Anyone use a grammar checker?

CatMuse33

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I'm just curious as to how many writers use a separate grammar checker or pay any attention to:

- the little green lines saying you did something wrong in Word

- your Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease score

- uses MS Word to find passive voice so you can get rid of it

This MIGHT be for an article. I know in the 90s I used to use an actual grammar checker that went through line-by-line, but I don't know if this is as antiquated as floppy discs now or if people still do use them.

Dawn
 

mscelina

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Nope. Do not rely on a spell checker or grammar checker in your Word program. Use a real honest-to-goodness grammar style source, like the Chicago Manual of style or Strunk and White, and actually check your manuscript word by word, page by page. Seriously. One of my biggest pet peeves when I'm editing a book is finding errors that a grammar checker doesn't detect--like mixed up homonyms they're/their/there.
 

cscarlet

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Hrm. Since I still suck at passive voice, I'm not sure I'm doing this very well... BUT I do pay attention to the "little green lines" in Word, and I have gotten into the habit of using the MS Word "Find" option to search out things that I have on my "do not use" list. Of course I read through many times, and I'm actually VERY good about not mixing up homonyms, and such. Usually passive voice is my biggest issue.

Everyone's suggestions on how to catch grammatical mistakes are welcome, since I'm quite obviously not savvy enough to catch them on my own as I type. ;) :)
 

plaidearthworm

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Yes, I run Word's Spelling and Grammar check, mainly to catch spelling errors. I don't always follow the grammar suggestions, however. I know how I want a sentence to look, no matter what the naggy lines say. And I do proofread the document before sending it on to my editor, because I never, ever trust the check by itself. Hope this helps!
 

Chuck Jones

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I agree. I run the grammar check, because it actually does catching my mistakes from time to time. More often than not, I ignore most of the grammar suggestions. I know what I want my writing to sound like and I don't need Microsoft freaking out because (OMG!) I used a split infinitive.
 

Mumut

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I run it before I submit my work to the publisher. It's tedious because there are so many 'fragments' in dialogue but there is the occasional typo or situation where a semi-colon would be better than a comma. By getting rid of the last glitches makes me much more confident with my work.
 

CatMuse33

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LOL Chuck & Plaid- Yup!! :)

Mscelina- Absolutely I agree--I hope no one would rely on the computer alone!

CS- Those are good ideas... if you haven't, read and re-read Strunk & White's Elements of Style. That will help a lot! You'll get it with time!
 

JNLister

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I mainly rely on Word's grammar check so that I can have a shouting match with it once a day and work off some frustration.

The biggest irk is when it tells me off for a lack of subject/verb agreement and it's simply because it blinding looks for the last noun before the verb. For example, "A group of companies" is, according to Word, automatically a plural (companies) rather than a singular (group). GRR.
 

Snowstorm

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I use my grammar and spell check just to help me catch errors I may have missed. But I take the checks with a huge grain of salt since I know they are [very] fallible.
 

Ravenlocks

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I turn off the grammar check (because it sucks) but keep the spell check on as I'm writing so I can address spelling issues as they arise. Even the spell check has to be taken with a grain of salt, of course, because it's just comparing your words against its internal dictionary, which doesn't include every word you'd necessarily want to use.

At the very end I run a final spelling check and also get the Flesch-Kincaid score. I don't change anything because of the F-K score, but I find it interesting to know what grade level I'm supposedly writing at (it's usually on the lower end). I guess if it told me I'd written my novel at twelfth-grade level, I would want to take a look and see why it thought that.

I don't worry about passive voice. If the phrasing I used sounds good to me, I leave it in.
 

Cate

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I use both grammar and spell check. Then I check it myself. It helps to have a few systems in place. :)
 

treehugger

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Like Ravenlocks, I have the grammar check turned off; I trust my own innate sense of grammar more than I trust some machine, and sometimes I want to use "bad" grammar to achieve some creative effect. I do use spell check, though, to catch typos, although I will also read through it again myself to make sure everything was actually spell-checked correctly.
 

stldenise

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I use the grammer checker in Word just for the 2nd opinion. I don't always take it's advice, but sometimes it finds something that I should change. The spell checker is great for picking up my typos. And seriously, what writer here gets their and there mixed up?
 

SouthernFriedJulie

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I don't worry about the grammar. If I did, some poor copy editor would be out of a job.

Oh, and programs suck teh big onez.

I do have a spelling checker running at all times. I think it's through the browser, I use Chrome.