When you have one of these nagging issues in your head, your writing usually gets stumped.  Instead of letting the ideas flow, you end up with a bunch of questions that leave you doubting what you’re putting to paper.  Suffice to say, it’s not the best way to work.

If you ever find yourself getting held back by niggling grammar questions, the best recourse is to make a guess and keep writing.  Seriously.  Debating in your head about grammar specifics is helpful during proofreading, but it will only delay the work of finishing your draft.

Want to be a more efficient writer?  Learn to ignore that urge.  You can put a mark on it (like a highlight), so you’ll know exactly to return to it once your draft is done.  Or better yet, use a grammar correction software and have it go through the draft.  It will flag all errors and suggest fixes, so you don’t even have to concern yourself with getting anything wrong.

Fortunately, modern times has brought us some advancements when it comes to fulfilling our writing tasks.   In the past, we had to spare considerable time to seeking out mechanical errors and correcting them.  While it’s still a good idea to do them now, the time we spend on them has been greatly reduced as a direct result of writing correction software.

Since grammar relies on a set of rules, it isn’t an overly difficult process to shift the burden of catching non-adherence to those guidelines to a software program.  And that’s exactly what they’ve done with modern writing software — automated detection and correction of errors in grammar, spelling and other mechanical components of writing.

Sure, it will probably miss an error here and there, as well as flag a false-positive or two at some point.   Still, a good writing software can shave hours off the time you would otherwise spend performing manual editing and proofreading all by your lonesome.

Every time you draft an email, a paper or any piece of writing, some amount of bad grammar and spelling will always make it into your work.  That’s especially true of first drafts, where your focus should be in expressing your ideas in words, rather than getting the mechanics of writing right.

Despite mistakes of that nature being acceptable for drafts, these aren’t the types of things you want to leave in a final version of any piece of writing.  It’s just not good practice to send an email or submit a report with multiple instances of bad grammar and spelling.

Good news is, most errors of such nature are avoidable.  An hour of manual editing and proofreading could give you enough time to fix up an essay of reasonable length.  Or, if you’d rather do without the involved focus such kind of work requires, you can opt for the help of a grammar and spelling software, which should net you similar results, all while taking up but a fraction of your time.



Fact is, there are dozens, if not hundreds, of grammar checkers online.   To claim I’ve tested them all and know which one is the best just doesn’t carry a ring of truth to it.  While I’ve tried my fair share to finally arrive at the one I use regularly, my list should actually be much more modest.

What I can do, however, is help steer you in the right direction when trying to find the best grammar checker online.  Here are some things you should consider:

1. Don’t buy the first grammar checker online you come across.  Look around, read reviews and ask for feedback — that’s the only way you can get a clearer idea of whether a software is right for you.
2. Look for trial versions.  If a trial version of a software is available, go for it.  That way, you can experience working with them first-hand.
3. Look for software that’s specialized to the field or industry you normally write for.  If you are frequently writing for school, then an academic writing software will probably suit you better than a general purpose-one; same with business writing and a business grammar software and so on.

The way you spell?  It counts.  How correct your grammar is?  It counts.  Your use of punctuations?  They count.  Same as the words you choose, the adjectives you insert and every other small facet of your craft.  They all matter.

How can you ever have the time to take care of all the details?  Chances are, you won’t.  That’s why we encourage anyone who does a regular amount of writing to invest in a writing grammar software.

With a writing program, you don’t have to examine your writing with the precision of a microscope.  Sure, reading through your draft and making sure things read fine will be necessary, but you can leave a lot of the surface details to your writing program.

Your spelling?  Let the writing software fix it.  Your grammar?  Have the correction software for writing have a go and let it suggest ways to fix your mistakes.  Same goes for every mechanical and grammar-related detail in your work, all of which a qualified writing program should be able to work its automatic magic on.



Problem is, some of those may not be appropriate for the way you write.  For instance, some grammar programs can have a hard time checking longer sentences.  Complex constructions can appear to break some grammar rules, at first glance, and your software will flag that.   If you want it to skip longer sentences, though, since you check those manually during editing, you can turn the feature off, so it doesn’t become a nuisance while you get the software to proofread the rest of your work.

Another instance may be when you’re writing a technical document and need to use certain words repeatedly.  Since many English writing software will check for repeated occurrences of the same word and flag it as wordiness, you can turn the feature off, so it doesn’t end up slowing you down.

