Spellcheckers are great for picking up mistyped words and obvious misspellings. But don’t fall into the trap of relying on a spellchecker to pick up all your language glitches. Some words will fall through the gaps.
Words, for example, that sound the same but are spelt differently and have different meanings (“homonyms”). All the computer checks is whether there’s a word with the right spelling. It doesn’t pick up that the word itself is meaningless or the wrong word to use in that context. Some of the most common words in the English language fall into this camp and can trip up even the most fluent and confident of writers:
- Your and You’re
- There and They’re and Their
- Its and It’s
- Who’s and Whose
Nancy Friedman at Away With Words has a great suggestion to help us out:
Here’s my brainstorm: If computer makers can annoy us with spellcheckers and grammar checkers, why can’t they offer something the English-mangling masses truly need–a homonym checker?
What a great idea – let’s hope they come up with the software soon…
In the meantime though, more humble solutions are required. Here are some suggestions:
- If you’re not sure you’ve got the right version of a word – look it up and see if the definition works.
- Get into the habit of printing, checking and editing before you send a document.
- Keep a note of the words that consistently trip you up. Find a way of flagging them. If you can’t remember which version to use, just remember you need to check!
Any other favourite techniques for getting round the limitations of spellcheckers?
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