I Know Grammar Better Than Microsoft Word

January 20, 2012

As an English major at UMKC, I often have to write essays: or in my case, short stories since I am working towards an emphasis on creative writing. Writing short stories fits me best because I can use as many words as I want, as opposed to poetry. When writing these stories, I obviously have to use Microsoft Word to type them and share them with my peers.

Last week, as I was drafting my story on my computer, I noticed something peculiar. Because I am a "creative" writer, I use sentence fragments in an interesting way to make a point or to emphasize a situation. All the time, I see that green squiggly line underneath those sentences, indicating that Word is not happy with me. In fact, Word underlined one of my sentences as I was typing this blog. I usually ignore them, but when I was working on my short story, I noticed something peculiar. It underlined a specific word. I do not remember what it was (because I have since finished working on the draft), but the word ended with a –s, and I knew it was correct. Any child in grade school would know it was correct. However, Word thought the word was grammatically incorrect.

As usual, I ignored it and continued writing, but it gave me an interesting thought that both worries me and makes me proud: I know grammar better than computers. This goes to show that while computers can help us in significant ways, we still need to proofread what we type. So, don’t completely trust those green squiggly lines. They are not always right.

Matthew W.
Oak Grove Branch