Chapter 3, Additional Case 2: Checking Your Grammar-Checker

Chapter 3, Additional Case 2: Checking Your Grammar-Checker

This case is best for individuals.

Background

As discussed in Chapter 3 of your textbook, grammar-checkers have a poor reputation among writing teachers. Grammar-checkers cannot analyze the context of your writing—the audience, purpose, and subject you are discussing. All they can do is recommend alternatives for specific words and phrases that are often found in common errors of grammar and style, such as subject/verb disagreement and wordiness. But the words and phrases the grammar-checkers identify might not be errors in the context of your writing, and the recommended alternatives might be inappropriate.

In this case, you will study the suggestions made by your grammar-checker to determine how much you should rely on it to help you identify and correct problems in your writing.

Your Assignment

To complete this case, perform the following tasks:

  1. Study Chapter 3, focusing on grammar-checkers.
  2. Select a passage of about 500 words from a document you have written recently, either in a course or on the job.
  3. Run the grammar-checker on this passage. On a sheet of paper, note each suggestion that the grammar-checker makes.
  4. Using your textbook or a writing handbook, look up the topic identified in each suggestion and determine whether the suggestion is valid.
  5. Make a list of useful and less-than-useful suggestions. Is there a pattern? In other words, is the grammar-checker good at superficial issues such as subject/verb disagreement but not so good at issues of word choice, such as vagueness?
  6. Exchange lists with another student in your class. Has he or she found similar strengths and weaknesses in the grammar-checker?
  7. Write a 500-word memo to your instructor reporting your findings. (See Chapter 14 for a discussion of memos.)