Microsoft Word Grammar Checker and the Blunders Within

Microsoft Word Grammar Checker (MSGC), and any other grammar-checking programs, should not be relied on to fix all grammar mistakes, teach appropriate grammar or institute better writing. Neither is it a valued replacement for a human being in any type of setting.

 

Microsoft has been the leading software engineering company for the past decade, placing their Office products in nearly every home that owns a computer in the United States. Word is one of those Office products, helping students, writers and users of all ages to present their projects in a professional manner and is accompanied by Grammar Checker. Industry experts estimate Microsoft’s current share of the word processing software market at somewhere between 80 and 90 percent (McGee and Ericsson 455) and conclude its brand name alone gives the Microsoft Grammar Checker a kind of influence that is difficult (perhaps impossible) to calculate (McGee and Ericsson 462). When utilized, the program can be helpful, but cannot always be trusted by novice writers. For example, the following sentence, “Microsoft the company should big improve Word grammar check” (Bishop 1) is correct according to MSGC 2010.

The dependability of MSGC is flawed. Users will have a different opinion of the program, each according to their own specific needs, but will see clearly that technology will never be able to respond, think and write as well as a human being. MSGC will not correct all mistakes in a given document. As advised by advanced writers and scholars of Composition, users need to know the basic rules of grammar, and the program itself, before trusting their work to any type of grammar-checking software. Otherwise, the program will lead a user to their own failure.

If you'd like to learn more of the research I've conducted for this paper, just let me know! I will send the entire 9 pages to you with specific examples of why the Grammar Checker can lead you astray in your own writing. I found it helpful, considering I use the program EVERY day and I learned what I need to look for when it comes to grammar. Someday a copyeditor may be proud of me...dream...