Do You Struggle With Grammar, Punctuation, And Spelling?
Some of the biggest turn-offs to a webpage for many people are grammar, punctuation, and spelling errors.
I know if I am reading a site that is riddled with misspellings, inappropriate punctuation, and incorrect grammar the site immediately loses a lot of legitimacy in my mind. I'm also sure that I am not alone in this.
Being in internet marketing we want to ensure that we are able to put out a good product for our visitors and readers. This means we need to have as few errors as possible in our content.
As I view many of our websites here at WA and look at the comments and critiques that are being left, I have noticed a very common trend. This trend is that many of us struggle greatly with these three aspects of the English language.
We can proofread and proofread, but that doesn't mean we will catch everything. Also, it doesn't mean we will even know what we are supposed to be catching when we are proofreading.
I have a four year college degree as well as a masters degree and I still don't catch all of the mistakes in my writing (and I've written A LOT of pages worth of papers).
Paperrater.com
One resource that really helps me out a lot is a FREE website called paperrater.com.
Paperrater is an excellent resource as it does an extensive review of your writing on multiple levels (spelling, grammar, word choice, style, vocabulary) and will adjust it's "critical-ness" based on what you are writing for. So if you select that you are writing an article/blog it will be nicer to you than if you are writing an academic research paper. It also shows you your mistakes and offers its suggestions in a very simple and clear manner.
It will even offer a grammatical explanation as to why your mistakes are mistakes. So...not only is it fixing your mistakes but it is teaching you how to not make them again!
Another great aspect is that it will run a plagiarism check on your writing! So, you will be able to rest assured that Google will not knock you for plagiarism (as long as you pass that is).
I would highly recommend checking paperrater.com out for anyone who is producing content (remember it's FREE!) ; especially if you find yourself struggle with grammar, punctuation, and spelling!
Your Turn
Have any of you used this resource before? What are your thoughts on it?
Do you have any other resources you use to help with finding your writing mistakes?
Recent Comments
114
Thanks for highlighting this, Dustin. I agree with you -- when I see spelling errors and grammatical mistakes it makes me not trust the site. Thanks for directing us to this free assistance!
Yeah! A site definitely loses it's legitimacy the minute I notice major mistakes.
One typo is OK here and there...but if a site is riddled with mistakes then I'm likely not going to be staying much longer!
I had no idea there was any such thing as this, Dustin, so thanks for talking about it. I will definitely check it out.
My only comment regarding your subject here, is that when a member here has a website and their primary language is not English, and they do a fair job of communicating what they are trying to say without completely botching it so we can't understand it, it makes it more endearing to me. (whew! that was a long sentence!) More sincere and from their heart, that they are trying hard.
But if English is the primary language and it looks like poor 8th grade stuff....I'm with you. Get an editor or a software program to fix it. Otherwise: irritating to read (to me) and it looks less than professional
Yeah, I definitely agree with you on that. I give mad props to anyone willing to take on the challenge of creating a website, especially a blog, in a not-native language.
I noticed lately I have the problems when I type the word you when I mean you I tend to type your and when I mean your i also get you. Go figure. It is not much different to what we were taught at school when doing exams read the question and re read the question before answering. Here we should read the reply and then re read the reply before hitting the Add Comment or enter key.
I had a gramar problem in the beginning. I realised that what I thought I was writing has a lot of mispeeld words or grammar. Thanks for the site. It will definitely help me with my grammar issues. Re reading my blog or artivle is a hassle. I don't like to read my own work.
It is very heard for people to build a website and take long time, because of all the grammar things but we do the best for foreigners
I can't even imagine building a website in a non-native language. I'm a decent Spanish speaker but I wouldn't dare creating a Spanish website...
So I give you mad props for taking on the challenge! :)
Thanks for that Dustin very heeepful I do admit I tend to type fast and when scan quickly rather than to proof read what has been typed. Normally I notice this after I clicked enter then I see the error right in front of me. Sometimes we can quickly get back in edit mode and correct the mistake however there are times when there is no edit mode and it's too late. I will try this I wish we could have some spellchecker or even this on this site so that as we type our comments it could be checked before we press the add comment icon.
I use paperrater.com a lot. I think that it is really good, but you have to make sure about the things that it changes because it makes mistakes like every other program.
Yeah. Most definitely. Artificial intelligence still can't pick up on every nuance...but I think it does a relatively good job compared to other services. :)
There may be certain times when paperrater (or any other grammar checker) may make suggestions that you don't actually want. It might be misunderstanding what you are actually trying to write will therefore think you have made a mistake but in reality it was intentional on your part.
Yeah man. I would definitely suggest throwing it into paperrater.com to see if it will pick up any mistake you're missing!
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Hi Dustin,
Thanks for the heads up on PaperRater its an absolute boon to anyone writing any type of paper, Tested it out on one of my old posts and it passed with flying colours , a very useful contribution to the community, Well done.
Ray Bowley ( Merryman88 )
Good! I'm glad I could help :)