How to Check Grammatical Errors in Your English Writing?
Grammar errors are always a nuisance. No matter how good one seems to be at English, a few pesky errors always seem to find their way into one’s writing. These errors could be really small like a typo, or they could be more significant like some verb agreement error.
No matter, which kind of mistake it is, the point remains that the reader finds them irksome. For modern content writers, that is a huge problem as irking your readers is as good as repelling them from your content.
So, how can a person check their English writing for grammar errors? In this article, we will discuss a few methods that vary in difficulty and practicality. Let’s begin.
Some Methods for Checking Grammar
The methods we will discuss range from free to paid, and manual to automatic. Each method has its own perks and problems. It is up to you the reader, to determine which method is best suited for you.
1. Reading Your Work Out Loud to Yourself
One of the most basic ways of checking for grammar mistakes is to read your own work out loud. When you read something aloud, you automatically take more time to read and give more attention to each word.
When you read with such rapt attention, you notice small errors and mistakes that you would otherwise ignore. One precaution to take during this is to not read your work immediately after you write because then you will be too tired mentally to deal with them.
Always take a break before doing this so that you are fresh enough to notice these mistakes and correct them. It is a prerequisite that you must be proficient in grammar, to begin with, otherwise, this method is not very useful.
2. Using an Online Grammar Checker
Grammar checkers are online tools that can detect a variety of grammar errors such as spelling errors, punctuation mistakes, and other grammar errors. A good grammar checker can accurately detect all of these mistakes and provide a correction for them.
To conduct a grammar check online, you must open a browser and search for that phrase. Then you need to select a tool from the top ten of the SERPs. Most grammar checkers perform in the same way and have similar UIs.
In a typical grammar checker, you:
- Input your content
- Conduct a check
- And get the output
The output has some highlighted/underlined words. These are all errors.
If you click on them, you get some kind of message that shows the correction for that mistake.
Then you can apply these corrections and your English writing’s grammar errors will be corrected. Some tools even allow you to make a quick grammar check with artificial intelligence and let you apply all the corrections at once, thus saving you more time and effort.
Be warned though, grammar checkers are not 100% accurate. They can raise false positives and give false negatives as well. So, do go over the results before you accept them.
3. Hiring an Editor
You can also check your writing for grammar errors by hiring an editor. Editors are professionals who have a really strong grasp of their language. They use their expertise to find out about all the grammar mistakes that a writer makes in their work.
They are more expensive and more accurate than grammar checkers. If you want only the best for your writing then you should hire an editor.
However, not everyone can afford an editor. In this case, you can do something else. You can ask your own colleagues or friends (who are writers) to read your work. A person is naturally more perceptive about the mistakes of others. So, they will be able to detect grammar mistakes in your work that you won’t be able to do yourself.
This is still a much better alternative than reading your work aloud to yourself as it is more effective.
Conclusion
And these were three ways in which you can check your work for grammar mistakes. For people who are short on time, using a grammar checker is the best option. Those who have more time on hand and can afford to hire an editor should do that.
Ultimately, it comes down to your preferences and requirements. To read more articles like these, head to our website and learn to improve your English.
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