Word misses half of everything. It doesn't even pick up passive voice. I found something better but it is a subscription based system. Is there anything good where all I need to do is buy/pay for it once? And I should point out, I use a mac so compatibility may be an issue. edit. darn. I can't change the title, can I? I should have gone with "are there"
Thank you for the sarcasm. But for those of us that occasionally miss something, or something sounds good in our heads but is grammatically incorrect, and would want real time feedback, what would you recommend?
A note about Word, since you mentioned it. I'm not sure how proficient you are concerning the software, but it will pick up the passive voice and many other things as well. In case you don't know how to turn it on, read the following. Click on the Window's icon on the top left. When it opens (Word 07; 10 should be the same) there will be a button on the bottom right of the screen that says "Word Options." Click on that, and another menu will pop up. In this menu, on the left, click "Proofing." Now you're in the correction part of the program. Look through each one and choose what you want. Then, in the second list of boxes, choose "Mark grammar errors as you Type." Below this second list is an entry "Writing Style:" that gives you a choice for Word to correct only Grammar, or grammar and style. Choose Writing and Style. Then, click on the "Settings" button next to it. In this window, choose everything you want Word to look for. Then click OK until you're out of all the windows. The above works well for a number of things. But as Mama said above, what's between your ears is the best. I have almost everything turned on in Word, and then ignore the corrections a number of times. I'll also find a number of things Word missed. That's because no software program can handle the peculiarities of English Grammar (or any language?) So I wouldn't waste my time with software. Use what you have, then post it up here. Critique others, and read through other's critiques after in order to make you more aware of things. Volunteer to be a Beta on a fanfiction or an original writing site. All of that is free, and it will give you a ton more return than investing in better software, IMO.
