spell check

Catch Writing Mistakes More Easily With Grammarly

May 13, 2015 by Noemi 2 Comments

We all make mistakes and typos, but that’s what proofreading is for, right? There’s also Word – or whatever software you use to create documents – which has spell check built in. However, we know quite well how Word misses a lot of mistakes, especially when it comes to more complicated syntax. Also, Word is useless if you’re typing on your browser.

That’s why I was really interested when the guys at Grammarly got in touch to share their new web app, which does what Word does, but more effectively and more efficiently. In fact, Grammarly is supposed to find and correct up to 10 times more mistakes than the conventional word processor. Of course, I had to give the app a try! [Read more…]

Why I Don’t Rely Too Much on Spell-Check

February 7, 2013 by Noemi 2 Comments

Spell-checker

I remember how, back when I was younger, I was in awe of spell-check. I didn’t have my own computer till I was in university, but I did have the chance to use WordStar for some school work earlier on. Back then, I saw it as God’s greatest gift to mankind. (Well, right after the Nintendo GameBoy.)

Today, we probably take spell-checkers for granted, knowing that they have our backs. After all, whether you use Word, Pages, or the WordPress visual editor, you can easily dabble with the settings so that red (or some other color) lines will show up in case you make a mistake.

That’s the good news.

Now, for the bad. Spell-check isn’t infallible, as I have found out the hard way one time too many. As great as the algorithms have become, language is simply too complex to pin down. If you care about the quality of your writing, you would not want to rely solely – or too much – on spell-check because it does miss mistakes.

Here are three main kinds of mistakes that I have made, thanks to carelessness and thinking that spell-check’s got my back 100%.

One-letter slip up

This is one of the most frustrating and hardest to catch mistakes. When your mind is racing at breakneck speed, and your fingers are flying all over your keyboard trying to keep pace with your thoughts, it is very easy to mistype a single letter which can totally change the word. The result? Another word that does exist and may be grammatically/structurally correct but totally inappropriate for the sentence.

That’s something spell-check will not flag.

A few examples: product/produce, morale/moral, prophesy/prophecy.

Homophone phobia

I love homophones, simply because I like how they play upon sounds and words. Sometimes, though, they can be a pain in the bottom. Again, when in the throes of a good writing session, writing one word that sounds like another can happen. And spell-check won’t help you.

Some irritating examples:

Weather/whether
Where/were
Plain/plane
Led/lead

Confusing words

Oh, those confusing word pairs! They’ve done some damage to the best of us, haven’t they? Ingenuous and ingenious. Prosecute and persecute.

The list goes on and on, and you can find more of those words here and here.

Do you have your own examples for these mistakes that your spell-checker will not flag? We’d love to hear about them!

Image via www.condenaststore.com

15 Most Misspelled Words

February 15, 2011 by Noemi 18 Comments

We all make mistakes in our writing. We’re human, after all. However, when your livelihood depends on the quality of what you write, the story takes a different turn. I know I don’t need to go on and on about the importance of checking and re-checking our work – that is a given. Instead, I’ll share an image with you that highlights this importance. Here is an interesting and informative infographic of the 15 most misspelled words in the English language. Before you take a look at it, do remember the differences in British and American English as there is one word in the infographic that may raise eyebrows.

This infographic was created by Spellchecker, a web site offering – you guessed it – spell, grammar, and thesaurus checking services. ((Web site: Spellchecker))

If you look closely at the bottom of the infographic, you will see that the data used was taken from user statistics on Spellchecker’s web site. To be honest, I was rather surprised at some of the words that were included in list:

Their
A lot
Received
Separate
Until
Because
Beginning
Different
Occurred
Believe
Behavior
Which
Truly
Really
Definitely

I will not deny having problems with “occurred” occasionally (this is another word I sometimes struggle with, by the way), but I was surprised to see words such as “which” and “really” in the list. Also, the word “behavior” is included simply because the list is supposed to focus only American English and the British spelling “behaviour” is considered incorrect. That, of course, is subject to discussion – one which we won’t go into right now.

So what do you think of this list of commonly misspelled words? Does it surprise you? What words give you trouble?

After the Deadline

January 25, 2011 by Noemi 3 Comments

I have never been a big fan of Microsoft Word’s grammar checker as it often misses subtle mistakes. When I was made aware of a new service which is supposed to be much better than the existing grammar checkers, I was of course excited. It’s called After the Deadline (ATD) ((You just have to love that name!)), and it is supposed to check spelling, grammar, and style. It makes use of artificial intelligence and natural language processing technology in order to give more accurate results. After the Deadline is an online web service running on a data center service provided by Automattic.

There are four ways by which you can use After the Deadline:

In your browser: After the Deadline is available as a Firefox add-on and a Google Chrome extension. Now you can use our technology on any site.
With your blog: For bloggers, After the Deadline is available as a WordPress plugin. You may also use our Intense Debate plugin to let your readers check their comments.
On your site: Add our grammar, style, and spelling checker to your forms with our plugins for jQuery and TinyMCE. Our server technology is open source too.
With OpenOffice.org Writer: Our grammar, style, and misused word checker is available as an OpenOffice.org extension.

Here is the promo video that tells you how it works.

I downloaded the Firefox add-on and the plugin has been installed here on FWJ. Do you want to know what ATD can really do for you? If the plugin is installed in your WordPress blog, you will see an icon (ABC with a green check mark) at the lower right of the editor. You can click on this to run a check. If there are mistakes, the icon will turn red. Alternatively, if you are using the Visual Editor, the same icon will be in the first row of buttons.
Here are two snippets from a real blog post.

See the red marks?
These are examples of misspelled words, officially unaccepted words, and proper nouns that are not included in ATD’s dictionary. Now here is an example of a subject-verb agreement mistake.

It also gives you suggestions as to how to correct the mistake. When you right-click on the underlined word or phrase, you will see options pop up.

Admittedly, ATD does not seem to offer much more than what existing grammar checkers already offer. Here’s a small challenge. Spot the errors, please.

This is what ATD gave me after running a check.

Do you guys agree?

I also wrote a few lines to check further, and I got the same result – no errors.

Europeans are starting to discover the Philippines as a premiere beach destination. While many haven’t had the chance to go their, the word seems to be spreading. The Philippines has some of the best beaches in the world, and the people are perhaps the friendliest as well. There culture is very rich, and they’re very open-minded.

I also tried several other mistakes such as a comma splice, and ATD still did not catch them.

Needless to say, I am feeling let down. I was genuinely excited about ATD. I am sure that you know just how useful a really good checker can be. In any case, I think that this plugin can still be useful but my experience with ATD supports what I have always held true: proofread your work. ((Additional note: I find it amusing that the checker marked ATD as incorrect.))

Why don’t you try it out, and let me know how it goes?