Re: grammar checkers

[Heimdall Midgard <heimdalle@gmail.com>]

On 2005/11/13, Steve Lamb <grey@dmiyu.org> wrote:
>
> Mark Grieveson wrote:
>
> > It was very good.  It would not only point out
> > grammar errors, but gave thorough explanations as
> > well (for example: "This sentence is in the
> > /passive voice, /ie, 'The ball was thrown by John'.
> > Consider rewording to the /active voice,/ ie, 'John
> > threw the ball'").
>
>     Ah, yes, the active, passive voice "error".

That's more of a style issue than a grammar error.

>     Mary's black eye stung.  It had been hit by a
> ball.  She looked at each of her classmates.  John
> was the only one who would not look her in the eye.
> She knew, the ball had been thrown by John.
>
>     DINGDINGDING, passive voice!  But that's what
>     fits there.
>
> > A function of computers is to help people to
> > communicate, and become empowered.
>
>     No, the function of computers is to do what we
> tell them to do, not the other way around.

I think it's also the function of computers to remind
us that we may have committed an error. I think you're
talking about auto-correction.

Auto-correction is useful for fixing a very limited set
of writing problems, e.g. correcting every occurence of
"teh" (a letter combination that doesn't exist in
conventional English) to "the". Anything more is
probably asking for trouble.

> > Some computer users are recent immigrants, for whom
> > English is not their first language.  Some computer
> > users did not have a chance to attend
> > post-secondary education, and worry about how they
> > sound.  And some are educated, but still like to
> > have both their spelling and grammar checked once
> > in a while.

I wouldn't sit such an immigrant in front of a computer
and have him or her type out business letters. However,
in my former job as a copy editor I did find the crude
grammar checker of the word processor I had to endure
quite effective in ferreting out errors like
subject-verb agreement. There were plenty of false
positives, of course. But that's what the human (Ich)
was hired for.

[...]

> [1] Why yes, their, there and they're were put into
> that sentence as an example.  Have a cookie!

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--
Albert Einstein: Phantasie ist wichtiger als Wissen, denn Wissen ist begrenzt.