Grammar

Can anyone recommend a good grammar checker? Apparently Microsoft does not catch everything like I thought they did.

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More About Grammar & Writing Skills

Don't worry. If you make a mistake, the editors will let you know.

~
up, up, down, down, left, right,left,right, B,A, start.

Sometimes, the editors will let you know you made a mistake when you didn't :-)

I love the job postings with dramatic errors in grammar included in the instructions. (Look at some of JM Ridgway's....) Makes me giggle when I get a response from them re: errors in grammar in one of my reports.

Please consider that If you import a grammar checker, you might also import viruses and spam. Please also know that what you know as proper grammar may have changed and may change again soon. Please also know that many editors are "a work in progress". Do your best with no worries.

Grammarly

-Inkling

*~Shopping the Orlando area today, tomorrow the world~*

I love it when people write "I have good grammer". I love it so much dedicated a Facebook page to it ... lol

Please don't rely on online grammar/spell checkers. Half the time they're not right! I hate them. The best thing to do is buy a reliable grammar style guide. The very best, IMO, is the "Chicago Manual of Style." You can get an online subscription or a hard copy. The AP Style Guide is very good, and probably most of the MSCs use AP style for grammar issues. For a basic grammer guide, "Strunk & White" is pretty good.

There is nothing like looking things up that you're unsure of, rather than relying on an automated system to tell you something's wrong and suggest how you correct it. When you look it up, you'll learn the rule (even if you have to look it up a couple more times before it becomes second nature), and you won't make the same mistake or have the same question over and over again.

I learn something new every day, but not everyday!
I've learned to never trust spell-check or my phone's auto-fill feature.

I have also found that the spell check with MS Word is not working as good as it used to. I have found that it's not catching extra spaces all the time and missing some misspelt words. It has made me paranoid since I am not a great speller.

Proofreading is important. Grammar checkers won't always pick up homonyms, either.

I used my sister's "Blue Book" when I was in college. Now when I want to double check something,
I use the grammar text book I was given to review when our junior high changed their English program.
The rules are stated so simply and the pictures are fun and colorful! Funny, all the rules are the same as I
learned them so many years ago! Glad I have a good memory.

*********************
I'm "Sandi" in the Middle!

I use my brain. And, when I read posts, I AM silently correcting your grammar.

CoastieWife Wrote:
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> I use my brain. And, when I read posts, I AM
> silently correcting your grammar.

How do you STOP correcting grammar, spelling, and word usage? It is driving me crazy because I can not go on the internet, shop in stores, or even read books without spotting errors. Seriously, there were "Sleep Aides" for sale at the drug store today.

Perhaps we need a start a help group - Grammar Correctors Anonymous (GCA)?

I saw a good one in a convenience store today. "All items with a circle is marked down 1/2."

Mary Davis Nowell. Based close to Fort Worth. Shopping Interstate 20 east and west, Interstate 35 north and south.

kamarkim Wrote:
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>
> Perhaps we need a start a help group - Grammar
> Correctors Anonymous (GCA)?

Count me in!

There have been recent postings on Facebook about the prom tickets from a local school,
supposedly one of the best in the area. The prom theme printed on the tickets was
"This Is Are Story."

*********************
I'm "Sandi" in the Middle!

Y'all need to pick up a copy of "Eats, Shoots and Leaves" by Lynne Truss.

Grrrooooaaaannnn!!!!!!! And these are our high school students??

kamarkim Wrote:
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> Grrrooooaaaannnn!!!!!!! And these are our high
> school students??

And they can't spell "you" or "four" and they don't know the difference between "you're" and "your" or "to" and "too."

Although neither does US Bank. They tweeted in my twitter feed something to the effect of: "Do u want to see us 4..." I tweeted back that they should learn how to spell!

I have a really good friend who would love to start a GCA Group.

SandiAigo Wrote:
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> kamarkim Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
>
> >
> > Perhaps we need a start a help group - Grammar
> > Correctors Anonymous (GCA)?
>
>Count me in too!

**********************************
What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals. -Henry David Thoreau
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Real generosity is doing something nice for someone who will never find out. -Frank Clark
**********************************

In all fairness, bad spelling and grammar has ALWAYS been around. I study linguistics for fun (as a layman, I'm not an expert or anything) and one Late Middle English text includes the spellings, all by one man, "conny, cony, kony, conie" and several others for the modern "coney" (rabbit). Granted, LME didn't have standardized spelling, but among the learned, each individual usually developed their own spelling and stuck with it--such that we can identify the writers (or at least scribes) of some early works by the spelling. The kind of varied spelling seen in my example above is a classic hallmark of someone who cannot spell. We've found clay stelae from Egypt that show corrections to the hieroglyphics where a teacher edited a student's work.

TL;DR, don't be too worried about spelling. Bad spellers have always been among us. With the advent of the internet, it's just become more visible.

My head is my grammar check, when I was a wee child in second grade I became hopelessly addicted to English and diagramming sentences. By the time I hit high school it became a total addiction from which I have not recovered. Imagine my undiluted joy when my college offered a course in diagramming which the education majors took, the instructor was dumbfounded when I signed up just for the fun of it.

Her Serene Majesty, Cettie - Goat Queen of Zoltar, Sublime Empress of Her Caprine Domain

I LOVED diagramming! And, I've found it useful in my writing. Our local schools don't teach it
anymore, unfortunately.

*********************
I'm "Sandi" in the Middle!

My daughter--who is now 19--was taught diagramming in 4th or 5th grade. Just the other day, in response to a discussion we were having about children's fitness, she pointed out, "Things have changed a lot since I was in school, MOM." (emphasis added). I't only been 10 years, but she is so right.

To the best of my knowledge, I have never diagrammed a sentence in my life. My kids were taught it in school, but I was not.

Nametag written as one word in the guidelines and on the report form. Every time I spelled it that way, I got dinged. I no longer type it as one word and it is no longer an issue! Imagine thay, eh.

This is Customer Impact. I should tell them I guess.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/01/2014 10:44PM by Canuck.

Canuck Wrote:
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> Nametag written as one word in the guidelines and
> on the report form. Every time I spelled it that
> way, I got dinged. I no longer type it as one word
> and it is no longer an issue! Imagine thay, eh.
>

This is Customer Impact.

Some companies consider it one word, but I got tired of Spellcheck admonitions.
I type it in two words now, too.

*********************
I'm "Sandi" in the Middle!

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