Word Grammar Checker

[Zeb_Carter]

Lately, I have turned on Microsoft Words grammar checker. I still run every story thought Grammarly though. I have had to disable a number of items as they all think I'm writing a business letter. There are some I had to leave on though and they too think I'm writing something other than fiction. There are a number of words that it seems to do away with...

Like - it wants to replace with 'as' or 'as if'
Gentleman - with 'man' or 'person'
Guys - with 'people'
Waitress - with 'server' or 'waiter'

... among others.

It also has difficulty distinguishing between Will the name and will as in 'will do'. Which is a real pain in the ass. (and it thinks the previous sentence is a question)

So, has anyone else experienced these phenomenon?

 

[LoquiSordidaAdMe]

Lately, I have turned on Microsoft Words grammar checker.

Wait, you can turn Word's grammar checker OFF? Why didn't I know that!? 'Scuse me, I gotta Google something real quick.

 

[TxRad]

Lately, I have turned on Microsoft Words grammar checker. I still run every story thought Grammarly though. I have had to disable a number of items as they all think I'm writing a business letter. There are some I had to leave on though and they too think I'm writing something other than fiction. There are a number of words that it seems to do away with...

Like - it wants to replace with 'as' or 'as if'
Gentleman - with 'man' or 'person'
Guys - with 'people'
Waitress - with 'server' or 'waiter'

... among others.

It also has difficulty distinguishing between Will the name and will as in 'will do'. Which is a real pain in the ass. (and it thinks the previous sentence is a question)

So, has anyone else experienced these phenomenon?

Oh yeah, I have their grammar checker on but about half the crap it checks turned off. It was designed for writing business letters not fiction or anything else.

 

[SyleusSnow]

You turn off some of Word's grammar rules, like "gender bias", but Word's grammar checker isn't much good for fiction. It's hard set for business writing. Same for Grammarly, last time I tried it.

ProWritingAid has a creative writing setting and is so much better (and cheaper) than Grammarly. Probably because they don't spend as much on advertising.

(insert standard disclaimer about relying on automated grammar checkers here)

 

[Handley_Page]

Lately, I have turned on Microsoft Words grammar checker. I still run every story thought Grammarly though. I have had to disable a number of items as they all think I'm writing a business letter. There are some I had to leave on though and they too think I'm writing something other than fiction. There are a number of words that it seems to do away with...

Like - it wants to replace with 'as' or 'as if'
Gentleman - with 'man' or 'person'
Guys - with 'people'
Waitress - with 'server' or 'waiter'

... among others.

It also has difficulty distinguishing between Will the name and will as in 'will do'. Which is a real pain in the ass. (and it thinks the previous sentence is a question)

So, has anyone else experienced these phenomenon?

Oh Yes.
According to Word, we don't employ Waiter & Waitresses, we employ "Servers" (I thought that was something to do with computers).
An earlier version (Word 97, I think) had a means whereby you could tell it what you are writing (business, fiction, etc.), but they seem to have dropped this useful feature out.

If only m/soft would listen to users - particularly those who are NOT sat at a business desk with an army of IT folks.

 

[KeithD]

So, has anyone else experienced these phenomenon?

Not after the only time I turned it on to see what it would do.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Yep, the only reason I turned it on was to see how much I use passive voice and how bad I use it. Not as much or as bad as I thought.

I wasn't expecting the damn thing to so gender neutral, yet every time I see a new thing about what Word/Microsoft think about a gender specific word, I laugh.

And while I know it's crap at fiction... depending what you have turned on or off, it can be rather informative.

 

[sbrooks103]

Lately, I have turned on Microsoft Words grammar checker. I still run every story thought Grammarly though. I have had to disable a number of items as they all think I'm writing a business letter. There are some I had to leave on though and they too think I'm writing something other than fiction. There are a number of words that it seems to do away with...

Like - it wants to replace with 'as' or 'as if'
Gentleman - with 'man' or 'person'
Guys - with 'people'
Waitress - with 'server' or 'waiter'

... among others.

It also has difficulty distinguishing between Will the name and will as in 'will do'. Which is a real pain in the ass. (and it thinks the previous sentence is a question)

So, has anyone else experienced these phenomenon?

I've never heard of "turning it on or off." Under the Review function I can choose to run a spelling and grammar check, but if I don't run it, nothing happens.

 

[gordo12]

Lately, I have turned on Microsoft Words grammar checker. I still run every story thought Grammarly though. I have had to disable a number of items as they all think I'm writing a business letter. There are some I had to leave on though and they too think I'm writing something other than fiction. There are a number of words that it seems to do away with...

Like - it wants to replace with 'as' or 'as if'
Gentleman - with 'man' or 'person'
Guys - with 'people'
Waitress - with 'server' or 'waiter'

... among others.

It also has difficulty distinguishing between Will the name and will as in 'will do'. Which is a real pain in the ass. (and it thinks the previous sentence is a question)

So, has anyone else experienced these phenomenon?

My grammar checker calls them simple alternatives. IE shorter and simpler words. After all we have to keep it within troll level, you know, under 4 letters

Not to mention that if one more waiter, waitress walks up and asks how are you guys doing my wife is going to clock them! I think it's become somewhat offensive.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

I've never heard of "turning it on or off." Under the Review function I can choose to run a spelling and grammar check, but if I don't run it, nothing happens.

In word it's on by default to check as you type. Unless you can type faster than word can check for spelling and grammar. You have to turn it off, which I did when I installed it back in 2007.

