It's becoming increasingly clear that too many computer users are solely relying on spell checking software as their only means of proofing their work. The unwritten rules are that anything not related to business gets sent the way it is typed without the benefit of editing as opposed to a message meant for a business contact or being turned into a teacher should be put through spell checking software. People then assume the message is good to go.
I find that spell checking software is great at catching typos such as transposed letters, but that's about it. It will not save you from typing (or rather mistyping) homophones. [You remember those from English class, right? They're sets of words that sound the same, but are spelled differently and have different meanings such as "they're," "there," and "their."] Spell checking won't save you when your mistyped word happens to be another real world. Another potential pitfall is letting the spell checker automatically correct as you type. It may "correct" your typing error, but change the word to something else entirely. If "ewe" don't believe me, read on.
Would you want the following message being sent to your customers?
To Out Values Customer;
We got your e-male about yore missing shipment and are sew sorry for ant incontinence we may have caused. Where not shore how your order got miss placed hair? But were looking into it. Wheel chip it write out fro you too day fro our wear house. Thanks for undertaking!
Spell checking software approves. Try it in yours and you'll be shocked. Spell checking software is a good start, but it's not the final answer. Software is not sophisticated enough yet to replace manual proofreading and editing.
A proofreader would know the appropriate corrections called for in the situation.
To Our Valued Customer:
We received your e-mail about your missing shipment and are so sorry for any inconvenience we may have caused. We're not sure how your order got misplaced here, but we're looking into it. We'll ship it right out for you today from our warehouse. Thanks for understanding.
Would you want to turn this into your instructor?
Is it jest a myth that hour frost precedent shopped dawn a cheery tree? Scholars have rebated this store four ages, but to day wheel come to a definitive concussion.
A proofreader would know the appropriate corrections called for in the situation.
Is it just a myth that our first president chopped down a cherry tree? Scholars have debated this story for ages, but today we'll come to a definitive conclusion.
Don't be shy, run it through your spell checker and see what happens. Go ahead. I'll wait. I hope these examples have convinced you that spell check is only the first step in the editing process.
The usual operation of a spell attender crapper be ordered up two ways: it crapper check all the time, patch you're typing, or just when you verify it to. While autocorrect module clean up after you as your cursor moves across the page, spell check module provide you with choices when it comes across a articulate that doesn't register. The fact that there is individual choice participating means that there is ease the possibility of error. If you type pumpken and you're offered a choice of
pumpkin
pumpkins
pump ken
you module ease have an nonachievement if you make an incorrect choice - "it module just be a different error.
Keep in mind that the spell attender may, under certain circumstances, recognize that a articulate is misspelled, but not have the articulate you poverty listed and so be unable to offer it to you. In that housing you crapper add it for the nonce or add it to the dictionary.
Also, the spell attender haw tag a articulate as being possibly incorrect not because the articulate is wrong but because it isn't in the dictionary. In this case, the choice to ?Ignore All? or adding to the lexicon are useful options, depending on the circumstances.
Do You Want Grammar With That?
Why should you poverty to turn on the grammar attender when you poverty to check your spelling? For the good and sufficient think that your spell attender crapper exclusive find entities that are not words, but misspellings of homophones - "for example, confusion between too, to, two; their, there, they're; your, you're, yore; or its, it's - "will not be found by the spell attender but haw possibly (it's not guaranteed) be found by the grammar checker, because some of them are different parts of speech and therefore not grammatically interchangeable.
Also, did you know that in Microsoft Word, you crapper test the readability of your prose? In Preferences for Spelling and Grammar, under Grammar put a check in the box incoming to ?Show Readability Statistics,? and when the grammar (or grammar and spelling) check is over, you module get to view statistics that crapper help you determine if the level of your prose is on target.
The readability module verify you totals for words, characters, paragraphs, and sentences, as well as sentences per paragraph, text per sentence, and characters per words, and the percentage of supine constructions. Depending on your person matter and the context, this feature haw not be of much use, but sometimes it crapper provide useful information most how your prose is working.
Adding to the Permanent Dictionary
Is your surname Kosciusko? Then with Microsoft Word you're set, because it's already in the choice dictionary. If your surname is Hovencamp, however, or Zehle, you haw save yourself a lot of skipping over in the course of the incoming few years if you take a moment and add it to your main dictionary. The same goes for other text that you module frequently type, including addresses, relatives, consort and product names, etc.
Making a Specialized Dictionary When Necessary
Suppose that for the incoming two weeks you requirement to write most one of the following: species of snails; Dostoevsky's use of names; the geography of Finland; the stylish artificial heart. In some of these cases, you module dead - "and for a limited time - "need to be absolutely accurate with the spelling of some text that a) module not be in your spell attender and b) that you haw never use again or not requirement for a good long while, if ever. It may, in this case, be worth your patch to ordered up a secondary lexicon for this special material.
Having a secondary lexicon for exclusive these special text means that you crapper see the extent of the lexicon entries more easily (it won't have correct spellings for everyday text in it), and you crapper ordered it up for the module that is required for your special topic, if it is different than the module of the rest of the article. It also means that you crapper choose when to run it, so you when you're not writing most that topic, you won't see those text as alternatives to your typos of ordinary words.
Summary
You module get the best use of your spell check if you do the following:
* Use Spell Check in bike with autocorrect (see the article ?Misspelling and What to Do About It? for more hints most the autocorrect function). * Use Spell Check in bike with Grammar Check, taking advantage of player features such as ?Show Readability Statistics? when appropriate. * Add frequently used text to the dictionary. * Create special dictionaries for special projects. * Make sure that errors don't locomote in as you make choices from the Spell Checker's suggestions.
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