Taking a peek at After the Deadline
I generally don’t put a lot of stock in grammar or style checkers. In my experience, they’ve tended to be a bit too wedded to strict rules. These kinds of checkers don’t take into account personal writing quirks and attempts at trying to make your writing a bit more original and fresh. Two aspects of writing that I think set you apart, and make your writing more interesting and readable, if done properly.
That said, I know more than a couple of people who do rely on grammar and style checkers. A few of them are, in fact, professional writers. Lately, I’ve been recommending After the Deadline to some people.
The folks behind After the Deadline say that it helps you write better by adding spelling, style, and grammar checking to web applications. It tries to root out problems like:
- Misused words
- Style problems like passive voice, redundant phrases, and cliches
- Confused and repeated words, as well as errors in verb agreement
Using it
As After the Deadline’s description points out, it’s not intended for use with desktop software. However, it is available as:
As the description points out, After the Deadline is available as:
- A plugin for self-hosted WordPress blogs (not blogs hosted on WordPress.com though) or bbPress forums
- A Firefox add-on
- A bookmarklet for other Web browsers
After the Deadline points the problems out by underlining them: red for a spelling error, green for a grammar error, and blue for a style problem.
There’s also an online version that you can test out. Just copy and paste the text of an article or blog post into the form, and click the Check Writing button. To get more information on an error, right click it and choose an option from the menu that pops up. Pretty simple.
What I really like about After the Deadline, though, is that it explains a style or grammar point that it highlights. Right click on a highlighted problem and choose Explain. A window pops up and gives you a detailed explanation with examples.
Overall, After the Deadline is a good spelling, grammar, and style checker. It’s not quite as strict as the grammar checker in a word processor like Word or OpenOffice.org Writer. And that’s definitely not a bad thing.
Photo credit: morchella from Photoxpress
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