If you see those squiggly red or blue underlines its on. If you don't then it's off. Now you do have to turn it on if you want to correct your spelling on the fly which isn't what I did.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

My grammar checker calls them simple alternatives. IE shorter and simpler words. After all we have to keep it within troll level, you know, under 4 letters

Not to mention that if one more waiter, waitress walks up and asks how are you guys doing my wife is going to clock them! I think it's become somewhat offensive.

Yeah, I found that for trolls you have to write at the 4th grade level. You want to make them angry, write at a 12th grade level.

 

[gordo12]

Yeah, I found that for trolls you have to write at the 4th grade level. You want to make them angry, write at a 12th grade level.

LOL, I have to mention I ran a story I saw on Lit through Hemingway and it showed up as the 16th grade level. I'm going WTF is the 16th grade level

Pissed the trolls off for sure and the genius residents too.

 

[KeithD]

Not to mention that if one more waiter, waitress walks up and asks how are you guys doing my wife is going to clock them! I think it's become somewhat offensive.

Your wife has been channeling my wife.

 

[gordo12]

Your wife has been channeling my wife.

Trouble is my wife is a black belt and taken boxing. I pity any woman that really, really pisses her off.

On the other hand have I ever mentioned how much I love martial arts? The only place you can beat your wife and kids and everyone is cheering you on!

 

[KeithD]

Trouble is my wife is a black belt and taken boxing. I pity any woman that really, really pisses her off.

My wife was both a nurse and a trained covert spy. I don't think anyone would want to piss either of those off.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

LOL, I have to mention I ran a story I saw on Lit through Hemingway and it showed up as the 16th grade level. I'm going WTF is the 16th grade level

Pissed the trolls off for sure and the genius residents too.

That would be a college graduate.

 

[yukonnights]

That would be a college graduate.

And that is not much of guarantee — I should know. My latest story went live last night and when I read it on 'the big screen' the number of typos was sickeningly embarrassing. I put a comment up apologizing. My excuse, somewhat legitimate, is I don't know a proofreader who writes Lesbian themed stories.

Wouldn't you think after at least a half dozen reads a college grad could see those little typo critters

 

[gordo12]

And that is not much of guarantee — I should know. My latest story went live last night and when I read it on 'the big screen' the number of typos was sickeningly embarrassing. I put a comment up apologizing. My excuse, somewhat legitimate, is I don't know a proofreader who writes Lesbian themed stories.

Wouldn't you think after at least a half dozen reads a college grad could see those little typo critters

Nope! I truly believe that once we've read a story a hundred times we're reading from our heads and not the paper. Every time I post a story I have immediate regrets. Like EB says that micro second when you press the submit button and spot the error

I sent a couple of stories to my kindle fire recently and had the text speak read them back to me. It was amazing how many errors I found even though they were short and edited a lot. You even went over one. There was more yet.

 

[KeithD]

Nope! I truly believe that once we've read a story a hundred times we're reading from our heads and not the paper.

Bingo, except that three times is probably enough. If you leave it and come back to it after at least a day, it will be closer to a fresh read again. Reading it a month later will be a painful "how the hell did I read through that" experience.

 

[yukonnights]

Nope! I truly believe that once we've read a story a hundred times we're reading from our heads and not the paper. Every time I post a story I have immediate regrets. Like EB says that micro second when you press the submit button and spot the error

I sent a couple of stories to my kindle fire recently and had the text speak read them back to me. It was amazing how many errors I found even though they were short and edited a lot. You even went over one. There was more yet.

I actually knew I was probably just trying to fool myself. I was just so sick and tired of it I said screw it — good enough. But then when I read it on Lit >

I've used the text to voice myself on several stories. I think it was more burn-out than anything. I really liked that story too. I've spent a good part of today hunting down and killing those nasty critters on my original copy. I don't know if I'll submit an edit or not. By the time it goes through the story will have fallen into the history bin and few would ever see it. But, I'm a bit of a perfectionist — who sadly, isn't very perfect

 

[yukonnights]

Bingo, except that three times is probably enough. If you leave it and come back to it after at least a day, it will be closer to a fresh read again. Reading it a month later will be a painful "how the hell did I read through that" experience.

Oh, I did that too. Set it aside for about a week actually, then read it again (and made a few more changes < which probably nullifies my one week set-aside!). For example; I had a number of instances of the word Mama. I decided to change them all to Momma — only problem, I didn't change all of them It was pretty painful last night when I read it online.

 

[SimonDoom]

Bingo, except that three times is probably enough. If you leave it and come back to it after at least a day, it will be closer to a fresh read again. Reading it a month later will be a painful "how the hell did I read through that" experience.

And to your point, if one has the time it's an excellent idea to put the story aside for a while and come back to after a few days, or after an even longer break, for precisely that reason. Just as Gordo says, if I'm reading a story that's fresh I'm reading what I think I just wrote and not what's actually on the paper (or screen), and it's remarkably difficult to train one's brain to see what's actually there, not what it thinks is there.

I've gotten somewhat better at doing this, but I still catch mistakes no matter how many read-throughs I've done, and I catch more if it's been a while since the last read.

 

[TxRad]

Changing fonts, change the spacing. Read the story by the paragraph backwards, starting at the end and going to the start. Anything that makes your minds eye see what is actually there.

 

[yukonnights]

What you're all saying … I mean, you're just telling me now that this so called hobby is actually work

Wull I'll be dog whipped, they snookered us Bullwinkle — they shore did, and got us good too, by-gumby!

 

[gordo12]

What you're all saying … I mean, you're just telling me now that this so called hobby is actually work

Wull I'll be dog whipped, they snookered us Bullwinkle — they shore did, and got us good too, by-gumby!

Someone is watching too many Rocky and Bullwinkle reruns And I never liked Gumby