No matter how much technology has advanced, English editing and proofreading can’t be left to computer programs. Grammar checkers—such as Microsoft Word’s built-in tool or Chrome extensions that check your grammar while you type—can spot many kinds of errors, but they ignore many others.
Grammar apps are good at finding many misspellings, repeated words, usage and punctuation errors, and other blatant mistakes. But there’s a long list of what these apps can’t do. That’s why they won’t replace professional English editors anytime soon.
Here are just 10 things an English grammar checker tool cannot detect:
1. Ambiguity
Consider this example:
Give a copy of the key to a neighbor or bury one in a plastic bag in your backyard.
I doubt even the best grammar checker will flag an ambiguous sentence like this as needing revision. This example might just as well be from a handbook for serial killers as from an article with tips for homeowners.
A professional editor will spot ambiguous sentences and rewrite them so that their meaning is not open to interpretation.
2. Biased language
The best grammar checker apps detect sexist terms such as manpower, man-made, or craftsmanship. They also suggest non-sexist alternatives, but they cannot spot sexist language that is less obvious. Consider this example:
On a layover at Frankfurt Airport, CEOs can work on their presentation or pick up a last-minute gift for their wives.
Though grammatically correct, this sentence contains biased language, because it implies all CEOs are married to women.
A professional English editor will identify biased language and revise the sentence so it uses inclusive language.
3. Factual errors
The author is ultimately responsible for the factual accuracy of the text. However, experienced English editors with some knowledge of mathematics and statistics will point out any inaccuracies in a text they are reviewing. One example is percent vs. percentage point: a 20 percent increase is usually not the same thing as a 20 percentage point increase.
In addition, experienced editors have a good general knowledge and may discover other factual inaccuracies. For instance, they may be able to point out that not all members of the European Higher Education Area are European countries.
4. Dangerous advice
Here is a sentence that a spell-checker won’t flag, because it’s grammatically correct, but it offers dangerous advice.
After a workout, stretch your muscles till you feel pain.
Someone with experience in editing fitness content, on the other hand, will point out that feeling pain while stretching can lead to injuries. The editor may suggest changing the sentence as follows:
After a workout, stretch your muscles till you feel slight discomfort, not pain.
5. Modifier errors
Even some copyeditors have a hard time identifying some modifier errors. However, to a computer program, these errors are usually invisible.
I won’t discuss dangling modifiers here, because I’ve dedicated a whole post to this topic.
6. Excessive use of metaphors
The metaphor is a powerful literary device to create a vivid image in the reader’s mind. However, when you pack too many metaphors in a text, the result is awkward and confusing. For example, I edited an article on big data in which both flood and slide were used figuratively in the same sentence.
A good English editor will know when the author has gone one metaphor too far and suggest alternatives.
7. Redundancies
A spell-checker tool will highlight the obvious repetitions (such as the the) and any other included in the software’s database.
A language editor, on the other hand, will remove all redundancies that the author didn’t intend to use. Examples include restored back, see the finish line in sight, malicious malware, and duplicate copy.
8. Incorrect punctuation
A grammar checker flags sentences lacking terminal punctuation. It may also flag series with (or without) the Oxford comma. However, an app can’t always suggest the right punctuation. For example, a sentence with a comma before so has a different meaning than the same sentence without a comma before so.
Compare these two sentences:
Example 1: We opened the door, so we know what’s in the room.
This has the following meaning: We know what’s in the room, because we opened the door.
Example 2: We opened the door so we know what’s in the room.
This sentence, in turn, means something else: We opened the door with the purpose to find out what’s in the room.
9. Incorrect verb forms
A noun such as statistics or politics takes a singular or plural verb depending on the meaning of the noun in a certain context.
For example, if statistics refers to the discipline, it takes a singular verb.
Statistics isn’t his forte.
But if statistics means the collection of statistical data, statistics takes a plural verb.
His statistics tell a different story.
An automatic language tool cannot pick the right verb, because it cannot infer the meaning from the context. The best grammar apps will flag nouns that can take either a singular or plural verb, but the user will have to choose the right verb form.
10. Conflicting information
Imagine this scenario: A graph shows a decreasing trend and the caption says the trend is increasing.
A professional editor will ask the author to reconcile the two pieces of information. However, a tool you use to check your grammar is unable to interpret the data in a graph, so it cannot cross-check illustrations and captions.
Automatic grammar checkers can’t replace professional English editors
These cookies are so De Lucio’s I could eat them. You cannot be hungry if you launch. I can write random Words and the grammar check won’t spill errors.
I used these sentences to test several automatic tools: the one in Google Docs, the one in Microsoft Word 2021, and a few popular apps that check your grammar while you write. None of them found any error.
There’s no doubt grammar checkers are handy tools, but they can’t do the job of a freelance editor.
Do you need a human grammar-checker? Send me a message at editor@languageediting.com.
Related posts:
- What free proofreading tool do I recommend?
- Editing or proofreading: Which one is essential if you can’t afford both?
- The dangling modifier: What it is and examples
Last revised on 22 June 2022
