I have just started to use this to check grammar and noticed that it puts commas in different places to where Word 2016 grammar check puts them. I wondered what would be the most reliable grammar checker available to use?
I have just started to use this to check grammar and noticed that it puts commas in different places to where Word 2016 grammar check puts them. I wondered what would be the most reliable grammar checker available to use?
I cannot emphasise enough that no machine can get all the fine nuances of language and be 100% correct. Think Data in Star Trek. He was unable to make contractions such as don't or can't and I like to think that is because the writers didn't like to contemplate the day when they could be replaced by machines! Anyway, it is the job of the writer to use the subtleties of grammar to lift their text from something which could have been written by a machine to that great status where the very writing is so enthralling, the subject matter is a pleasant bonus. Of course, self-editing is just about the most difficult thing we do. We can't catch everything and that is why books for print are proof-read, but proof-reading is only designed to catch typos, not grammar errors. For that you must learn your craft. Unfortunately, the books on grammar are pretty dry and hard work. The one I got on with professes not to be a full-proof grammar text and, as I remember, is almost entirely concerned with punctuation, but is an excellent guide which entertains as well as it informs. It is the excellent Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss. With her tuition, semi-colons were turned from agents of fear to sentence-elongating friends and my penchant for commas was thankfully quashed but, most importantly, I learned not to fear either the long or short sentence. Each has their place.