This has nothing to do with what has been discussed in class, but I was thinking today about Microsoft Word, and the possible negative effect it has on our writing. As I post on these blogs, I find myself having to go back and captialize all my I's, fix the spelling on many of my words. I feel like this is mainly due to Microsoft Word. In Microsoft Word, you can write almost non-stop spelling words wrong and not capitalizing letters that should be capitalized. And all the while, Microsoft Word is making all the corrections. If you type in an uncaptialized I, and then hit space, it will capitalize it for you. If you misspell a word, it will find the word that it most closely resembles and correct the spelling for you.
I mention this because I have noticed that I struggle, and at times need to have a dictionary with me to check the spelling on words when I am using this blogger, which does not do the things that Microsoft Word does. I was wondering if anyone has any thoughts on this, or if anyone has noticed the same type of thing as they are posting their blogs. Feel free to respond.
Dylan
7 comments:
that is a really interesting point. I go back and read things I have done online in blogs or on myspace or something to that extent and there are all sorts of misspelled words and such.
I think Word does have a minor role in dummying down the people. I try really hard to make sure that when I type, most of my typing is correct.
I attribute this to the fact that I love a hand-written letter. I think that there is something very meaningful about hand-written notes. There is no spell check with hand-written documents.
The way Word has made me less effective as a writer is definately mis-spelling words. Those tricky words that you aren't quite sure between two spellings, I never take the time to look up, becuase Word will take care of it. I never really check which one is right.
I get kind of irritated by Word's heckling me to spell things correctly and to grammar things correctly (ha ha, Word, I turned grammar into a verb). I usually leave that feature off, then do a spell check at the end. I resent their view of the world from a grammatical perspective, and I have frequently found mistakes. I'm annoyed in the opposite direction by the fact that Word doesn't catch errors such as "an" for "and." In my perfect world, a grammar checker catches sentences that make no sense at all.
BTW, I'm not a good speller. I look up words on Google all the time--I have a little dictionary on my Google page.
I use dictionary.com quite a bit. Microsoft Word's features bother the hell out of me... those little red lines could not be any more of a put-down, reminiscent of the red pen my first-grade teacher wielded with malice. I leave the lines on, but I have auto-correct off. I go back and try to spell the words correctly my self; it's only fair.
As a creative writer, I resent the fact that Word doesn't approve of fragments.
As a poet, I loathe Word's abstention from free-verse conventions.
This is something I don't often think about but thank higher powers for. I am, unlike a few of us, beholden to Word and its many features. I will admit that it has many tedious quips about it, but for the most part I am on board with with Word.
I understand when Word's grammar function is not applicable. I ignore it. But to think of the alternatives (I don't want to because then I get irritated about how slow things would have been). To think that people want to use type-writers. That absolutely blows my mind. I want to used a program that reads my thoughts and organizes them into coherent messages so I don't have to worry about structure any more.
not that I do anyway. HA
i don't mind a fragment as long as the writer is aware of the fragment. unintentional fragments. bug me.
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