ABSTRACT
This chapter examines two additional augmentations to word processing–spelling and grammar checkers. It suggests a writing strategy that minimizes writer effort and maximizes the help these checkers can provide. The chapter describes a way to use a word processor’s search and block move functions to enhance a text’s logical flow. Most electronic spelling checkers compare each word in a text to a list of standard English words. Electronic prewriting tools have been used most in teaching writing to high school and college students. Writers would like to detect out-of-context words. However, since spelling checkers really only compare words in a text to a list of words, they generally do little, if any, assessment of the relationship of individual words to other words. The ideal human editor detects poor word choice, cliches and hackneyed expressions, and awkward sentence construction. Several of the electronic writing aids can help technical writers obtain a third-eye view of their text.
