Don't Trust Spellcheck

When I started my current job, my boss told me that I will need to proofread every document I wrote. I said that was no problem. She then went on to say that I need to make sure that I use my eyes to proofread, not the spellcheck on the computer. I was shocked to be told that; I can't believe anybody trusts spellcheck.

For those of you who don't realize how terrible spellcheck is, let me tell you that it's incredibly terrible. First of all, despite referring to itself as spellcheck, it consistently marks 'spellcheck' as an incorrect word. There are also certain words that simply aren't in the dictionary. For example, 'skank' is marked as incorrect. However, the list of possible corrections includes 'skanks', which makes no sense whatsoever. Spellcheck also can't handle certain constructions for words. For example, 'writer' is perfectly acceptable, but 'writerly' is not.

The other main problem of spellcheck is that it only checks spelling, not usage. If you use the wrong form of to/too/two or their/there/they're, it won't tell you there's a problem, as long as you spelled it right. Also, if you made a typo that ends up being a real word, it won't realize that the sentence is meaningless. Some of the more dangerous mistakes is typing 'hell' instead of 'he'll' or 'suck' instead of 'sick'. Now, in theory, the grammar checker should catch those things, but grammar check is even worse than spellchecker, so that's out.

I will say, though, that the spellchecker can be improved. The dictionary that it uses can be modified, having words added or removed. At the very least, you can do that to make it stop saying that your own name is misspelled. Still, though, it won't be able to tell you when you are using a word incorrectly.

I like the fact that I can catch most typos as I type because of spellchecker. However, when a document needs to be error-free, don't trust spellcheck. Use your eyes and your brain.