Word Processing Programs

[Ryn]

I have had that happen to me lots to - but it could also be because of your settings. I tried copying and pasting your sentence into my copy of Word (Word2011 for Mac) and it didn't show up as being grammatically incorrect for me.

If you go into your preferences, there is a "Spelling & Grammar" set of preferences, where you can change how Word reviews your writing. Under the Grammar section, you can choose from some pre-formatted choices (Casual, Standard, Formal or Technical) or you can customize it, so that it takes different factors into consideration. Maybe changing your settings will stop Word from telling you something is grammatically incorrect when it really isn't.

[moderntimes]

Your sentence is correct. I have run into a few instances while writing essays where MS Word seems like it doesn't know what it is talking about. It is just the drawbacks of relying on computer algorithms instead of human eyes.

Use Word's spellcheck for gross mistakes, such as accidental "tpyos" but never rely on any sort of computer program to replace your own brain. You're a writer, after all. Writers must know their language and know it well. Attention to detail is also requisite.

I'll be honest. I spend about the same amount of time revising and editing my novels as I do writing them in the first place, maybe even more time in revising than the original creation. It's not easy and if it were easy, anyone could be an "arthur" (ha ha). It requires concentration and skill based on innate talent.

Nevertheless, it's perfectly okay to use your word processing program to find common typos fast. Just don't rely on it as the ultimate arbiter of what's correct or not. Only your brain can do that.

And Ryn, yes, there are all sorts of options to set for checking grammar, and I've tried them and found that they were intrusive into my own writing style. I write modern detective fiction and so my style is breezy and fast, and I don't use "formal" construction -- many incomplete sentences, "fragmentary" they're called. My sentence construction is also deliberately snappy and therefore lots of short sentences which "technically" are incomplete. Like this example I just thought up:

"I wondered briefly whether my actions would be considered rude would rub my client the wrong way. But only briefly. Hey, my bad."

Which has 2 incomplete sentences but is a perfectly good paragraph for modern crime fiction. My point is, the human brain is the final judge.

A funny and very true story... I'd finished my 3rd private eye novel in the series and was trying to find a publisher. Because of the similarity of names,I accidentally submitted 3 chapters to a scam publisher, one which is warned about on the website "Preditors and Editors" (a terrific source site for writers!). This scam works in this manner: They "like" your writing but it has far too many errors and needs a good editor. They recommend a site which has excellent editing services. You send your book to them, they charge you $100 or more, and "fix" your writing. Then you re-submit it, and the "publisher" says "Good but it could be better" and maybe you should use the editing firm's higher priced "consulting" and so you go back and spend $500 and then you re-re-submit, and then it's pretty good but not quite good enough, and so you get passed back and forth and in fact, the "editing" firm is the same place as the "publisher" with a different URL, and you end up spending lots of money and your book never quite is good enough.

Anyway, I'd accidentally sent my 3 chapters to one of these scam houses, and they said it was full of errors and typos. In fact there were ZERO errors, all of the "errors" simply departures from formal English as in my short example above. They sent me a markup of the first 2 pages to "prove" all the work that needed to be done. I told them to take a hike.

Not long after, a REAL publisher liked my submission, expressed interest in my previous novels and offered me a very cozy 3-book publishing contract! This is a genuine non-subsidy publisher where the author pays ZERO and gets the advance and royalties. One of my books is already out and the other two are soon to be published.

So much for formal editing and "bad" English.

Point being, you're the judge of what's correct, not some piece of software. Nevertheless, software is handy for finding common misspellings and such.

[CCtheBrave]

Generally once you buy microsoft word or the microsoft suite, you should be able to upgrade for free, without paying anything extra (but there's also a professional version that you can pay a bit more for, as well). I'm getting tired of word for the same reasons as you guys, it tries to correct things that aren't wrong sometimes. I've been debating getting scrivener recently. Do any of you have experience with this program?

[moderntimes]

Have never used anything but MS-Word except for years back, the old WordPerfect.

When I first installed Word, I disabled ALL auto-correct functions. If you're having trouble with Word, I recommend you do this too, CC.

And remember, your writing will not likely be received by a publisher unless it's in MS-Word format. Word works fine. Just turn off all the fancy-shmancy features and wing it, ha ha.

[Nicole]

It does annoy me when Microsoft Word points out errors and so I disabled auto-correct. Now, I just use Google Docs for my reviews. I think Grammarly app does better proofreading than Word, but totally agree with @moderntimes, "the human brain is the final judge."

[moderntimes]

After I was finished with my novel, I did run the MS-Word spell-check and it located a couple of genuine typos (tpyos) which weren't composition mistakes but just clumsy typing. It's also a good idea to search for a few common glitches, such as double periods or a period following a question mark, that sort of purely mechanical error.

I've never used a grammar checking program, however. I rely on the ol' grey matter, such as it is these days, ha ha.

Regardless, as for word processing software, MS-Word has become the world industry standard for publishing and newbie writers had best shell out the $100 bucks for the "Student" version and be done with it.

I'm sure that there are "sensitive" writers who'd rather sit in their garret, lonely and misunderstood, toiling away with quill pen and inkwell. But if anyone expects other people besides Dear Auntie Edna to actually read and evaluate your writing, you better go with MS-Word.

[SpaceRangerFred]

Microsoft Word is a pet hate of mine, but it does make me stop and think with my grammar.

I invested in Grammarly and it helps but the best investment has been a professional editor who not only corrects my mistakes or makes suggestions but also opens up conversation to get the wording 100%.

I don't trust MS Word but I am kind of stuck with it