the plural:

Show the patient how to use medicines.

Each of these approaches allows the writer to make sense without offending anyone’s sensibilities.

Remember: in U.S. English, collective nouns are singular:

Zappit Electric just raised its rates. (Not “their rates”)
An army travels on its stomach. (Not “their stomach”)
The jury returned its verdict. (Not “their verdict”)

Not so in the Queen’s English: Brits see collective nouns as plural (e.g., “The jury returned their verdict”). But when you’re writing for a U.S. publisher, corporation, government agencie, and similar entities, take singular verbs and singular pronouns.

What do you think? Do you use *they* in this way and find that you are happy doing so?
If was editing YOUR work, would you feel I was maybe too nit-picky or would you appreciate the fact that I really CARE how your writings come across to those of us who ARE picky when we are reading?

I would love to hear your comments and opinions!

If your web pages, blog posts, reports, sales pages, books, etc. are not grammar and spelling error free, why not contact me and we can get them all into shape for this brand new year!

Spelling & Grammar Errors Are Costing You Business!

Remember, I am a Virtual Assistant who LOVES to do editing, proofreading
and transcription assignments along with research, blog posts, article submissions
and social media maintenance!

Why not Schedule a Project now?

As an avid reader and a professional proofreader / editor, the thing
that bothers me the most, even more than spelling errors,
is the wrong usage OF a word.

Here are the three I have to correct for clients the most often
and wish were corrected on other web sites, blogs and in books, etc.

The most common one I see is mixing up your and you’re.

As I tell my clients and others I converse with, YOUR is possessive; it belongs to YOU. YOU’RE is a contraction for YOU ARE.

If in doubt, don’t use a contraction – if you are meaning you’re but use your,
people might at least think you just forgot the “e”.

The next one is mixing up they’re and their and there.

If you are shortening up THEY ARE, use THEY’RE.

If you are talking about a place, it is THERE.

If you are talking about something that belongs to THEM, use THEIR.

Frankly, the one that bugs ME the most is using THEY for one person!

It is a very common error and I see it more than anything.
If you are writing about SOMEONE or SOMEBODY, use he or she or at least the general HE.
Do NOT ever use THEM when talking about someone or somebody.

In summation, if YOU’RE not sure about YOUR word usage, have a proofreader / editor check
for you. Spellcheck is great but does not catch these errors.

If several writers are putting THEIR heads together and THEY’RE all getting together at that desk over THERE, THEY will be brainstorming with each giving his or her opinion and input.

Again, if you are in doubt, run your gems of wisdom past a proofreader.

Jan Tallent is a Virtual Assistant who LOVES to do editing and proofreading .

Why not Schedule a Project now?