Professor Finds Fault with MS Grammar Checker

ChuckOp writes " front-page article in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer states: "The University of Washington associate professor has embarked on a one-man mission to persuade the Redmond company to improve the grammar-checking function in its popular word-processing program. Sandeep Krishnamurthy is also trying to raise public awareness of the issue." He includes some twisted prose that the grammar checker fails to find fault with, such as: "Marketing are bad for brand big and small. You Know What I am Saying?" and "Gates do good marketing job in Microsoft". This last comment is disputed by retired Microsoft researcher Karen Jensen, who developed part of the underlying technology; "Only by knowing that 'Gates' probably refers to Bill Gates -- and not to the plural of the movable portion of a fence -- would the program know to suggest using 'does' instead." The professor also has several twisted examples available."

So it appears to me ..

[macaulay805]

That his professor found a hole in Microsoft's algorithm and is exploiting it.

News at 11!

Microsoft do bad softwares?

[Neil Blender]

That's unpossible!

What?

[Anonymous Coward]

Me not understand problem.

Not so

[spellraiser]

I double-checked this post using Word's grammar checker. I dare you find fault with it!

Ugly Web Page checker?

[kokoloko]

It's worse than goatse.

When asked directly...

[Shadow Wrought]

M$ replied, "We fail English? That's unpossible."

Apologies to the young Mr. Wiggums.

Easy solution. Learn to write.

[tinrobot]

If someone has to rely on a grammar checker in order to write a decent sentence, then something is seriously wrong.

Re:It's only a simple tool! Use your knowledgebase

[DarkSarin]

I have to disagree--I think that making the grammar checker more intelligent is a very important part of the program.

I think that it is VERY annoying at this point, and I frequently turn it off because of that. Would I use an intelligent grammar check? Yes, by all means. It should also have an option for "story mode" or "dialogue", and ignore bad grammar within quotes so that I don't have hundreds of errors (alleged) popping up when I quote someone or when I choose to write about a character who uses bad grammar.

Re:Oh I See!

[dr_dank]

Yes they're laughing, but at the notion of hearing slashdot and grammar in the same sentence.

Re:Oh I See!

[AKAImBatman]

Yes they're laughing, but at the notion of hearing slashdot and grammar in the same sentence.

That's GRAMMER, you twit!

[...]

Err... wait a moment....

Re:It's only a simple tool! Use your knowledgebase

[cot]

"I don't know much about US high school education, but I would expect that students coming into college would know how to write grammatical English"

The latter part of this statement makes me really believe the former.

Re:It's only a simple tool! Use your knowledgebase

[ThosLives]

...ignore bad grammar within quotes so that I don't have hundreds of errors (alleged) popping up...

You should see what Word does to engineering specifications if you forget to turn off spelling and grammar checking...

Re:Oh I See!

[dsginter]

By visiting his site,

You must be new here. Welcome.

Another TM in the works?

[Kainaw]

Only by knowing that 'Gates' probably refers to Bill Gates -- and not to the plural of the movable portion of a fence --

Is Microsoft going to trademark 'Gates' now as they did with 'Windows' so you'll have to pay him a license fee every time you talk about your 'moveable portion of a fence'?

GRAAAH!!!

[flyingsquid]

Hulk work hard on Grammar Checker for Microsoft! Program many long hours. Very hard to type with huge green hands and puny little keys! Many times get angry and smash keyboard. Many keyboards broken. Hulk also get help with grammar from Yoda. Yoda very wise. Maybe not best work in world, but Hulk take pride in work. Why puny University of Washington professor criticize hard work of Hulk? Criticism hurt Hulk's feelings. Hulk angry! HULK SMASH!

Re:It's only a simple tool! Use your knowledgebase

[rpdillon]

I certainly wouldn't tell my students to use it if I was a professor.

That should be "if I were a professor". It's the subjunctive mood. Betcha you wish you had a better grammar checker now!

Interesting link on his website shows

[WillAffleckUW]

that he is speaking not to harm Ceasar, but to make Ceasar a better person:

From his Most common mistakes by students [washington.edu]:

"10. Not running Microsoft Word's spelling and grammar check."

