MS Word Spell Check - How it can Sometimes Fail You

chillibreeze writer — Seena Antony

Water could be more distracting and annoying that a typo? Even if you are a reasonably good speller, it is so easy to hit the wrong keys, when you are typing away in a hurry. Silly as they are, typos and spelling mistakes can make a well written piece look unprofessional. It questions the credibility and the authority of the writer. Be it a business document, a prospective résumé, a research paper or a blog post, it only reflects poorly on the writer’s attention to detail. Like a good friend, the MS Word Spell check option comes to the rescue. It’s dependable, constantly reviewing your work and gently nudging you with a squiggly underline every time you make a mistake. But did it catch my Freudian slip?

What is a Spell Checker
Very simply, a spell checker is an application program that scans your document and highlights any misspelt words. A spell checker could be a stand-alone program or part of your word processing software (e.g. MS word), your web browser, email client or search engine.

Functionality
The spell checker program consists of two parts. The first part scans text and extracts words. The second compares each scanned word to an in-built dictionary. Any word that it does not find in the dictionary, it flags as an error. The spell-checker may suggest a list of ‘correct’ alternatives. You can either pick a replacement word from this list or choose to ignore this selection.

Spell checking programs have been around since 1957. The initial spell checkers were more of ‘verifiers’. And the in-built dictionaries mainly consisted of a long list of correctly spelled words. In time, the dictionaries advanced to include hyphenations and grammatical attributes and the algorithms advanced to suggest word replacements and grammar revisions.

MS Spell checker - not foolproof
There is no doubt that MS Spell checker does a fairly good job of reviewing your document. Catching your obvious mistakes, it saves you time and kicks off your proof reading process. This spelling and grammar check option cannot be used as a final editing/proof reading method. Here are some reasons why:

- MS Spell checker is language specific. So if your settings indicate that you are using US English, it will refer to the US English dictionary. And even if you correctly spell ‘colour’, ‘cheque’ and’ favourite’, they will still be flagged as errors.

- MS word does not understand proper nouns or names that are not your average English names. E.g. the name Geetha will be flagged as an error.

- Until recently, MS Spell checker operated more on the individual words rather than on the context. One example could be of a homophone - Words that have the same pronunciation but are spelled differently. Like ‘their’ and ‘there’. So it would not flag any error if you accidentally mixed up the two. The latest versions have advanced algorithms that try to cover contextual slips to an extent. E.g., “There legs were hurting.” IF you are reading this in MS word, you will notice that the erroneous word ‘there’ is underlined with a blue squiggly and the alternate word suggested is its homophone ‘their’ which is correct. However, it does not seem to fix all homophone errors. In the sentence - ‘She got me a basket full of pairs’, you will notice there is no blue squiggly underline and the MS spell checker does not suggest ‘pears’ or any other alternative instead.

- The other real word typos that MS spell checker might miss. For instance, if the writer typed ‘united’ instead of ‘untied’ in the sentence, ‘she united her shoe laces’; MS spell checker does not identify any error in this sentence. These kinds of errors can only identified through manual proofreading.

- You’ll notice from the first line in this article that MS Spell checker does not do a very good job catching Freudian slips.

We should, however, give MS Spell check option credit where it is due. It is a handy tool that complements the editing process but it has limitations. It is, after all, a program working by a set of logical rules and cannot put thought and consideration into its checking function. By studying its rules and understanding its limitations one can confidently use it as a first line of defense. However, it cannot be expected to replace manual reviews and proofreading that is essential to a well-written piece.

Editor's note: Most articles submitted to Chillibreeze go through a selection process. Only 30 percent of submitted articles are accepted for publication on the Chillibreeze.com featured article list. All accepted articles are edited and proofread for glaring errors of punctuation and grammar. Sentence structure is changed in certain cases and sometimes, entire sections are rewritten. If you notice any errors that have slipped through the cracks, do let us know! (Email us at info at chillibreeze dot com).

Chillibreeze's disclaimer: This is a contributed article and was published on Chillibreeze in November, 2011. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not reflect the views of Chillibreeze as a company. Chillibreeze has a strict anti-plagiarism policy. Please contact us to report any copyright issues related to this article. The relevance of the facts and figures cited (if any) could change after a period of time.

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