Free automated grammar correction

There are some places on the web where you don't want your writing to show up, such as The "Blog" of "Unnecessary Quotation Marks." But sometimes we all need help making sure our writing is flawless. What's a person to do? Help is at hand. Here is an article that lists some online sources for automated checking of your writing, including both spell checking and grammar correction. The article does mention that these tools are in addition to your own careful proofreading, and discusses some of the shortcomings of automated tools. For example, comma splices and dangling modifiers may not be identified. You should never assume a document that passes these tests will have no errors.

Did you know there is a word purgatory?

Apparently, the Oxford English Dictionary keeps a list of words submitted for inclusion in the dictionary but rejected. Some words spend time in this lexical limbo and eventually are included in the dictionary, and some do not. Here's a short list of some of the words that have so far not made it out, including earworm (a catchy tune that runs through your head) and wurfing (surfing the internet at work). The older words are stored on file cards, but the new ones are stored digitally. Any suggestions for naming this repository? I kind of like word purgatory myself.