Spell check will sabotage your writing

A few nights ago, I was composing a post for my cooking blog and I was surprised to see a squiggly, red line appear under the word “refried.” (ARGH, it just happened again!) Okay, I thought, maybe it’s not recognized as a word because it’s a term that applies specifically to beans. Yeah, that’s right. I basically just accused WordPress of having a prejudice against beans.

However, as I continued to type, I saw another squiggly line pop up under the word “folded.” At that point, I deleted the words and retyped them both. Glitches happen. But this was no glitch; despite retyping the words “folded” and “refried” a couple of times, WordPress was downright convinced they were misspelled words.

(Click to enlarge)

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It’s a good thing I did a spell check…

While researching for an article I was writing, I made the mistake of utilizing Yahoo! Answers. After filling in the subject line, I was notified of a spelling error in my question. I read over my four measly words several times and I simply did not see this supposed offending spelling error. So, finally, I opted to do a spell check before I proceeded with the detail portion of the form.

And this is what I got.

I just…I can’t…nope, I have no words for this.

Thanks, Yahoo! Answers. I would have looked like an idiot asking a question about scholarship statistics when I really meant to ask about schostatip statistics.

Yeesh.

Grammar check is NOT your friend

A few years ago I edited a document my mother had typed up and when I scolded her (a straight-A college graduate) for her grammatical errors, she blamed it on the grammar check on Microsoft Word. Since I never use grammar check, I thought her excuse was stupid–until, that is, I finally got curious and did a grammar check of my own one day.

Seriously, grammar check sucks.

Let me give you an example. Today I was typing a short story; after typing a sentence, one word was underlined and I right-clicked it to see why. I am now convinced of two things: Microsoft Word is delivering subliminal messages about baseball, and grammar check is a waste of time. Just to be sure you’re following me, take a look at grammar check’s wise suggestion:

Enough said. The lesson, kids? Don’t let computers edit your papers.