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WeirdBrain

Virgin
Joined
Jun 14, 2018
Posts
2
May I make a suggestion? Good! There is a piece of downloadable FREE software called Grammarly. It will help the authors correct spelling errors. It will help correct grammar mistakes. You can write your story in your favorite editor, cut and paste the whole thing into Grammarly and when done cut and paste it back into your editor for uploading. I am sure everyone knows about the function of CTL A to highlight the whole thing for copy and paste. Enough said. Happy writing.
 
WeirdBrain said:
May I make a suggestion? Good! There is a piece of downloadable FREE software called Grammarly. It will help the authors correct spelling errors. It will help correct grammar mistakes. You can write your story in your favorite editor, cut and paste the whole thing into Grammarly and when done cut and paste it back into your editor for uploading. I am sure everyone knows about the function of CTL A to highlight the whole thing for copy and paste. Enough said. Happy writing.
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don't most word processors already have spelling and grammar checks? not sure how much more useful this would be than just simply writing your posts in word.
 
I have the free version of Grammarly. I usually have it turned off because it suggests changes I consider unnecessary.

It is useful sometimes, as is Review in Word, but both can be irritating.
 
Predictive text on my iPhone is a pain in the arse. I don’t like programs that try and do the work for me. I prefer to learn how to spell correctly myself and, using common sense, if there are any words I’m even remotely ensure of refer to a dictionary.

I believe the most popular dictionary nowadays is the version by Mr Google.
 
WeirdBrain said:
May I make a suggestion? Good! There is a piece of downloadable FREE software called Grammarly. It will help the authors correct spelling errors. It will help correct grammar mistakes.
Click to expand...

Just downloaded and tried it. It found several little errors that MS Word's grammar and spelling checker missed. And many suggestions, some of which I agreed with and used. I like it -- thanks for the tip.
 
Mechanical programs are never going to be able to fully capture the flexibility of fiction. They could/do help point to problems, but only training to writing fiction and a good grasp of grammar and the use of appropriate research aids can help you master this. Spend less time looking for easy buttons and more time learning your own skills.
 
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Out of curiosity, how would grammarly do with this snippet?
James had definitely grown up. Even in my heels, he was still a few inches taller then me, maybe 6'3 From Facebook, I had seen some pictures and knew that he played several sports, like soccer and basketball. But I wasn't expecting that he was in such good shape. Big broad shoulders, slim waste, muscled arms. Curly red hair, a few days' stubble on his checks, and an amazing smile. I had to catch myself, that his was my nephew.
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My experience with Word's grammar check is that it doesn't catch when you use a homonym or when you make a misspell that results in a valid word.
 
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KindofHere said:
What You Put
James had definitely grown up. Even in my heels, he was still a few inches taller then me, maybe 6'3 From Facebook, I had seen some pictures and knew that he played several sports, like soccer and basketball. But I wasn't expecting that he was in such good shape. Big broad shoulders, slim waste, muscled arms. Curly red hair, a few days' stubble on his checks, and an amazing smile. I had to catch myself, that his was my nephew.


Grammarly
James had grown up. Even in my heels, he was still a few inches taller than me, maybe 6'3 From Facebook, I had seen some pictures and knew that he played several sports, like soccer and basketball. But I wasn't expecting that he was in such good shape. Big broad shoulders, slim waist, muscled arms. Curly red hair, a few days' stubbles on his checks, and a fantastic smile. I had to catch myself, that he was my nephew.


If you were to use Grammarly's suggestions only and NOT decide on our own, that would be the difference. One miss and one suggestion that doesn't work in 'stubbles' and amazing was changed to fantastic because 'amazing is overused'.
Click to expand...

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Mm. I think I'll stay with my dictionary, thesaurus and reverse dictionary. I don't use them often. I don't have an editor and I worry about using a lot of technology. It complicates the process of writing and develops dependency. I want the work to be mine. I want to develop what I have. I want to be flexible and original with how I write. It isn't just up to me, It's also down to me and I want to be across it all.
 
KindofHere said:
What You Put
James had definitely grown up. Even in my heels, he was still a few inches taller then me, maybe 6'3 From Facebook, I had seen some pictures and knew that he played several sports, like soccer and basketball. But I wasn't expecting that he was in such good shape. Big broad shoulders, slim waste, muscled arms. Curly red hair, a few days' stubble on his checks, and an amazing smile. I had to catch myself, that his was my nephew.


Grammarly
James had grown up. Even in my heels, he was still a few inches taller than me, maybe 6'3 From Facebook, I had seen some pictures and knew that he played several sports, like soccer and basketball. But I wasn't expecting that he was in such good shape. Big broad shoulders, slim waist, muscled arms. Curly red hair, a few days' stubbles on his checks, and a fantastic smile. I had to catch myself, that he was my nephew.


If you were to use Grammarly's suggestions only and NOT decide on our own, that would be the difference. One miss and one suggestion that doesn't work in 'stubbles' and amazing was changed to fantastic because 'amazing is overused'.
Click to expand...
Thanks for this. Some many commenters seem to think it's easy to write a 25K word story with no spelling or grammar errors. Software like Grammarly can help, but it's not going to take the story to the level of perfection that so many readers seem to expect.
 
