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...

 

It's Friday

Hello, friends. I have some good news. Well, a couple pieces of good news.

#1. It's Friday! Oh, how I've longed for this day for so long. It seems this week was the longest of my life for some reason.

Good news #2. I received a partial request on my second novel, All Because of You!

This round of submissions only included about 7 agents. I have a list of about 50, but I'm too busy (*clears throat* ...lazy) to finish the rest of the research I need to do for each agent. I'd received two rejections prior, but yesterday, I opened my inbox and viola. A request :)

Now, since this is a Friday post, it's time to tell you how the week went. I'm up to about 70% finished with the first draft of My Demonic Love. This is my first try at a paranormal romance and it seems I've been having to do A LOT of research for it. If you've read my post below, I had a hard time researching the daily life of a cardiac surgeon, but with the help of one my of loyal followers, Anne, I was able to get through it! Thanks, Anne! Now, I'm onto researching vaults. Specifically a vault that will store an ancient book or document. I haven't come across a lot of information on the subject. I remember Dan Brown, in his novel Angels and Demons, chose the Vatican as his location for his MC to study ancient documents and that's the type of vault (archive, safe, etc) I want. However, when I try to Google for information, all I get is what's supposedly inside the Vatican archives. I don't want that!

Anyway, enough with the rant :)

I haven't really been working much on my short story, Relief, this month. It's supposed to be ready to submit to a contest at the end of the month, but seeing as how it's the first chapter from my first novel (and I'm kind of sick of my first novel), I haven't really been motivated to work on it. Suggestions?

What is your good news this week? How did your writing go? Any fun plans for the weekend?

Schedule

Out in the blogging world other writers I connect with seem to have a blogging schedule. This gives them a chance to focus on more important things, like writing (as I should be doing). So it comes down to this: My blogging schedule is now going to be Monday's (to let you know how the weekend was) and Friday's (to let you know how the week was).

So on to how the weekend went...

It was GREAT. I got A LOT of writing done this weekend for some reason, most of it being yesterday. Not only did I write an astounding 17 pages on My Demonic Love, the current WiP, I started writing a chapter of my Sleuth (to be actively worked on in 2011). For some reason, I woke up with an idea in my head that wouldn't leave and I had to sit down and write 10 pages of the novel. I also did a lot of research for My Demonic Love, trying to get inside the head of my hero and daily life as a cardiac surgeon. Here are some articles I found helpful if you ever need to work with this subject:

http://www.ctsnet.org/sections/residents/newhorizons/article-10.html
http://asianannals.ctsnetjournals.org/cgi/content/full/7/3/165

http://www.ehow.com/about_6613038_life-heart-surgeon.html

I also asked my aunt, who lives with my Nana, how my Nana's valve replacement went, what the surgeon explained, how long the surgery took, etc. to get a more personal touch into the mix. I think I'm done writing the mechanics of it and am focusing more on the daily life of a surgeon since novels are character driven. Hopefully it turns out well.

What did you do this weekend? Did you surprise yourself as I did?

I also want to welcome new followers! Thanks for being a part of this journey with me. Hope you enjoy :)

Research

My hero of My Demonic Love is having an identity crisis, or rather, I have a problem with his career choice. He's a heart surgeon, loves his job, but I am having a bit of trouble doing research for this particular character. I feel I need to learn as much as I can about the human heart in order to portray my character's life as close to reality as possible, but where do I start? How much do I need to learn in order to make it believable? I've tried watching heart surgery videos, but I understand NOTHING of what is going on or what the surgeon is talking about.

Do you have any advice?
Are there more writer's out there who think they've bitten off more than they can chew?

Demon Angel by Meljean Brook

Lilith, a demon, has spent 2,000 years tempting men and guaranteeing their eventual damnation. That is, until she meets her greatest temptation: the man whose life mission has been to kill her.

I read this book for my own paranormal romance research, and while I was able to get a clear sense of the world these two are apart of, the novel in itself is very confusing. I'm not sure I will even keep it for my personal library.

Day Two

Today was a little bit easier on me. First off, I wasn't trying to get through my day with chocolate, my day had me by the hair and was pulling me through. I didn't think about candy at all! Better that way. Second, I got into my creativity goal during downtime at work. I started sketching again. I wasn't sure what to draw, but there happen to be one of the books I'm reading next to me and I decided to sketch the cover. The scan didn't turn out too well so I'll have to do another one tomorrow to show you guys.

But since this is a writer's blog, I will update you on my progress in the writing world. So far revisions are going well for All or Nothing. I realized the reason I only made it to chapter 3 the first time around was there was so much to be fixed! This past couple of days, I hunkered down and rewrote nearly all of chapter 1 and edited up to chapter 5. Today was my goal of finishing revisions, but that's obviously not happening. This weekend is my new goal, and since it's a three day weekend, more time = better writing. Research is still being conducted for My Demon of Life and when I say research, I mean paranormal romance books that are written in the same type of world as mine. I've read A LOT of paranormal romance, but have never written one and I want my new world to be believable. Studying others work will help some, but in the end, it all comes down to my imagination.

Work, Work, Work

All or Nothing is coming along well, almost 300 pages now. I've been trying to focus my extra time on getting this MS done, but now that I've already written all the exciting parts, it's kind of boring to write in between. On a good note, I made some headway on my first try at a paranormal romance, Demon of Life. It's still in the planning stages, but today I made some big steps in getting closer to what I want. I'll be doing a lot of research for this book, not only religious, but historical. I'm looking forward to it.

Watches

I worked in jewelry for 5 years, so I have a pretty good clue as to what there is out there, how they work and even how to set them, which not a lot of people can say. But today, for some odd reason, I couldn't for the life of me find a watch that I wanted to use in my research for the third Banvard novel, All or Nothing. A watch plays a very important part in the storyline and I finally had to give in to go do some refresher courses on watches. It's been almost two years since I got out of the business. I didn't think I would lose my knowledge that quickly though. so today I spent about a half hour getting reacquainted with Movado watches. They're very beautiful and one of my favorite brands. I like the simplicity in style, yet the durability of the materials Sweden uses. Yes, they're Swedish watches. I tried to get a picture of the watch I'll be using in my novel, but the Movado website apparently doesn't like that, so no picture, but I will tell you it's going to be the two-toned, chronograph 800 Series.

Busy Week

This week is going to be crazy. I'm finally getting down to brass tacks and revising All Because of You. There are a few minor details that need to be proofed and a few things I can expand on, such as one character's background. I'm going to be researching schizophrenia for my second novel as well and integrating that into one of my main characters. I know, it's a little spoiler, but necessary for the plot line. I'm also still submitting All That I'm Living For this week. I have had a few responses so far, but won't get most of them back for another month, to month and a half. I've been putting off writing for long enough and if I want results I have to work for them. Wish me luck. I'll post when I can!