🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <12445@umd5.umd.edu> amunn@macbeth.umd.edu (Alan Munn) writes:
>In article <1992Apr8.145417.2159@ccu.umanitoba.ca> umcho000@ccu.umanitoba.ca (Connie Cho) writes:
>>In article <12392@umd5.umd.edu> amunn@macbeth.umd.edu (Alan Munn)
> writes:
>
>[loads deleted about dependent/dependant and part of speech]
>
>>>Perhaps what really is needed is
>>>a real dictionary editor, so that we can create our own dictionarys
>>>fairly easily.  Don't tell me Nisis has one... :-) 
>>>
>>>
>>>Alan Munn
>>
>>Ah, now what you are looking at is no longer the spelling checker,
>>but is the grammar checker. I don't use Word anymore, and haven't
>>seen Word 5, but I suppose I should ask whether Word 5's
>>grammar checker can catch the 'dependent' vs. 'dependant' uses.
>
>
>I most certainly am *not* looking for one. :)  Just on a whim I ran the
>text of a paper of mine currently in press through Grammatik Mac.
>Apart from balking at all uses of 'rather' (It only thinks it's a
>wishy-wash intensifier *rather* than something else), the program also
>proceeded to inform me that all of my relative clauses were
>ungrammatical because I had used 'which' in some rather than 'that'.
>I'm a linguist, so I actually know a little bit about relative
>clauses, so this shocked me quite a bit.  It seems to me that the
>progam only found one or two 'real' errors in the text (repeated
>'the's for example) yet found loads of other problems which (that?)
>would only cause to confuse someone not fairly well versed in English
>grammar to begin with.
>
>Actually I found the whole exercise quite amusing, but other than the
>entertainment value :) I wouldn't ever use one, nor recommend it to
>someone else.
>
>
>>BTW, the speller does catch 'independant', doesn't it?
>
>Don't know, I've never mispelt it!
>
>Alan
>

The purpose of grammar checkers is to catch problems with "which" and
"that" as well as a slew of other common mistakes.  I use "RightWriter"
and it is programmable to a small degree.  I can turn off the "passive
voice" signal, or the "cliche" signal, or allow for 40 word sentences
without it bothering me.  I use RightWriter to catch misplaced commas,
periods, "the" for "then," etc.  And sometimes it surprizes me and finds
a mistake in grammar.  It is a great proofreader for typos though and that
made it worth the money.

Sorry to include so much of the original posting but I decided to
cross-post this and alt.usage.english has only received part of this
discussion.  


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