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?

I know full well where my strengths and talents lie … with my proofreading, editing, transcription service, social networking on twitter, facebook and LinkedIn and selling digital products via my Software Superstore PLUS being the editor of my ezine, Rim Digest for marketers and small business owners. This is not a HUGE list of talents or strengths, but these are MINE.

By specializing so tightly with my Virtual Assistance Business , I miss a lot of income and learning opportunities, so decided to branch out a bit and learn some new skills to add to my portfolio. Needless to say, I got way over my head – was WAY out of my comfort zone, was miserable and starting to feel, to be honest, like a total FAILURE and/or loser. Then it hit me, no one can be expert at everything AND why on earth was I trying to be?!

Hence the firing of myself from what could have been a really great financial gain down the line but was seriously causing me stress and a huge well of unbelief in myself. I am confident in what I do best and need to focus on those things and so, though I am still wanting to learn as much as I can in this ever-changing wonderful world of internet marketing and marketing my services, I am not going to worry about trying to do more than I comfortably CAN do.

With that in mind, I signed up for a course to become a Virtual Event Specialist and to Get Certified in this specialty because it really appeals to me and is something more in the line of what I am already doing.

Video courtesy of Craig Cannings, the owner of the VA Classroom, about Virtual Event Services and why they are needed.

Remember, I am a Virtual Assistant who LOVES to do editing, proofreading and transcription assignments!

Jan Tallent
Tallent Agency Virtual Assistance

573-775-4520 jan@tallentagency.com

I have sadly neglected this blog due to being busy, busy, busy and then on top of that, being SICK for about nine weeks with a cold / flu type thing that I did not think was ever going to go away! Now I am back to “normal”, for me, anyway, LOL, and will try to do better with keeping my blog updated. Welcome to this fresh, new year with a chance for new beginnings, new friends and associates and new business!

This has nothing to do with my Virtual Assistance business except for the fact that my focus is ON this business and I have lost my eight year addiction to selling digital products, but I have decided to retire SoftwareWarrioress.com so that I can totally devote my time and energies TO my Virtual Assistance business and my marketing ezine, Rim Digest , which will be celebrating its 10th anniversary with me as its editor on February 10.

I plan to sell the domain name of 8 years, SoftwareWarrioress.com and over 50 Gig of resell digitals plus the web site and pages, etc. This way I can devote myself to my true loves, which are the services I provide as a Virtual Assistant, my wonderful clients and future ones and my ezine. I let myself get stretched in too many directions and this is my goal for 2010 – to get and remain totally focused.

To be perfectly honest, I LOVE Proofreading and Editing and doing Transcriptions and feel I do my best work when it is something I enjoy and excel at.

I am also an avid social networker, especially with Twitter and love helping others with their social networking needs. By retiring the digital sales super store business, I can devote myself to these things.

I do not, however, plan to sell three of my most beloved digital products with this sale. I plan to keep the following three, as they are totally mine, were made for ME and are my 3 best sellers:

First off is the Health Products site with a HUGE inventory of products with resell rights on three levels, Helluva Health Site , which was made for me by my best friend, Sharon McPherson, who is also the owner/operator of Templates Themes and Graphics AND the creator of this blog site and Tallent Agency Virtual Assistance site.

This has been my biggest seller of ALL time next to advertising in my ezine.

Next is the Christmas Bonanza package , which was also made for me by Sharon.

Lastly, the oldest product I plan to hang on to is my Marketing Warrioress Quick and Easy Recipes which was written and made BY ME!

These three items are available to buy but NOT a part of the SoftwareWarrioress.com retirement sale package.

I still love digital products and think they are the neatest things to hit the internet after almost 13 years of my being online BUT they need dedicated time and energy to sell and maintain and I just do not have the “fire” to devote to them any longer.

If anyone is interested in stepping into an already established business, you can email me from any of the pages at the site and I will be glad to talk to you about the possibilities.

Again, Happy New Year and thank you so much for visiting my blog in 2010!