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1:20 pm
January 20, 2012
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mbreau
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I work with a number of authors who are self publishing (as a copy editor or proofreader) and recently had a client mention a program that she could buy to "grammar check" her book and give it a first read through.
She mentioned that it cost a significant amount upfront and then she would be able to use it, she hoped, on several books. As an editor I doubt an automated program can ever really master all the intricacies of the English language, but I'm always interested in hearing more about new tools.
Has anyone heard of these types of programs (designed specifically for books—not spellcheck / grammar check on Word) or used them? What were the results?
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1:36 pm
January 20, 2012
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Jennifer Mattern
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I have doubts about software like this too. There are too many variables in books for me to believe the process could be automated (at least well). For example, what about lists and blurbs in nonfiction books that follow complete sentences intentionally? What about intentional misspellings in fiction to emphasize dialects? I'd rather do a solid first read-through myself to clean up a manuscript and then leave it to a pro.
I suppose someone could argue that you subject yourself to human error that way. So maybe there aren't any perfect solutions. I'd be impressed if software could compare to an editor. But it's an "I'll believe it when I see it" kind of thing.
Any idea what the specific software was?
Jenn
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6:17 pm
February 23, 2012
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Elafont
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Lol, this has to be the most frightening post ever. I think I'm going to write a dystopian tale of a time in the future when computers tell us how language should work and all of the creative license and art is taken out of words and sentence structure (BTW, this is what I call mistakes—art ;-P).
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6:38 pm
February 23, 2012
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Jennifer Mattern
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Couldn't find the link, but I saw a tweet earlier today with an article about software actually writing articles. And it was being used by big news organizations. I don't write news, so I don't feel threatened. But that still felt creepier than auto-editing. Certainly doesn't sound like something I'd want to read.
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7:06 pm
February 23, 2012
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Elafont
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Yeah, it was in Forbes but I think it was more factual type stuff than readable/ personality filled content. Sort of like something quick and bulleted for the executive on the go. But that was just the impression I got–i didn't bother to read the article (TIRED).
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6:14 am
February 24, 2012
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Jennifer Mattern
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Yeah, it was supposed to be more fact-oriented stuff than editorial in nature. But still, creeps me out.
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5:44 pm
February 27, 2012
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Jessie
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I think I missed the part where we didn't use fact-sharing opportunities to engage readers and decided it was a good idea to have robots gargle out the data…ick.
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