What professional Grammar/Syntax/Style checker would you recommend to someone who's writing on a daily basis? MS Word is obviously not enough. Thesaurus and 1Checker, either. I need something that would give me suggestions, and explain why something is a mistake. I've been using free grammarly.com and their suggestions make sense. So, I'm considering a yearly membership. Has anyone got experience with that service? Once subscribed, do you get an unlimited amount of check-ups you can run? If I process around 3000 words daily, will they charge me more? Any other tool, even though a paid version of it, available out there? What would you recommend? I know a human editor is the best option, but a powerful Grammar tool is nice to have when you work alone.
I used to write short articles on a daily basis. Usually used this tool: http://www.spellchecker.net/grammar/. It's simple yet effective. Also gives suggestions and explanations for mistakes. Don't know how it works for long texts, though. Mine were around 500 words. You can give it a try without risk - it's free.
Thank you! I spent a lot of time browsing for a free tool only to find lots of crap, and never saw this one.
No problem. I think these free tools usually have some "catch". I think the only catch with this tool are the ads. If you don't mind them, spellchecker.net is a good choice.
I have been using paperrater.com, as well as, jspell.com, spellcheck24.net and dustball.com (for their plagarism checker). All are free. Always helps to have a second opinion when it comes to proof reading your articles. Especially if you submit often to Ezines.com. Btw... the paperrater.com also has a plagarism checker - free.
thanks a loooot! Haven't tried them all, yet, but they seem to be doing what paid grammarly does. Or, do they?.. Do I get to hear from somebody about that? Writers talk a lot about the difference between a $5 article and a $50 article. But how you guys edit your texts? Is there a difference between a paid tool and a bunch of free tools, besides the fact that the latter don't spend that much time and money on advertising.
Here's my take on the grammar checkers... you can't really rely on them 100% of the time. For someone such as myself, who writes about 2 - 4 articles per month, average, why bother paying? Your better off asking someone to proof read it for you. I only use the grammar checkers "to be sure", but I use as many as I can, hence, the second opinion. Because I have been victim to article rejection even after using a grammar checker. And, after having read the article myself numerous times, it still looked Ezine quality i.e. error free to me. And there are differences in the quality of articles, of course. Say, one article is 550 words long related to, of all things, article marketing (highly targeted, hence, would be hard to create a unique article based on that niche), and is distributed all across the internet on various article directories. Then you have an article that's 1,580 words in length, of a unique niche, yet in high demand, with original content, i.e. not publish anywhere else on the net. Now, that would be a high quality article worth the $. So, maybe we should encourage the Digitalpoint.com management to create a section devoted to "article reviews?", where members could proof read and critique?
I wouldn't say quality equals Ezine. Article reviews on DP - I doubt it. Editors charge pretty good money for this work. No one is going to want to do it for free.
Best tool? Practise. Read it out aloud. if it sounds crap, it probably is. For examples:- if sound crap it are, crap it be.
Excuse me. I am talking about tools professional writers use in their everyday practice. You obviously consider yourself a top-notch proofreader. For now, I can't afford someone like you. Proofreaders charge $60+ per hour. Nevertheless, I do aspire to produce quality read. That's why I asked. Thank you for your constructive suggestion. I appreciate it.
Although it is not a separate tool, you can also change the settings in Microsoft Word to highlight passages written in passive voice. This will help you to spot grammatical errors as well as maintain active voice. This should help you to produce content that is more professional in tone.
Interesting advice. The best way is just to keep reading and writing, and listening to feedback. Eventually, you'll write so well that you'll need nothing more than a little spell-check every now ant then.
This is unavoidable when someone earns a living writing. Thank you, though. I already purchased Grammarly. Do I need to mention that I hold a summa cum laude in Linguistics? I do spend a lot of time reading and writing, I assure you, but I am also a perfectionist. Perfection has no limits, as you know.
Why? We are having a colloquial conversation. I believe a certain amount of typos and slang is acceptable here. It is none of my business pointing out something like that. Anyway, I did not intend to come across as a snobbish nerd, and I apologize if I might have sounded like it. I read, write and listen to feedback all the time. Due to peculiarities of my current work, feedback concerns technicalities not related to writing, whereas typos and Syntax are my personal concern. I should have mentioned that I am using OpenOffice and Kingsoft Office, both legging behind MS Office in spell-check, forget the Syntax. Thus, I needed something powerful to add to my everyday tools. I chose to pay for Grammarly instead of buying MS Office. I guess it is better to have both. I sincerely appreciate you taking the time to read this thread and give a piece of advice. Perfectionist does not equal perfect. The way I see it, perfectionist is someone who continues studying instead of patronizing and teaching.
The best grammar tool is your brain. Spend enough time on a language, and you won't be able to write un-grammatically, because it just "won't sound right" in your head. Then all you really need is a spell cekhker because fingers do tend to slip, especially if you are typing quickly.