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Correct writing is a skill, which reflects professionalism. A simple email with typos to the business partner can show disrespect, ruin a reputation, and lead to negative consequences. Of course, when we write a short e-mail or message, it takes 5 minutes to read it through and make corrections. However, when it comes to longer reports, analyzes, or research papers, a manual check may take much longer, and the possibility of missing a typo is much higher. The good news is that we are living in the era of technology, and there are plenty of tools available out there to make your writing piece look perfect.
Checking With Online Services
Today software developers offer a wide range of different online tools to check your writing. It can be an application for a smartphone or a web-based service, which goes through your text in several seconds and shows the results right away. Such a grammar checker would be a perfect solution when working with 1-2 pages long texts. What functions are supported by such online checking services?
- Spell checking. No need to memorize how all the vivid words are written or look them up in the dictionary while working on the text. The online checker will underline or highlight such a word and suggests a correction. Unfortunate typos will not bother your readers anymore.
- Grammar corrections. Right verbs form usage, word order, a plural form will be easily noticed by an online checker. The system will give you a correct option or suggest to rephrase. Also, it can indicate tense or other grammar construction misuse.
- It can give you some tips on word choice in case you misuse them, and sentences are too wordy. Follow the advice for flawless language, which will be easy to read.
- Punctuation. If you have doubts to put a comma, or on the opposite like to put some extra, an online checker will show you where is the appropriate place to put it.
- Some of the checkers also can determine the tone, style, and level of formality. It can determine whether your text can meet the initial goals.
Online checkers can provide their services for free and charge for some additional features. A free version would be enough for an individual, but the companies require more functionalities, and it is better to consider some prepaid plans.
How To Use Office Programs for Correction Purposes
Online services may be not always suitable for working with longer documents, or in case you are working with tables or making the presentation. For these purposes, the basic features of the Microsoft Office package will be a perfect fit, just learn how to use them properly.
MS Word Corrections Features
Most of the texts are created in MS Word and this program has an auto-correction tool, so you don’t need to interrupt the work to check how the certain word should be spelled.
Autocorrect feature will definitely let you know in case you made a grammatical, contextual, or spelling mistake. MS Office does a similar job to online checkers. It underlines contextual errors with the blue lines, grammatical – with green, and all the misspelled words will be underlined red. Once you navigate to the highlighted part of the text and make a right-click with your mouse, the list of corrections suggestions will be opened. Choose the best fit by the left click and that’s it.
OpenOffice Corrections Features
Go to Tool to turn on the AutoCorrect option while working in OpenOffice. Besides general correction tools here you can turn on the thesaurus feature for finding the best suitable synonyms for any word. A small hint here. Sometimes when you use personal names or abbreviations, it may be marked as a mistake. In this case, use the replacement feature to make sure the program recognizes your word and doesn’t mark it as wrong.
LibreOffice Corrections Features
LibreOffice also comes with an inbuilt corrections engine. Once the program detects spelling or grammar mistakes it will open the dialog with the suggestions. If you agree with the offer and want to fix your writing, just click change to accept it. Also, the program allows adding unknown words to the user-defined dictionary, so the autocorrect feature will not mark it as wrong later.
Browser Dictionaries For Better Spelling
Another option to make sure your words are written correctly is to add a dictionary extension to your web browser. This option will be a great addition for those, who want to make their language more sophisticated, enlarge it with synonyms or industry-specific terms. A browser dictionary will not correct your grammar or underline the spelling errors, instead, this is a fast way to find how to write the word. Another useful feature is a quick definition finder. Imagine, you are reading an article and don’t understand half of the words. A simple double click will show the definition and clarify the meaning.
No matter how machine learning has progressed and can recognize any break of language rule, it will not hurt to double-check whether the suggested correction corresponds with the initial sense you’ve tried to show. Think carefully before pressing a button, which accepts all the corrections.