From this we gather that he does want people to use the spelinng and gramer czechs ...

and

"11. Assuming that Microsoft Word's spelling and grammar check will solve all writing problems."

Which leads us to believe that he has a purpose to this critique of MSFT Word grammar checking.

Re:Oh I See!

[AKAImBatman]

I submit that "definitely" is the most commonly misspelled word here.

Defenetely.

Re:Oh I See!

[PoprocksCk]

No, New Here [slashdot.org] is.

Does this mean that in Longhorn, Clippy will say:

[saskboy]

I see you is trying to write a letter, would you like some helps?

Offensive to Lesbians

[jolyonr]

As the article on The Register [theregister.co.uk] pointed out, the MS Grammar Checker is offensive to lesbians, espeically those studying Geology:

The innocent phrase "The dykes which cut the granite are 2m wide" was converted, by MS Word, to "The dykes who cut the granite are 2m wide".

Jolyon

says yoda..

[Anonymous Coward]

nothing new this is.

Re:Oh I See!

[HarvardAce]

I submit that "definitely" is the most commonly misspelled word here.

That's rediculous!

Re:Not so

[frank_adrian314159]

I dare you find fault with it!

OK. It's stupid.

There. Do I win?

Deja Vue

[Anonymous Coward]

I like it best when the Word spelling/grammar checker gets in a loop.

Me: Type a word.
MS Word: Should be hyphenated.
Me: Change word.
MS Word: Shouldn't be hyphenated.
Me: Change word back.
MS Word: Should be hyphenated.
Me: *Arrrgh!!!*

ALL YOUR BASE

[gkwok]

I typed in the following text to Microsoft Word 2003:

In A.D. 2101 war was beginning.
What happen?
Somebody set up us the bomb.
We get signal.
What!
Main screen turn on.
It's you!!
How are you gentlemen!!
All your base are belong to us.
You are on the way to destruction.
What you say!!
You have no chance to survive make your time.
Ha Ha Ha
Captain!!
Take off every 'Zig'!!
You know what you doing.
Move 'Zig'.
For great justice.

The only things it flagged were "all your base are" (suggested "base is" or "bases are") and "for great justice" (sentence fragment).

Grammatical and sociological implications are left as an exercise to the reader.

It takes grammar to check the grammar checkers

[mooncaine]

Grammar checkers aren't needed by anyone who knows grammar [for them, it's an annoying waste of time]. Thus, people who'd recognize the checkers' poor performance aren't looking. People who don't know grammar well wouldn't know that the grammar checker performs too poorly to be reliable. Thus, the people who "need" this service cannot be sure whether it served them well, or poorly. The only solution: pay attention in grammar classes. Ignorance is only an excuse if it's not willful. If you *want* to be dumb, expect no sympathy from the smart. Of course, if you're dumb, there's no point in telling you this -- you won't take smart advice.

Re:Oh I See!

[The Ultimate Fartkno]

> Defenetely.

Moran.

Re:Oh I See!

[Dun Malg]

"for all intensive purposes" supplanting "for all intents and purposes." It's not just that it's a mistake, it's a mistake based on a pretentious attempt to sound sophisticated.

Sometime people trying to sound smart are too smart for their own good. The best example yet was related to me by a friend who teaches Photoshop at an adult school (pity him):

Student: "I guess they shouldn't take it for granite that (something or other)"
Teacher: "Take it for granite?"
Student: "Yeah, you know, like 'set in stone'."
Teacher: "...."

Obligatory Futurama quote!!!!!!

[Silentnite]

Fry: Now he's trapped in a book I wrote, a crummy world of spelling errors and plot holes.

Giant brain: The big brain am winning again! I am the GREETEST! Now I am leaving Earth for NO RAISIN!

Re:Oh I See!

[TFGeditor]

No, I do the rejecting, not the sending.

Re:Oh I See!

[japhmi]

Well, I know that you should never take Basalt for Granite, because it isn't Gneiss...