mistake http://www.writinghood.com/tags/mistake New posts about mistake Spelling and Grammar Checkers http://www.writinghood.com/Writing/Spelling-and-Grammar-Checkers.274479 Every time you write a text document, as a letter or a simple email is important that your document be free of spelling and grammar mistakes. Documents without spelling and grammatical errors give a good impression about you. Check spelling and grammar of the documents takes time. There are useful tools that make checking easier: spelling  and grammar checkers.

Spelling and grammar checkers are software programs that help you to correct spelling and grammar and mistakes. Here is a review of some of the best that you can find in the internet:

SpellChecker.net

This online tool checks spelling, grammar and has thesaurus information. It is easy to use, paste the text in the box and press the button "Spell check". This online software is also verify text in, British English, French, Portuguese and other languages.

SpellCheckplus.com

This is an online spell and grammar checker. Highlight grammar errors and spelling errors. When you pass your mouse over the highlighted words shows grammar and spelling suggestions. Also, available in French. The free version has advertising.

Community.languagetool.org

It is a simply online spell- grammar checker available in English, Spanish, Italian, Dutch and other languages. We can use as an extension of OpenOffice.

Orangoo.com

Verify and correct spelling. Support up to 27 languages. You can verified text or websites.

When you use spell and grammar checker you need to be aware that the tool are not perfect. They are only helping tools that correct basic grammar and spelling. Sometimes these tools do not see great errors, miss prepositions and show texts with no grammatical errors as incorrect. If you have any dude about result of these tools use a dictionary or check grammar rules. Use two or three different tools to check documents. Remember these tools are not "English teachers", they only help you to improve your writing.

]]> Sat, 27 Sep 2008 06:21:06 PST What to Do When Your Internet Article Goes Bad http://www.writinghood.com/Online-Writing/What-to-Do-When-Your-Internet-Article-Goes-Bad.190259 Anyone who has ever written anything on the Internet knows the feeling. You write something you are proud of, you even proof read it. You have poured your heart and soul out to create something to either entertain or inform the reader. You have posted it and set it free. Then it comes back to haunt you. Either a blatant spelling error leaps of the page, or a grammatical error that you had missed earlier suddenly becomes apparent, or you ask your self "why did I put that sentence like that?". All too often you spot the blunder too late and others have attacked your work, called you names, and pointed out the error big time.

Typically these people are ruthless in their attacks, quick to point out errors, while over looking anything good you may have written.

What do you do?

You can write back to them and start your own little war, calling them names, but chances are this will get you nowhere, as very likely the person wrote a comment then left, never to return. It only makes you look bad.

You can ignore their comments, which is fine, except that the flaw is still there and by ignoring it as well, allowing others to see it.

Sadly these two options are ones often taken, as writers may be over committed to t heir work and too proud to correct errors or realize that maybe the reading public is correct, and their piece is wrong.

So the best option is to swallow your pride, admit a mistake was made, and take actions to try to correct it.

I recount two recent stories, one that happened to myself, and one that I witnessed.

First, the one I saw. A person had made a few simple bad grammar mistakes and spelling errors. People were posting all kinds of comments, calling the person names, making fun of their "English" and so on. The author, however, did not handle the situation correctly. They had been corrected for using the wrong "too" and for spelling "know" like "no". To which I witnessed the writer of the piece get defensive, even saying that "know" is spelled "no" in their country. It would have been much simpler for them just to fix the spelling errors and be done with it.

Next account was my own.

I wrote a long list of songs which I felt had really interesting lyrics. I am a person who likes songs with good lyrics, profound messages, stuff like that. I compiled a list of songs which I felt had deep lyrics, of course anyone who feels the same way as myself will know that Sting and Bono are both noted as brilliant lyricists, talented writers who often have deep messages in their songs, along with good music. As such I listed songs by them more than once on the list.

Additionally at one point I wanted to get suggestions from other people, so made a poll, and a large number of people requested a song by the band, Nickelback. As such I included this song, and all went well for a period of time.

Then the link hit the social network known as StumbleUpon and all kinds of chaos began. It took me a few days to notice that I was receiving many negative comments, and at first I was stunned and didn't know how to react. The list was NOT called "The Best Songs of all Time", which was what it seemed people where thinking.

Some comments were clearly misplaced, saying that ALL the songs were mainstream, which I knew was not true. Some were wrong, saying that ALL the songs were older, which again was incorrect, while many were older, I suspect the people simply did not recognize the newer songs. One common complaint was against the Nickelback song. Another complaint was against the omission of "Stairway to Heaven".

So I thought about what to do, I myself responded in the comments area of my article. I tried to explain myself, and I admit I was slow to finally realize that I needed to correct the problem. It took me a few days before I actually fixed the problem. As such I removed the Nickelback song, which indeed I should not have included. A few days, and more comments later, I made a point as to why I had not included the other song, Stairway to Heaven.

However it was too late, much damage had been done. Some of the very offensive comments I removed, as many offered no actual facts, and some were just people typing random letters. I wish I had responded earlier, fixed the problems immediately, before other people saw the problems and gave the link a Stumbleupon "thumbs down" vote.
I certainly know it is impossible to please everyone, and have no intention of doing such, however when we have a problem in an article we need to fix it if we can. If we see a problem in an article we need to point it out in ways that are helpful rather than offensive to the author.

So, if you have an article that is not going well, and you are receiving legitimate complaints, act on them, ignore the other complaints, as they have no real value. Fix problems that can be fixed, and fix them quickly. Do not get defensive, recognize that some errors are bound to happen, and correct them.

If you wish to see my article which went bad, but has been fixed, you can find it here.

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