Minutes a day n e w y o r k

3. Errors Spelled Similarly to Other Real Words
If you misspell a word in such a way that it is now closer, letter by letter, to a word other than the one you
intended, spell check will probably offer the wrong word as a correction. For example, if your essay
includes a coffeehouse scenario, and you type the word expresso, spell check will correct the error with
express rather than espresso. Similarly, alot will be corrected to allot. You must pay careful attention to spell
check’s suggested corrections to ensure the right selection.
Grammar-check programs are also effective but not foolproof. They can make two kinds of mistakes: miss-
ing errors, and flagging errors that are actually correct. The first problem, missing errors, is illustrated by the fol-
lowing examples. A grammar check on the following sentence did pick up the subject/verb agreement error (I is),
but did not notice the participle error (I studying).
I is ready to take the exam after I studying my notes and the textbook.
Similarly, the punctuation problems in the following sentence were not flagged.
The recipe, calls for fifteen ingredients and, takes too long to prepare.
When grammar check does highlight an error, be aware that it may in fact be correct. But if your knowledge
of grammar is limited, you will not know whether to accept grammar check’s corrections. To further complicate
matters, you may be offered more than one possible correction, and will be asked to choose between them. Unless
you are familiar enough with the specific problem, this may be no more than a guess. It is important to under-
stand the type of error highlighted, and get more information if you are not sure about it.