I get better results from ProWritingAid compared to Grammarly. Many more options including a homonym check. The pay version is cheaper too. There is a free version, as limited as Grammarly's free version.
 
KindofHere said:
Grammarly
James had grown up. Even in my heels, he was still a few inches taller than me, maybe 6'3 From Facebook, I had seen some pictures and knew that he played several sports, like soccer and basketball. But I wasn't expecting that he was in such good shape. Big broad shoulders, slim waist, muscled arms. Curly red hair, a few days' stubbles on his checks, and a fantastic smile. I had to catch myself, that he was my nephew.


If you were to use Grammarly's suggestions only and NOT decide on our own, that would be the difference. One miss and one suggestion that doesn't work in 'stubbles' and amazing was changed to fantastic because 'amazing is overused'.
Click to expand...

More than one miss.

"Even in my heels, he was still a few inches taller than me" - as written, that implies James is wearing the heels, in which case "even" doesn't make sense. Should be "Even when I was in my heels..."

Missing a full stop before "From Facebook".

"But I wasn't expecting that he was in such good shape" - maybe technically correct? but would work better as "But I hadn't expected that he would be in such good shape".

"I had to catch myself, that he was my nephew" - ungrammatical. Should be "remind myself that..." or "catch myself because".
 
Bramblethorn said:
More than one miss.

"Even in my heels, he was still a few inches taller than me" - as written, that implies James is wearing the heels, in which case "even" doesn't make sense. Should be "Even when I was in my heels..."

Missing a full stop before "From Facebook".

"But I wasn't expecting that he was in such good shape" - maybe technically correct? but would work better as "But I hadn't expected that he would be in such good shape".

"I had to catch myself, that he was my nephew" - ungrammatical. Should be "remind myself that..." or "catch myself because".
Click to expand...
Grammarly in this example does only word substitutions and doesn't change word order, which this paragraph badly needs.

James had definitely grown up. He was a few inches taller than me even though I was wearing heels; maybe 6'3. I knew from pictures on Facebook that he played soccer and basketball, but I wasn't expecting that he was in such good shape. Big broad shoulders, muscled arms, slim waist. Curly red hair, a few days' stubble on his cheeks, and an amazing smile. I had to catch myself, remembering he was my nephew.
 
KindofHere said:
What You Put
James had definitely grown up. Even in my heels, he was still a few inches taller then me, maybe 6'3 From Facebook, I had seen some pictures and knew that he played several sports, like soccer and basketball. But I wasn't expecting that he was in such good shape. Big broad shoulders, slim waste, muscled arms. Curly red hair, a few days' stubble on his checks, and an amazing smile. I had to catch myself, that his was my nephew.


Grammarly
James had grown up. Even in my heels, he was still a few inches taller than me, maybe 6'3 From Facebook, I had seen some pictures and knew that he played several sports, like soccer and basketball. But I wasn't expecting that he was in such good shape. Big broad shoulders, slim waist, muscled arms. Curly red hair, a few days' stubbles on his checks, and a fantastic smile. I had to catch myself, that he was my nephew.


If you were to use Grammarly's suggestions only and NOT decide on our own, that would be the difference. One miss and one suggestion that doesn't work in 'stubbles' and amazing was changed to fantastic because 'amazing is overused'.
Click to expand...

Thanks for doing this. This is very helpful to see. I write all my stories with MS Word, and I use its thesaurus and spelling and grammar function. But it misses a lot, and there's no substitute for doing one's own careful proofing of the text. Doing an initial spell and grammar check helps, because it cleans up the document a lot, but it doesn't do enough. It doesn't look like Grammarly does, either, so I'll probably stick with Word and do the rest on my own.
 
Grammarly seems rather intrusive - why not "definitely?" "Stubble" and "amazing" seem fine.

But yes, you have to use your own knowledge during proofreading but an electronic review is helpful too. MS Word could be better I suppose but I do use that feature.
 
gunhilltrain said:
Grammarly seems rather intrusive - why not "definitely?" "Stubble" and "amazing" seem fine.

But yes, you have to use your own knowledge during proofreading but an electronic review is helpful too. MS Word could be better I suppose but I do use that feature.
Click to expand...

"Definitely" is a junk adverb. It's clutter. If you take it out the sentence doesn't lose anything. Besides, it shouldn't be placed between the two parts of the verb. It should be put before "had."

"Amazing" is a junk adjective. It doesn't describe anything in particular. Better to say something about the subject that demonstrates to the reader that the smile was amazing. Describe some feature of the smile, or describe in a more colorful way the narrator's reaction to the smile.
 
Grammarly...I use the free version. I have turned off the Grammar Check in Word because it absolutely useless.

I do find that Grammarly does suggest changes that seem a little weird at times so I just ignore those.

It usually finds things that my million proof reads don't. :eek:
 
RubenR said:
I keep Grammarly off while writing, but turn it on once I've reached an almost-final-version of my story. Then I go through all the suggestions and decide whether I follow the advice of some piece of software, or go my own way.
Click to expand...

That's the way I do it also otherwise it just slows everything down. I can type faster than it can think.
 
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