MS Grammar Check Under Fire

[CajunCenturion]

A Word to the unwise -- program's grammar check isn't so smart
and
Dueling grammar tools

Good Luck
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[Thadeus]

OK, so I'm not Strunk or White, but I think I do well overall. As I mentioned in another thread, my entry into a technical role was through the gateway of word processing in DOS apps. This did not make me a grammarian, but it certainly honed some skills I already possessed.

That said, I don't trust the grammar checking at all. Additionally, I feel that the pop-up that states "Spelling and grammar checking complete" ought to contain a short disclaimer if they know it doesn't work perfectly.

~Thadeus

 

[jrbarnett]

Nothing new with these documents, they've simply stated what I've known for a very long time.
At least MS have fixed the problem that existed in Word 97 where if you ran Spelling and Grammar across "World-wide" the grammar checker would change it to "Worldwide" and the spelling checker would reinsert the hyphen.

John

 

[elanor]

Don't worry, jrbarnett...there are plenty more where that came from!
Thanks,
Elanor

 

[SilentAiche]

This one just happened: I had "information" in a sentence twice and didn't like the close proximity (it sounded redundant). So, I checked "information" in the MS Word thesaurus and it gave me this meaning: [blue]in order[/blue]
(with alternatives in sequence, in rank, in line, etc.).

And no, there was not a space between in and formation!

Tim

[blue]__________________________________________________
If you need immediate assistance, please raise your hand.[/blue]

 

[jebenson]

Microsoft's grammar checker reminds me of Ralph Wiggum from The Simpson's:

"Me fail English? That's unpossible!"


I used to rock and roll every night and party every day. Then it was every other day. Now I'm lucky if I can find 30 minutes a week in which to get funky. - Homer Simpson

 

[Dimandja]

Just for laughs, I asked for alternative spellings for "Dimandja".

I got "demand", "dementia" and "diamond". All of which words, I'm proud to say, I have been called before -- so, no surprises there.



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[GwydionM]

I cannot S-P-E-Y-L, and so use the checker a lot. Better, since it makes me do my own corrections, my spelling improved.

But as you say, the grammer 'checker' is useless. It misses obvious rubbish and objects to good English.

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An old man who lives in the UK