18. Problems with the grammar check tool

Although grammar checkers can help people who are not very confident with constructing grammatically correct sentences, there are a number of issues which have been raised about their use.

• Grammar checkers frequently flag perfectly good grammar as bad (i.e. the “false positive” problem).

• Sometimes, grammar checkers do not detect any errors with a document. Look again at the image opposite. Read paragraph 1 carefully. Grammatically, it is very poor and yet the grammar checker has not picked up any problems, although it did pick up the issues with paragraph 2.

• There have been concerns that grammar checkers crimp creativity because people get nervous about seeing green lines under their work.

• There are also concerns that grammar checkers can be a crutch for students who have never learned good grammar habits.