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
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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?

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