Many writers question the value of computerized grammar and style checkers. And with good reason.
Such programs seem geared to writers of dry business letters or reports. Traditionally, they leave little leeway for the creative writer of fiction, advertising, PR or even the journalist.
Yet, there is value in these programs for at least some professional writers.
In my case for example.
I get that help from StyleWriter 3.50 (SW3.5).
I first encountered this essential program about eight years ago. I was making my plans to move here from the States. One of the first assignments I got was from a UK writers' magazine was to review the various British and American grammar checkers. SW (then version 2) was my top choice of all of them.
SW3.5 is written by Nick Wright, a former journalist and editor, and Rosemary Tilley, a former researcher. It bills itself as "The Plain English Editor" and "The Plain English Campaign" recommend it. It even includes a built-in writing course that teaches the techniques of top-grade journalists and editors.
One of the first things Wright did when I spoke with him then, was to correct me as far as his program was concerned. "StyleWriter is not a grammar checker. Grammar checkers try to show you how to write a correct sentence by analysing each word for its part of speech and then only accepting sentences if the parts of speech are in the right order.
You have to learn the secrets of professional editors and top writers.
"As editors, our experience tells us that style and usage faults (confusing words, hyphenation and word division) outnumber grammatical errors by 30 to 1. If you want to write well, you have to learn the secrets of professional editors and top writers. StyleWriter teaches you these skills and helps you write clearly and effectively for results."
The program runs under either Win 3.1 or Win9*. It's optimised to automatically work with WordPerfect 5.1, 5.2, 6.0 and 6.1 for Windows, AmiPro and most versions of M$ Word for Windows. It will also work, via the clipboard (up to 32Kb, larger files can be checked by clipboarding small chunks of it) with most other word processor and text editor files.
The entire program is contained on one floppy (no bloatware here). It takes up only 1.18Mb of hard disk space (1.03Mb for the program and 1.5Kb for the sample files).
Checking your document is virtually instantaneous. SW3.5 and your word processor can both share a single screen by properly resizing the window each appears in and tiling them, one under the other. The SW3.5 version of your document is shown on the bottom window errors highlighted.
The top half of the SW3.5 window describes the error with suggestions for correcting it. By keeping the SW3.5 window "always on top" (from the options menu) allows you to more easily edit your copy in your word processor.
One of my favourite (and fortunately increasingly less often needed) options is the one which allows the program to be configured to flag American spellings so I can correct them to British spelling.
The problems checked by the program are user definable from a list which includes: passive verbs, hidden verbs, complex words, jargon/abstract, overused words, legal words, cliches, redundancies, tautologies, overwriting, foreign words, misused words, confused words, sexist writing, misspellings, and American spellings.
The program also allows the user to define, for each document, the type of writing style to be checked, including academic papers, advertising, letters, legal documents, manuals, technical reports, and newsletters with sentence lengths which can also be user defined. Each time SW3.5 checks a document, it produces a statistical survey of the work. This includes listings of the total number of words and of sentences, words in sentences and passive verbs. Sample screens.
A graph shows the number of sentences, the length of each and the average sentence length.
StyleWriter is available in American, British and Australian versions. Every one of the program's 35,000 rules "is checked against the most respected dictionary and language authorities in each country," Wright explains. "We also employ local editors to fine-tune the package to reflect different usage in each country."
The latter version sells for $149 + $5 Shipping, but if ordered through the StyleWriter Website, it's only $94 + $5 Shipping. The British version is £125 + £3p&p; + VAT = £150.40 or, if ordered via the Website, £75 + £3p&p; + VAT = £91.65. And the Australian version sells for $195 + $5 Shipping or$145 + $5 Shipping if ordered via the Net. Access - Visa - MasterCard are all accepted for Net orders.
Also available at the net site is a free downloadable demo version of the program.
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Many writers question the value of computerized grammar and style checkers. And with good reason.
Such programs seem geared to writers of dry business letters or reports. Traditionally, they leave little leeway for the creative writer of fiction, advertising, PR or even the journalist.
Yet, there is value in these programs for at least some professional writers.
In my case for example.
I get that help from StyleWriter 3.50 (SW3.5).
I first found this essential program about eight years ago. I was making my plans to move here from the States. One of the first assignments I got was from a UK writers' magazine was to review the various British and American grammar checkers. SW (then version 2) was my top choice of all of them.
Written by Nick Wright, a former journalist and editor, and Rosemary Tilley, a former researcher SW3.5 bills itself as "The Plain English Editor". "The Plain English Campaign" recommend it.
When I spoke with him Wright corrected me. "StyleWriter is not a grammar checker. Grammar checkers try to show you how to write a correct sentence by analysing each word for its part of speech and then only accepting sentences if the parts of speech are in the right order.
If you want to write well, you have to learn the secrets of professional editors and top writers.
"As editors, our experience tells us that style and usage faults (confusing words, hyphenation and word division) outnumber grammatical errors by 30 to 1. If you want to write well, you have to learn the secrets of professional editors and top writers. StyleWriter teaches you these skills and helps you write clearly and effectively for results."
The program runs under either Win 3.1 or Win9*. It works automatically with WordPerfect 5.1, 5.2, 6.0 and 6.1 for Windows, AmiPro and most versions of M$ Word for Windows. It will also work, from the clipboard (up to 32Kb, users can check larger files by clipboarding small chunks of it) with most other word processor and text editor files.
The entire program fits on one floppy (no bloatware here). It takes up only 1.18Mb of hard disk space (1.03Mb for the program and 1.5Kb for the sample files).
Checking your document is almost instantaneous. SW3.5 and your word processor can both share a single screen by properly resizing the window each appears in and tiling them, one under the other. SW3.5 shows a corrected version of your document on the bottom window with errors highlighted.
The top half of the SW3.5 window describes the error with suggestions for correcting it. By keeping the SW3.5 window "always on top" (from the options menu) allows you to more easily edit your copy in your word processor.
One of my favourite (and fortunately increasingly less often needed) options allows the user to configure the program to flag American spellings so I can correct them to British spelling.
The problems checked by the program are user definable from a list which includes: passive verbs, hidden verbs, complex words, jargon/abstract, overused words, legal words, cliches, redundancies, tautologies, overwriting, foreign words, misused words, confused words, sexist writing, misspellings, and American spellings.
The program also allows the user to define, for each document, the writing style to be checked, including academic papers, advertising, letters, legal documents, manuals, technical reports, and newsletters with sentence lengths which can also be user defined. Each time SW3.5 checks a document, it produces a statistical survey of the work. This includes listings of the total number of words and of sentences, words in sentences and passive verbs. Sample screens.
A graph shows the number of sentences, the length of each and the average sentence length.
StyleWriter is available in American, British and Australian versions. Every one of the program's 35,000 rules "is checked against the most respected dictionary and language authorities in each country," Wright explains. "We also employ local editors to fine-tune the package to reflect different usage in each country."
The latter version sells for $149 + $5 Shipping, but if ordered through the StyleWriter Website, it's only $94 + $5 Shipping. The British version is £125 + £3p&p; + VAT = £150.40 or, if ordered via the Website, £75 + £3p&p; + VAT = £91.65. And the Australian version sells for $195 + $5 Shipping or$145 + $5 Shipping if ordered via the Net. Access - Visa - MasterCard are all accepted for Net orders.
Also available at the net site is a free downloadable demo version of the program.
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