Typely
Typely is a free editor that claims to be able to edit grammar. Most grammar tools are fairly limited, and this is no exception.
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This one barely allows people to copy and paste text, and its suggestions are based on weak and cliched views of the complexity of the English language. If you manage to paste in a text, which is not that straightforward, it may manage to give you a suggestion or two, but it is very far from turning a non-native learner's text into a native's text.
Categories: UsingEnglish Content
Where exactly does it say that Typely does grammar check? As a matter of fact we clearly state on our frontpage the following: "Typely does not do grammar checking because it's hard and almost impossible to get right."
When you load the editor for the first time we also state: "Typely does not focus on grammar, which is at once too easy and too hard — too easy because, for most native speakers, it comes naturally; too hard because, in its most general form, detecting grammatical errors is AI-complete, requiring human-level intelligence to get things right."
I will also have to disagree with the fact that you can't copy and paste. Typely makes use of the ACE editor which is used by incredibly powerful companies and tools to power their software, I would assume that copy and pasting should be available.
Now, about those "weak and cliched views of the complexity of the English language", can you elaborate on that?
"but it is very far from turning a non-native's text into a native's text" - nobody claims that either. I would say it's almost impossible to achieve it, not with a tool at least.
What exactly does 'proofreading' mean if it doesn't include grammar? And what else is proofreading if not turning incomplete and inaccurate text into something much better? If people pay for proofreading,they expect their text to be turned into natural English without errors. This tool, I'm afraid, does little to do that, though, being free, it shouldn't necessarily be held to these standards.
I posted your comment into it. The results told me that there were 4 typography issues with curly quotes, that the reading ease was 'fairly difficult', the grade level 12th, the vocabulary rich and the sentiment negative. How is this proofreading?
I am sorry, but I was not overwhelmed with this tool as it doesn't do a great deal of proofreading.
To get things straight here: those metrics that you keep referring to are nothing but additions for those that want to target, say, a positive sentiment...or a certain reading ease. Picking on them distracts from the topic.
The fact that the tool didn't report anything doesn't mean it is not doing its job. The fact that we skipped grammar check entirely doesn't exclude Typely from being used as a proofreading tool. Our frontpage says exactly what it does so your post, unfortunately, is nothing but a negative review resulted from a misunderstanding of the product.
I'm just saying that you should try and change your tone when making public claims such as this post, it doesn't look at all professional and it also brings negative value to a product which is really doing a good job at what it was designed for. I have validation from editors working on some really big newspapers who crae using this project. Proofreading means a lot of things in different stages which are not mutually exclusive but still part of the same happy family.
Proper proofreading is done by people. It's impossible for a machine to do it right for various reasons that I won't go into detail here and now. For those that can't afford to hire people, Typely is certainly helping.
Despite being written with valid grammar, various bits may contain redundancy, jargon, illogic, clichés, sexism, misspelling, inconsistency, misuse of symbols, malapropisms, oxymorons, security gaffes, hedging, apologizing, pretension, and more (a lot more actually). We can detect that and suggest improvements. When we don't detect anything or we're not sure...yes, we remain silent. The harm from saying the wrong thing is greater than the benefit of having said the right thing.
Sometimes it's important to appreciate the work being put into certain things. At least, people have options.
I don't mind at all negative feedback or constructive criticism because it indicates where my efforts should be focused but this post...I can't extract anything from it as it's based on a lack of understanding of the product.
Your homepage carries a rider that attempts to deny what this site is supposed to do, which is the problem. How do you proofread without including grammar? It is simply impossible.
Hi,
This is andrewg927 from the Ask A Teacher forum. I'm not exactly sure how I ended up here but this morning when I opened the forum I was shown a message that I couldn't post new replies. Perhaps I was banned overnight but I never received a formal message and not sure why that would be the case. Anyhow I don't know exactly how I got to this area but knowing you are part of the forum perhaps you could help me figure out what is going on. Thank you so much. Please delete this message as you see fit.
The account was disabled. There has been on-going conflict between you and a moderator, which you have, I am told, been informed of on a number of occasions without any changes.
Hi Tdol,
Thank you for your reply. It started with the "at the war veteran's protest" thread where I said to teechar that "a mistake to you may not be a mistake to the writer. Please keep that in perspective" which I later explained in the same thread there was not a tone or any disrespect meant other than a fact that applies to me and I believe should apply to other members. I received two private messages from teechar threatening to ban my account in what he perceived as an insult to him even though I assured him it was not meant to be insulting in any shape or form. He said "you are on my radar" in the first message and later "one more strike and you are out" in response to my posts in that thread. I PMed emsr2d2 twice about the incident since I found it disturbing that teechar who has broad authority as a moderator could and would be willing to use this power to intimidate other members of the forum. Emsr2d2 never replied to my messages. Lynxear was also complaining about teechar's threats to him and told me that he contacted other mods but never heard back from them and now supposedly he has been disabled as well. As a rule, I try to be as respectful as can be to moderators of a forum to which I am just a guest and never intend to overstay my welcome. Still I'm blindsided by the actions taken against me. I hope I could come back and continue to contribute to this forum. However, I respect your final decision in this matter whatever it may be. Thank you very much.
I will make sure they both see this reply.
Hi Tdol,
I just wonder if the moderators had a chance to read and respond to my post. Thank you.