AbiWord beats OpenOffice to a Grammar Checker 350
msevior writes "The recently released AbiWord-2.4 (downloads for Linux, OSX and Windows here ) is the first Free Word Processor to offer an integrated Grammar Checker. We can can do this because we're a pure GPL'd application and so can easily collaborate with other Freely licensed applications like link-grammar, gtkmathview and itex2mml which provide AbiWord-2.4 with a superb Latex-based Math feature.
Sun's license requirements for OpenOffice.Org make it much more difficult for such collaborations to occur."
Sure (Score:5, Funny)
Pfft. (Score:3, Funny)
This just in (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Sure (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Good for you but no thanks (Score:1, Funny)
Warning: Sentence fragment.
Re:Usefulness? (Score:5, Funny)
"Windows is broken."
Re:Usefulness? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Usefulness? (Score:1, Funny)
Well, it would have been useful for instance to check the submission for glaring errors.
REduplicated? (Score:1, Funny)
Re:A Writer's Experiences (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Usefulness? (Score:2, Funny)
You've also ended a sentence with a preposition, which you're not supposed to do...
Re:LaTeX (Score:3, Funny)
If only they had some technology built into their word processor to help with this...
Re:Usefulness? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Usefulness? (Score:3, Funny)
Yeah... and there's god damn nothing wrong with murder except that it has a stigmatic notion in most civilised societies. *ahem* :-)
I prefer the active voice [bartleby.com] in writing for one simple and personal reason - too much passive voice gives me a headache and makes it difficult for me to concentrate. A sprinkling of passive voice is fine for variety, but a document written predominantly (or exclusively) in passive voice is a horrible thing to read.
It's interesting that you emphasise the "respectability" aspect of passive voice in German, as in my experience people (over-)use passive voice in English for exactly the same reason. They think it makes the writing seem more formal, more detached. More "respectable".
I find overuse of passive voice in English is a hint that the writer is insecure about their writing - especially in a supposedly "formal" document. So they overcompensate by going nuts with the passive voice. Or, as you describe with your dad below, they've just been taught to use passive voice for certain kinds of writing (with really weak justifications for that teaching - but hey, what employee is going to argue with their bosses' justifications?).
For most types of writing, one of the goals is to make it easy for the reader to understand - to omit needless words [bartleby.com]. For "process" documents or legal documents, however, the goal is exactly the opposite - the goal is to cause the reader maximum pain and to obscure useful information (while making sure that information is still technically present).
Given the above, your dad's experience in writing everything in passive voice is perfectly reasonable. ;-)
Re:Usefulness? (Score:3, Funny)