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Spell check: Answer to Dwyn's question
Dwyn asked if there was a spellchecker for these messages.
I'm not aware of one that we can use when we enter messages on the boards, but I'll tell you how I spellcheck my messages: I write them in MS-Word. It works very well for me, because it tells me of many spelling or grammar errors while I'm typing. It's also handy in MS-Word, because the Tools menu also has a word count feature that also tells me how many characters I have. And when you love talking as much as I do, that's priceless to me. I have so much trouble keeping my messages shorter than 3000 words!
One suggestion I would offer to those who want to become adept at using Word's grammar and spell checkers is, never allow either to work unsupervised--especially not the grammar checker, but really either one.
The grammar checker's grammar rules are not always the same ones I use. Sometimes, it tries to correct things that I know aren't wrong, and has often overlooked errors that were really blaring. There are really two problems with any grammar checker. First, all of the rules of English Grammar cannot be programmed into a computer; only a significant handful. Second, there are many controversial grammar rules, and we may not always agree with the grammar rules that Microsoft's programmer chose to implement. For example, a new rule according to the Modern Language Association holds that it is no longer necessary to double-space between sentences. You can use one space, or two spaces, as long as you choose one or the other and always do it the same way.
Of course, if you decide to single-space between sentences, your grammar checker is going to hold you up for an hour fixing "errors" that aren't wrong.
The problem with spellcheckers is that they will only catch spelling errors that make non-existent words. It's very easy to see that "teh" is an error and to suggest you may have meant to type "the." But if you are typing "then" and it comes out "hen,” the spell checker won't see a problem there. As far as it's concerned, you did a great job of spelling "hen" and it has no way of knowing that that isn't what you meant to type.
So I share with you the same advice I give all of my composition students: Spell-checkers and grammar checkers can be very useful. But they are never a replacement for careful, conscientious proofreading.
I always proofread my messages several times. Once when I write them, once again some time later (If I'm writing something that needs to be of high quality, I wait a minimum of 24 hours before proofreading again. I proofread it again before I cut and paste it into MyLanguageExchange, and once more before I hit the submit button.
But I am, as you all know, pretty anal about such things.
Happy composing!
Mark Springer
Sacramento, CA, USA
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Language pair: English; All
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