I occassionally use diction and style, almost exclusively on first draft.
I don't rely on them to fix grammar -- I don't have patience for much that
is wrongly identified as erroneous. I do use them to identify long
sentences and spend my time thinking very carefull about better ways to
make my point (and sometimes discover either that I don't have a one or
that there is a better one). I pay some attention to a few indices and I
work at communicating with whatever audience I am targetting (student,
professional peers, dense administrators, general public). Since long
words are penalized and technical terms tend to be long, I don't get
overly concerned about the indices.
I always export to ascii and am not looking for a grammar checker that is
intergrated with lyx.
Clarity and economy of language. Ruthlessly edit out 1st draft
indulgences.
On Fri, 23 Mar 2001, Rob Koehler wrote:
>Stefano Ghirlanda wrote:
>
>> Robin Turner <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
>>
>> > Unless NLP has made some pretty massive advances recently, I think
>> > grammar checkers will continue to be more of an irritation than a
>> > help.
>>
>> Well, we shouldn't generalise that much, I think. I have a friend who
>> is slighly dyslexic, and moreover English is not his mother
>> tongue. Even checking that third-persons of verbs and plurals end in s
>> is a great help to him.
>>
>> --
>> Stefano Ghirlanda, Zoologiska Institutionen, Stockholms Universitet
>> email: you know it already, tel: +46-8-164055, fax:+46-8-167715
>> the free science campaign: http://ethology.zool.su.se/freescience
>
>Well I do speak, read and write english fluently, the reason I am
>interested in a grammar checker is that a thesis is a very large and
>complicated document. You just want to be sure that you haven't made
>little mistakes that are going to necessitate a rewrite! It's better if
>it is right the first time!
>
>L8r
>Rob
>
>Dept Mech Eng
>Adelaide University
>
>
--
Mark Hansel
PO Box 41
Minnesota State University Moorhead
Moorhead, MN 56563
ph: 218-236-2039 fax: 218-236-2593
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://wwwcj.mnstate.edu
