Free software for editing.

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   jenuboukaposted 12 years ago

   Thought I would come the trusty HP forum to ask if there is any free software program that could assist me in editing articles.  I need help in grammar and comma, punctuation, etc. I have about half of my head of hair left trying to do this myself.

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      SimeyCposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      try Google Docs.
      
      docs.google.com

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   WryLiltposted 12 years ago

   Any word program such as microsoft word. But no grammar program will ever be perfect, since it sticks to rules and different sentences can mean different things...

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   jenuboukaposted 12 years ago

   Thanks so much. I am still licking my wounds after a client sent back an article that was "ridden" with errors...I tend to disagree, but I am still bummer at her "not a writer" response in reference to me. 
   There are some "trial" ones I downloaded and well Wrylilt, you are right on that!  There are many, many different variations.  Yet, I regress into my little black rock of rejection for the time being. Will def. check out the Google Docs. Thanks so much SimeyC.

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      IzzyMposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Client is being overly fussy IMO, if your hubs are typical of your writing.
      
      Because of this thread, it could be assumed that your writing is somehow substandard.
      
      Let me assure you that your writing is excellent
      
      It is easy on the eye, easy to  understand, and grammatically correct as well as interesting.  So kudos to you!
      
      Off to read more....

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         SimeyCposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         I have to agree - I'm no expert but there's nothing wrong with your grammar etc. You perhaps are a little 'flowery' at times but there's nothing wrong with that.
         
         Sound like the customer is trying to get your work free without paying for it - I wouldn't be surprised if they've already spun your work and are profiting from it!

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   WriteAngledposted 12 years ago

   Nevertheless, you may have to suck it up and bear it as far as clients are concerned. It depends on how many clients you have, whether the majority like what you do, and whether you can afford to lose those who do not.
   
   I have similar issues as a translator. Luckily, I have had a lot of people tell me that they count me among their top translators. Thus, if someone tries to harass me unjustifiably about my linguistic style or treats me badly in any other way, I now have the confidence to tell them to get lost. Dropping a client now and then makes no difference to me, because I have many more to fill the gap.   
   
   However, if you do need to be more accommodating, Open Office, which is a free, downloadable, open-source office suite, includes a spelling and grammar checker.
   
   In my opinion, though, software grammar checkers are, on the whole, pretty well useless. They do not properly take into account different styles of writing.
   
   It might be worth your while investing in a paper-based style guide. For example, here in the UK, the New Hart's Rules and The Cambridge Handbook for Editors, Authors and Publishers are commonly used.
   
   In the US, I believe that The Chicago Manual of Style is the general standard, with the MLA Style Manual being used for academic writing and the Associated Press Stylebook forming the standard for journalistic writing.
   
   Incidentally, you need to take a closer look at the description on your profile. It contains a number of typos/spelling errors. To be brutally honest, I would not consider hiring you as a writer after reading it.

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   jenuboukaposted 12 years ago

   @Izzy: Thank you for that and do not hope to be "substandard" in which way or form.
   
   @SimeyC: Flowery I assume is my "niceness" portrayed in my hubs?  On the contrary I am quite the opposite, and just choose to be a bit more uplifting and positive on this particular format, there other places I shine in the dark.
   
   @WritedAngled:  Geez, way to kick a sister while their down, I did go back to my profile and corrected (I hope) the errors.  I just prefer not to write a novel when trying to tell people about myself, that is what the hubs are for.  I find people lose interest quickly on the ones that are lengthy. 
   
   As for the client....She holds no bearing on any substantial part of my income, nor does she write, so yes perhaps she is just picky or just needs to get a date...At any rate, I thank you all for the feedback, I just was getting annoyed with the Google results when looking for a program that might "technically" tell me what is wrong with an article.  So much for Panda weeding out the spam....

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      SimeyCposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      When I say Flowery I mean:
      
      :I traveled to France in my younger years and by a whimsical miracle I encountered a woman chef:
      
      'whimsical miracle I..' - this is what I consider flowery - you have a way of describing something that is more akin to a novel than an article - again nothing wrong with that....it's refreshing!!!

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         IzzyMposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         It's a lot better than the way I write - I seem to use a lot of words like 'however' and 'moreover' and totally boring words like that.
         
         I need to give myself a good slap and banish those words from my dictionary!
         
         I've been asked recently to translate into Spanish the word 'anyway' when used as ""blah, blah, blah, but anyway now blah blah".
         
         When looked on it like that the word is nonsensical. It is non-translatable, IMO.
         
         Unless Writeangled knows a Spanish word that means more or less the same?

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            WriteAngledposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            Since I work exclusively with medical/biomedical documents, I deal with fairly formal, scientific language. Unfortunately, I don't have the opportunity to practise my ordinary Spanish so I've lost a lot with respect to speaking. "Lo que sea" might possibly fit.

