Computerized programs have changed our workplace and have made our lives easier. One of these tools has been the spell checker, such as the spell checker that comes with Word. Another tool is the traditional grammar checker – a program that checks your document for grammatical accuracy.
Traditional grammar checkers come either as part of a larger program, such as the grammar checker that comes with Word, or can come as a program on its own. Traditional grammar checkers, like traditional spell checkers, can improve your writing and contribute to a professional document; but everyone who has used a traditional grammar checker for any significant time will know the limitations of traditional grammar checkers.
For example, traditional grammar checkers often mistakenly flag correct English because of the way traditional grammar checkers are coded. Also, traditional grammar checkers miss a lot of grammar mistakes. In one test, a traditional grammar checker found only 6 grammar mistakes out of 25, whereas human editors found between 20 and 25.
Even more significantly, traditional grammar checkers mistakenly equate correct English with good English. Correct English is a necessary part of good English, but good English requires more than just adherence to the rules of grammar. For example, traditional grammar checkers gloss over sentences that might meet grammatical rules but which are nevertheless overstated, cliched, wordy, and unpersuasive.
Fortunately, the next generation of editing software has addressed many of these limitations. For example, StyleWriter has developed a popular editing tool that works alongside your traditional grammar checker. StyleWriter offers a different perspective from the traditional grammar checker. Rather than correcting a document based on the parts of speech being in the correct order, StyleWriter finds poor style habits that you can fix quickly and easily.
StyleWriter is more powerful than a word processor grammar checker since StyleWriter checks for all the "5 Cs" of good writing (see our Feature Essay); it checks not only correctness but also clarity, conciseness, concreteness, and coherence by checking your document against a database of 35,000 patterns.
Any tool that checks grammar is positive; however, there are important limitations to the traditional grammar checkers. This is why we need additional tools to help us improve our writing. This is where software like StyleWriter can make the difference between a quality piece of writing and a mediocre text.