For Creative Writers. Grammar Check Question.

[Montserrat]

os9.2.2
G3 powerbook wallstreet
325 ram
2 G HD

What are you creative writers¹ opinions about the grammar checker?

Do you find your personal writing style to be compatible with what the
grammar check tells you?

 

[matt neuburg]

What are you creative writers' opinions about the grammar checker

If you are a writer, you know grammar much better than any computer
grammar checker. Computers do not know English.

If you are creative, you make up your own grammar! m.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

What are you creative writers' opinions about the grammar checker

If you are a writer, you know grammar much better than any computer
grammar checker. Computers do not know English.

If you are creative, you make up your own grammar! m.

Not a *creative* writer, but I operate on the principle that you need to
know the rules before you can break them. MS reminds me of the rule, I
consider whether this is a good moment to break it. Sometimes it is,
sometimes not (and of course sometimes what MS thinks is a rule doesn't
actually apply). I cannot function with "grammar check as you type" on but
usually include it in the spellcheck, if nothing else it catches the moments
when I accidentally put two spaces after a period. Actually, the "long
string of prepositional phrases" can be a fairly useful hint, I've borrowed
that as a comment for student papers.

Creative writers presumably have editors or agents who do a much better job
of flagging the things that actually need to be fixed?

Also, I'm not sure about Word 98/2001 (you forgot to say which but more
recent versions have a Settings button in the S&G preferences where you can
fine tune what rules of grammar spellcheck uses.

Daiya

 

[DC Berk]

Yes, Spell and Grammar Check are customizable: Preferences:Spelling and
Grammar.

First, you can create a custom dictionary for technical or obscure terms you
use that may not be in the default dictionary. You can also train the
dictionary to accept words it got wrong by clicking the "Add" option once
you decide a word is correct. Over time this reduces the number of words
that a spell check will flag.

There is also an "AutoCorrect" option that is extremely useful. Add
abbreviations for words or phrases that you frequently use to the
AutoCorrect list -- particularly the long ones. Then you can type just the
abbreviations and AutoCorrect fixes them for you on the fly. This not only
reduces the number of letters you have to type, but reduces the number of
words that spell check will flag. For instance, you could type abbr for
abbreviation, or ac for Auto Correct.

Next, I agree that almost anything grammar check flags should be looked
upon as a "suggestion" of what a standard editor would notice, and it is
sometimes laughably wrong. It is up to you to decide whether or not to
make use of it. It is, however, very useful as one step in the editing process
because at least it brings things to your attention you might otherwise miss.

You can customize Grammar with four default options and a "Custom" one.
The settings offer quite a few options that should cover most of your
preferences.

However, I have a question for someone more knowledgeable -- why are
there blank options on the Grammar Settings:Writing pane under "Require".
Is there some way to add something to this list?

And finally, every writer should have Bartleby.com on the toolbar of their
browser. Not only does it provide authoritative dictionaries, but Strunk's
Elements of Style, as well -- a much better source to consult than
Microsoft's notion of grammar (Have you ever read a technical manual?).
Also, try getitwriteonline.com. They have a free archive of grammar tips. I'm
sure there are others that Google would turn up.

 

[John McGhie]

I'm a Technical Writer, which means I am not "allowed" to be "creative".
Since by nature I am, I run the thing all the time to remind me when I am
breaking the rules.

Interestingly, I find that my writing improves greatly as a result of
attempting to resolve the errors identified by the Grammar Checker.

I may not agree with its suggested solution, but when it thinks there's a
problem, there almost always is.

It is important to get it customised correctly for your "style". If you
don't, you will get too many false positives (or not enough...).

My personal style is not at all compatible with the Grammar Checker's idea
of what should be. Of course it's wrong!! But if I accept its suggestions,
normal human beings have much less difficulty with my idiosyncratic drivel


Cheers

os9.2.2
G3 powerbook wallstreet
325 ram
2 G HD

What are you creative writers¹ opinions about the grammar checker?

Do you find your personal writing style to be compatible with what the
grammar check tells you?

--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <[email protected]>
Consultant Technical Writer
Sydney, Australia +61 4 1209 1410

 

[John McGhie]

Hi DC:

However, I have a question for someone more knowledgeable -- why are
there blank options on the Grammar Settings:Writing pane under "Require".
Is there some way to add something to this list?

That's a bug. The PC version has a different style of dialog box for that
function, and I think Mac BU were going to improve ours, but ran out of
time.

There's nothing you can add, and as far as I can tell, there's nothing
missing.

Cheers


--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <[email protected]>
Consultant Technical Writer
Sydney, Australia +61 4 1209 1410

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

I'm a Technical Writer, which means I am not "allowed" to be "creative".

Same thing here. The only rule I disabled though is the notification of
the use fo the passive form since in the type of article we write, we
use it rather often,

Interestingly, I find that my writing improves greatly as a result of
attempting to resolve the errors identified by the Grammar Checker.

I may not agree with its suggested solution, but when it thinks there's a
problem, there almost always is.

Very true!!!

Corentin

 

[DC Berk]

So, I was reading a list I get today, and guess what popped up in a member's
email:

College paper due. Content includes a sentence that a certain situation or
condition causes a particular result.

The Word grammar checker flagged "causes".

And suggested: cause's

Need I say more.

DC

 

[Elliott Roper]

So, I was reading a list I get today, and guess what popped up in a member's
email:

College paper due. Content includes a sentence that a certain situation or
condition causes a particular result.

The Word grammar checker flagged "causes".

And suggested: cause's

Need I say more.

Heh! I think Word decided that since it was so bad already, that adding
another mistake would be rather good fun.

I dunno about your copy, but mine has long ago gone feral. It is the
overweight sulky teenager of computer programs. ;-)

I gave that to the grammar checker, which after suggesting "don't know"
for 'dunno', made no further objection. So you can still get away with
insulting it, as long as it does not understand the insult. That works
on teenagers too.

 

[John McGhie]

As I said: when Word finds a problem, it's suggested solution may not always
be correct. But there nearly always IS a problem.

And yes, you do need to say more: You need to say that you were unwilling
to install your own personal supercomputer in order to get enough power to
run a grammar checker that could actually understand English well enough to
get it right 100 per cent of the time.

The bug you mention is not apparent with that particular sentence in Word
2004 with the style set to Formal. However, it will still occur in more
complex sentences. The grammar checker improves with each version of Word,
largely because with each version of Word they take suck in a little more
machine resource because each year, computers get a bit more powerful.

The grammar rule you cite as an example is one of the simplest ones for a
human being, but computationally it's one of the tougher ones to check,
because of the implied verb and omitted definite article.

We're still a along way from getting translation from one language to
another, grammar checking, or speech-to-text perfect. Things have improved
a lot since I began working in the field: 15 years ago, a single sentence
would drag a mainframe to a halt for 60 seconds with one sentence (and then
get the answer wrong...).

If you think English grammar is "easy", you have little experience of school
students, trainee technical writers, or junior journalists

Cheers

So, I was reading a list I get today, and guess what popped up in a member's
email:

College paper due. Content includes a sentence that a certain situation or
condition causes a particular result.

The Word grammar checker flagged "causes".

And suggested: cause's

Need I say more.

DC

--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <[email protected]>
Consultant Technical Writer
Sydney, Australia +61 4 1209 1410