American Grammar Checkup: The Continuing Perils of Trusting Spellcheck

Do you use spellcheck? Are you checking every single word that it shows you is spelled incorrectly? Great!

Are you trusting that spellcheck will do a different job, one where it cannot help you? Not so great.

Spellcheck does only one thing: it checks spelling.
It does NOT check usage.

There are thousands of stories out there about writers who believed that they were somehow not responsible for the errors in their articles because SPELLCHECK said they were "good to go"!

When we will all learn?

Over the last few weeks, two words incorrectly used have jumped out at me in LI posts, largely because proofreading and copyediting are my specialties and English is my native language. I realize that the writers are experts in their own topics, topics that I have NO expertise in, but they appear to be trusting spellcheck to give them perfect copy. The writers may not recognize the words they are using -- perfectly good words -- are wrong in the context of their article.

What are the words I saw? LETS and ITS. And if we type them into a document, spellcheck will agree with us and not flag them. 

Apostrophes are required when we take two words, remove one or more letters, and bring all the letters together to form a contraction – basically a new word. And these are not interchangeable! Each form has a specific meaning.

Lets = Allows
Let’s = Let Us

Its = the possessive pronoun
It’s = It Is or It Has

Let us go! Let us talk! Let us run! = Let's go! Let's talk! Let's run!
It is a new year. It is New Year's Day. = It's a new year. It's New Year's Day
It has been nice seeing you. = It's been nice seeing you.

When I’m teaching my Brush Up on Your American Grammar Skills workshops, I always recommend learning one of the forms absolutely, positively, completely correctly. Learn it cold. Learn it upside down, downside up, in every direction and way you can think of. And if what you're writing isn't about the one you're sure of, use the other one.

Here are other posts on this topic you may not have seen: Devil or Angle, Money Down the Drain, The Impotence of Proofreading (a funny short video by Taylor Mali)

I have offered many times to proofread any one of your posts (presuming it’s not 300 pages!) and let you know what I see. I am still willing to do that at any time.
Happy to help. Just ask me.
FREE
NO CHARGE

Let me help you look and sound as smart as you are!

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December Posts
Monday Grammar Checkup: Holiday Names and Apostrophes 
Finally Friday, December 4
Funky Friday, December 11
Tuesday Tricksters, December 15   
Friday -- Almost Christmas -- Funnies, December 19
The Last Monday Grammar Checkup for 2015 -- and It's a QUIZ!
The Last Tuesday Tricksters for 2015!
The Last Cross Words for 2015 
The Last Thursday's Thoughts as We End 2015

January
First Friday Funday of 2016!
Silly Saturday

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Do the associates in your firm look and sound as smart as they are? They would if they could take one of my Brush Up on Your Skills workshops. If your firm hires outside experts to teach any topic, please share my posts and Web site with your Human Resources or  Training Manager. 

I am booking my 3-hour onsite corporate Brush Up on Your Skills workshops for Spring. Be sure your firm books its date(s) early!

As an international corporate trainer, I have worked worldwide for 20 years teaching American grammar (U.S. only), business writing, and a variety of interpersonal communication skills workshops. I am also a copy editor and proofreader, mainly of business-related materials. My home base is in Massachusetts, but I will travel anywhere to help business professionals look and sound as smart as they are.