I have always thought that God invented the computer’s spell checker for me since I’m such a lousy speller. It is a great tool, but nothing takes the place of a careful rereading of your paper.

Here are but a few of the many problems with spell and grammar checkers:

• Do not catch shifts in point of view, verb tense, and mood.
  
• Often ignore the misuse of adjectives and adverbs (e.g. “could have been handled more professional [should be professionally]
  
• Catch, but more often don’t, misused semicolons and run-on sentences
  
• Will not tell you how to spell words not listed in its dictionary, catch words commonly confused (e.g. affect/effect), homophones (e.g. son/sun) or typos (our and out are only one space apart on the keyboard)
  
• Miss words that should be capitalized in certain contexts in the words (e.g. Dad/dad)
  
• Don’t consistently flag slang and informal language

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