Anybody use proofreading software?

[Uncle Cracker]

Anybody here familiar with proofreading software? A couple of friends are writing books and each has asked me to proofread their output before they go to publisher. I have done a couple books "the hard way", but have heard that some of the newer software, such as WhiteSmoke or WinProof can be very helpful. Anybody have experience with either of these, or others, and can offer some advice? Thanks in advance.

[Uncle Cracker]

Thought I'd give this thread a bump...

Am I "stumping the panel" here??

[radhak]

You definitely stumped me : never knew you needed a software specialized just for this task. But of course it makes sense for those with writing as a day job.

Just now I asked a teacher at the girls' school - I know she creates various content for the school. She says if she had the money (she's a teacher!), she'd choose between PerfectIt and WhiteSmoke. The first is a bit basic, for $90. The latter does a lot more, but I found it fishy that they have such a primitive website (for such a product!) and don't tell you the price till you register with email-id!

She did give point me to this blogger who reviews such software for much more detail.

Hope that helps.

[cgallery]

My father was a writer and in the 80's started using some early proofreading apps.

They were simple rules-based toys that probably made sense for someone writing a newspaper or journal article (he did the former), but no good for fiction, IMHO. They just sucked the life out of any fiction.

Hopefully things have improved.

I did use it a little and I think it made me a better writer. But that was a long time ago and I've relapsed.

[Norm in Fujino]

I doubt I'd trust proofreading software any more than I'd trust translating software--and that's not very much. Basic spelling errors are one thing, but style and "sense" are entirely different, and software still lacks the "wetware" element.

[Uncle Cracker]

Just looking for a toolbox... I'm still gonna read the whole thing. Just want help finding overused phrasing, mismatched words and the like. Something that's kind of intuitive or context-sensitive would be a bonus.

[phi1l]

I just use the Style checker in Microsoft Word, & it has improved the readability of my report writing. According to the readers, anyway. I have a tendency to generate sentences that are too long, & use too many 50c words. MS Word style checker wold flag those. & it gives a "grade level" for the writing. Ideal is about 6th grade level. Mine would be usually post grad level, before style checker. It would indicate where the problems were.

The MS Word Style checker doesn't change anything in the text, it just flags suspected problems. You still have to go over the whole document. And, you can always disregard any of it's suggestions.

[cabinetman]

I prufreed my own stuff. Neber had a problemn.
.

[Alex Franke]

I use MS Word mainly for spell checking and sometimes for style, and for longer documents that I want to proofread, I've either created a spreadsheet and added the proper nouns, unique phrases, etc, as I go (and keep them sorted), or if I'm using LaTeX I sometimes just tag all the categories of words (like names, places, etc) and check the tag indexes to be sure I'm using them consistently, but for normal words and grammatical style (like hyphenation), I like to think that I consistently correct them as I go through the document, but you never know (I'm not a pro), but in any case, I never, ever, EVER write sentences that are too long and meandering.

[radhak]

I use MS Word mainly for spell checking and sometimes for style, and for longer documents that I want to proofread, I've either created a spreadsheet and added the proper nouns, unique phrases, etc, as I go (and keep them sorted), or if I'm using LaTeX I sometimes just tag all the categories of words (like names, places, etc) and check the tag indexes to be sure I'm using them consistently, but for normal words and grammatical style (like hyphenation), I like to think that I consistently correct them as I go through the document, but you never know (I'm not a pro), but in any case, I never, ever, EVER write sentences that are too long and meandering.

One of these days you should try a long-er sentence or two - you never know, it might take you places.

Literally .

[leehljp]

I can't remember the name of the software, but I had a "proofreader" type of software back in the early '90s on the Mac side. It checked run on sentences, misplaced comma's, tenses on verbs, basic rules of English composition that I have forgotten etc. Seems like it checked use of phrases as well as context on some words such as "still" vs "steel". I was very surprised at its accuracy back then. Someone did an amazing job. It was called a "grammar checker" but it was more than that.

When Japanese sentence patterns began destroying my then correct English grammar, I just gave up on the software! I had to pick and choose my battles!

[Alex Franke]

I can't remember the name of the software, but I had a "proofreader" type of software back in the early '90s on the Mac side.

Was it called Grammatik? That's the one I remember from around that time. I think it was for both PC and Mac.

[tseavoy]

Back when, working for a large aerospace company in Seattle (now based in Chicago), for a while our engineering reports were reviewed by a "professional", usually an English major. When the redlined report came back, all information was removed. These people didn't understand anything technical.
Just read your work as though you are a critical reviewer and you will be fine.

Tom on Marrowstone

[leehljp]

Back when, working for a large aerospace company in Seattle (now based in Chicago), for a while our engineering reports were reviewed by a "professional", usually an English major. When the redlined report came back, all information was removed. These people didn't understand anything technical.
Just read your work as though you are a critical reviewer and you will be fine.

Tom on Marrowstone

I have been in more arguments with Japanese professional language teachers over grammar. I can't tell you how many red lines I received and argued over!

Now, to be honest, I am not saying I know more about Japanese grammar than teachers do, but there is one aspect that hinders them - Written versus spoken, even polite spoken. Because most grammar is studied and corrected on paper, written & lecture language involves use of different words in many instances - than good "communication" verbal words. Of course I used verbal words, but wrote them down for study. Most teachers do not like that.

One person once summed up my 3 minute explanation of a technical term in one sentence, simply and clearly. When I started to write down the sentence, I was greeted with a loud yell: "NO, you can't write that down, it is not in written form!" Me: "But it communicates clearly!" Her: "But it is not correct grammar!" By that time, I forgot the precise sentence!

[leehljp]

Was it called Grammatik? That's the one I remember from around that time. I think it was for both PC and Mac.

I used Grammatik for a short while but that is not the first one I had. That was back when updates were too hard to come-by when OSes changed dramatically!