McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft
Suggestions on software for grammar check for novels?
Cyclone Jack:
Yep. The class, and a nice selection of reference books for tricky moments:
Strunk & White's The Elements Of Style
Style: Towards Clarity & Grace by Joseph M. Williams
These have both been extremely helpful to me.
The main problem with software checkers is the simple fact that they are programmed along business correspondance lines, do not deal well with variables, and are almost useless when presented with fictional devices like colloquial first person, multiple characters with differing regional speech patterns, etc.
It's best to take the class, buy a couple books, and have some dedicated first readers. :)
Best,
-G.
meg_evonne:
Thanks Jack!
Matrix Refugee (formerly Morraeon):
--- Quote from: Cyclone Jack on June 04, 2007, 09:59:19 PM ---Yep. The class, and a nice selection of reference books for tricky moments:
Strunk & White's The Elements Of Style
Style: Towards Clarity & Grace by Joseph M. Williams
These have both been extremely helpful to me.
The main problem with software checkers is the simple fact that they are programmed along business correspondance lines, do not deal well with variables, and are almost useless when presented with fictional devices like colloquial first person, multiple characters with differing regional speech patterns, etc.
It's best to take the class, buy a couple books, and have some dedicated first readers. :)
Best,
-G.
--- End quote ---
Seconded on Sturnk and White: it's got to be the best and most readable book on grammar out there. I keep a copy of it on my writing table for reference when I'm working.
meg_evonne:
--- Quote from: Morraeon on June 05, 2007, 10:02:18 PM ---Seconded on Sturnk and White: it's got to be the best and most readable book on grammar out there. I keep a copy of it on my writing table for reference when I'm working.
--- End quote ---
Strunk and White it is, with a class for spice. Thanks! Meg
Guardian 452:
I agree that taking a class would be a very good thing...
I use MS Word for most of my writing, and I have a specific rule I follow whenever it flags a spelling or grammar error. Put simply, I try to correct the error on my own.
If I can't figure it out, then I see what the checker offers as a solution. I find that Word sometimes has problems with things such as plurals and tenses. For example, if someone who loved the musical Cats said "Cats is my favorite musical" the odds are that Word would tell you that the "correct" statement should be "Cats are my favorite musical".
I also like to try correcting things myself because you don't always have a spellchecker handy! Finally (I posted about this once before), it's most annoying when people are certain that they're spelling something correctly when they're not (than/then is a favorite of mine) and actually click the "add to dictionary" button when they do a spellcheck! Somewhere down the road they insist that their spelling of a word is correct due to the fact that "The spellchecker told me it was".
The bottom line is a spelling/grammar checker is a wonderful tool but should not be relied upon one hundred per cent.
Keith
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