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               IzzyMposted 12 years agoin reply to this

               I always took 'lo que sea' to mean "who knows?". It's certainly used in that general context. Thanks for helping all the same!

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         Lisa HWposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Mostly Devil's Advocate here (because I didn't happen to see the piece of writing that apparently contained some flowery language), but I don't think it's always correct to assume that someone's aim in writing a Hub is to write an article.  People write Hubs that poetry, fiction, first-person non-fiction, opinion, etc. etc.  Depending on the magazine, magazines often have material/articles that fall outside what a lot of people online tend to think of as "an article".  Unlike a lot of sites that only want that one, specific, kind of writing and often don't even allow anything other than a "straight-and-to-point", informative, article; HubPages allows more flexibility in style.
         
         My main point here is that I don't think "flowery" wording is necessarily inappropriate for some writers and/or some Hubs.  It depends on the aim of the writer, but also on a site's standards when it comes to style of writing.  (I've written news, scientific stuff, medical stuff, financial stuff, business stuff, and fluffy stuff.  The measure of proficiency with word use for any number of types of writing is different in each style of writing.)

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            SimeyCposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            I agree - I actually did say it was refreshing - plain old 'technical' writing can get very said and boring. Flowery writing will often keep me on the page. 'Flowery' is perhaps not quite the right word.
            
            I call J K Rowling 'flowery' as she always adds a lot of adjectives in her writing - but I have read and re-read her books many times!

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      IzzyMposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      You've noticed what I've noticed then...Google is dreadful when it comes to looking for serious answers!
      
      Use duckduckgo, they are far more accurate, faster, better, and  there are no privacy issues with them.

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      IzzyMposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I'm going with Simey's answer above. Your employer wants something for nothing. Tell them to take a hike and publish the article here instead (check the web in case they have already published it).

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      WriteAngledposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I did not comment on the factual content or length of your profile. I merely pointed out it contained a number of grammatical/spelling errors. If you've tided that up, well and good. Incidentally, you made another major grammatical error in your response to me: "kick a sister while their down" (I leave you to find out what the problem is).
      
      Now, if you see my comment as "kicking", that is your prerogative. However, if you are using your profile here as part of marketing yourself as an author, you cannot afford to be careless with your language usage. Writing carelessly in your profile could lose you many clients.
      
      As I said initially, were I to need a writer for anything, I would reject someone out of hand if I saw even just one error in anything they had written. Why should I risk having to spend hours correcting poor output as well as having had to pay to obtain it in the first place?
      
      Whether or not the particular client you mentioned was accurate in her comments or not is almost beside the point. As a freelance, you will inevitably get critical comments from some clients at times. These comments might or might not be justified. You need to develop the thick skin to deal with it, the humility to accept the criticism when you have made errors, and the confidence to stand up for yourself and for your work when you feel you have produced material of good quality.

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         jenuboukaposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         It was making the situation light. ....My humor tends to get lost in the shuffle of people wanting to make their point. 
         
         I do thank you for your criticism, however THERE is no damn edit button on this forum so as I hit submit, I saw the error....So thank you again.
         
         For thick skin, that I do have, in my previous profession, all women had too, but I was able to speak my mind toward an issue, not be have some person get buffed through an email. 
         
         Again I really wanted to know if there was a program that could help me in a general sense with editing in the future,  it is a mess on Google to find a legit program, or one that is at least under a hundred bucks.   
         As I see I am to blame for detouring the forum thread, should of just keep on topic and left the personal issue out.

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   WriteAngledposted 12 years ago

   There's an edit button, which appears together with the other buttons at the bottom right of each forum message you post. However, it is only placed there for a couple of hours or so and then it disappears.
   
   I mentioned Open Office before. I've checked, and you can add various extensions to perform checks for you, such as:
   
   http://extensions.services.openoffice.o … lityReport
   The readability report scores your document for readability, cohesion and information density.
   
   http://extensions.services.openoffice.o … e-deadline
   The grammar checker highlights common errors in your writing. The style checker (off by default) finds passive voice, clichés, redundant phrases, and complex expressions. The contextual spelling checker looks for misused words and reports them to you.

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      jenuboukaposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Very cool thanks!  I have a trial one, Editorial tool or something like that, not very user friendly.  Will check these out.

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   normfultonposted 12 years ago

   Hi, If you're looking for simple solution, I recommend Notepad++. This is very powerful and yet simple replacement of classic notepad. I know it's name may sounds silly - notepad++, but I really enjoy myself, when I'm using it.  It's worth to check it out. Good Luck

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      jenuboukaposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Thank you! I will check that out, simple is better for me.

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