So you’ve just written a research paper, a grant, or another document. You don’t want to spend the time editing, so you rely on Word’s Spellcheck feature to flag and fix any errors.

Bad idea.

Why?

Spellcheck will not catch everything. Sure, it will tell you if you typed “hosre” instead of “horse” or “sodlier” instead of “soldier.” It will also tell you if there is an extra space between two words or if you typed a grammatically incorrect term, such as “ain’t.” (Not that you would ever use “ain’t” in formal writing unless a character in your novel says it…right?)

True, Spellcheck is a very helpful tool. It has saved me embarrassment when I have written one of my “bugaboo” words of which I can never remember the correct spelling (such as “Mediterranean” or “genealogy”). The little red line that forms right after I type the word instantly tells me that I did something wrong, so I can fix it. Spellcheck will even suggest the correct spelling for me.

However, it does have its caveats.

For example, Spellcheck cannot distinguish between homonyms. (Homonyms, if you might remember, are words which sound the same but have different meanings.) Many writers, for example, confuse “there,” “their,” and “they’re” in writing. An author might write, “I can’t believe those receptionists make me fill out those forms every single time I go to the doctor’s office. There so stupid.” In this case, “there” is used incorrectly (the correct word is “they’re”), but Spellcheck sees this is okay because “there” is spelled correctly. The same holds true for “your” and “you’re.” (Not to be a snob, but it always makes me cringe when I read a piece of writing that confuses the two. “Your” is a possessive; “you’re” is a contraction for “you are.”)

Nor does Spellcheck recognize many complicated scientific terms. Granted, a lot of terms have been added to its dictionary since its advent, but occasionally a scientific author will type a term only to have it flagged. It is a minor inconvenience, but it is irritating, nonetheless.

What do you think are the best things about Spellcheck? The worst things?