Grammar? Check: A Look at Grammar-Checking Software in the Context of Tutoring

Alumni Boardroom

Today, it’s rare to find software that involves typing that doesn’t at least contain a spell-checker: everything from text messaging on smartphones, to email clients, to Microsoft Word. Although the creation of grammar-checking software is by no means a recent innovation, there has been an explosion of new commercial software in the last several years. Now, there are plenty of products on the market, like Grammarly, which has advertised itself specifically to college students. However, how accurate are these programs? Beyond that, how do we, as tutors, advise our tutees on using grammar and spell-checking software? Grammar checkers are practically ingrained into our digital lives, and we need to step back and assess the impact that they have on student writing. Within this presentation, I will open the discussion on grammar and spell-checking software and its presence in a tutoring context. Through a survey of the student population at my university (Ohio Wesleyan University), I will look at how students may encounter, and interact with, grammar-checking software in the college classroom. I will examine grammar-checking software from a pedagogical stance as well, through research and a survey of professors of introductory college composition classes to see if and how they teach grammar, and how they treat grammar-checking software in their course. To wrap-up, we will discuss the challenges this topic presents and consider potential solutions.