There are many ways, such as these, to personalize the way your language software works.  If you want to streamline how it assists in your writing process, then it makes sense to regularly enable and disable certain features, so that you’re only using the ones you need at any time.

1. My trusted proofreading software.

While it can’t catch every single writing transgression known to man, a good proofreading software should help you fix a lot of mistakes in your copy. This is especially true for grammar, spelling and other mechanical errors. More advanced titles can even work on your writing style, brevity and other qualities that affect how your writing eventually comes across.

While I don’t mind relying strictly on software for reviewing a piece, you might want to add some personal touch when hoping to eke out the best writing possible. For these purposes, I usually employ a second tool – one that helps streamline the manual process of proofreading.

2. Proofreading worksheets.

My own worksheet is actually a printed Excel chart that shows common writing mistakes I want to check for. These include misspellings that spellcheckers normally miss (such as when I write “face” instead of “phase”), clarity problems, wordiness issues and other similar items.

Since the worksheet is in chart format, it’s very easy to see items in a glance, making the process of checking for errors a look-and-see affair. It’s not perfect – nothing is – but it has helped me cut down proofreading time by a considerable degree.

If you’re writing any sort of document (especially expository ones that look to inform), taking care of mechanical flaws is a required activity – one you should attempt to manage the best way you can.  This is especially important with material that won’t make it to a third-party proofreader or editor (i.e. the final results are up to you), such as blog posts, business reports and class essays.

Common Pitfalls To Check

Apostrophes are almost always a bane for writers of all calling, same as with the use of other less-common punctuations, such as semicolons and quotes.   The use of passive voice is also a frequent transgression, as well as abuse of the word “you” (avoid inserting it when you’d rather talk about “people in general”).  One area many writers ignore is type and it shows: overuse of boldface and italicized fonts, inconsistent spacing and wrong indentation come with many pieces of writing.

Develop A System

Looking to consistently rid your writing of mechanical faults?  Develop a system that works for you to keep them in check.  If you’re finding it hard to get one, here’s a basic framework you can build upon:

• Run a grammar and spell check (using your all-in-one writing software).
• Run a style check (very useful for churning a consistent copy).
• Read through your text at least one (changing leftover errors as you find them).
• Run a spell check one last time before putting the final stamp on it.

Hiring A Proofreader

What’s the best way to guarantee that your text is proofread in the best way possible?  Hire a professional to do it.  More than being a fresh pair of eyes, those who do this for a living will likely have come across a multitude of the typical errors most writers make.  For the most part, they’ll know exactly what to watch out for.

If you can’t afford paying someone else to do it, try getting a fellow writer to do it as a favor.  Even if you consider yourself a more complete writer than them, they will be in a better position to proofread your piece.  After slaving over a 10,000 word article, it’s just difficult to gather your wits and read your own work in an objective manner.

Using A Software

While getting an extra hand is ideal, it’s not always the most available option.  Some people just happen to live in a cave and don’t really have anyone who can help them out.  In these cases, a proofreading software should prove extremely helpful.

Like all proofreading options, don’t expect it to catch everything.  However, I guarantee that using software will turn up a better copy than doing it all by yourself ever could.  Even better, it can get those results at a considerably faster rate.

Putting In Your Own Work

This is not to say that you should spend any time proofing your own piece.  The point is that doing it all on your own is a dangerous exercise that is easily avoidable.  By all means, fix your writing – just make sure to employ available alternatives as well.

For the most part, many of these will be careless mistakes, such as common typos and misspellings (most of which, you should be able to set up for a grammar software to fix).  However, they can also be comprised of more difficult errors, such as having a tendency to write long sentences or putting together hasty closing sections.

A proofreading checklist is an account of these frequent sticking points, one that you put together, specifically, for the purpose of simplifying the job of whoever’s going to be proofing your work.  With such a record to refer to, you can have a clearer idea of which aspects of the text you must pay particular attention to, as they are the most likely to feature mistakes.

If you’re working with a proofreader or an editor, make sure to give them a copy of this checklist.  Also, make sure to do a quick rundown based on it (with the help of a grammar-fixing software), before turning in your work.  After all, the less of these mistakes you can catch before passing on to the next guy, the more they can focus on less mechanical areas of your piece, such as coherence, style and clarity.