From Inc.:
Last week, as I was trying to finish a document in Microsoft Word 2017, a new feature caught my eye. It’s called Editor, and it is a little frightening. Here’s why.
I remember the good old days when Word would happily suggest passive voice fixes and offer to correct spelling. Long before that, Word stayed out of the way. Back when Bill Gates was in charge, Word was more like a blank page for my creative ideas.
Now, it has become much more aggressive.
When the app started telling me about weak words like “maybe” and “possibly” I was OK with that.
. . . .
I’ve realized, however, that Word is now using machine learning to look for much deeper problems. Troubling problems. Problems that have lurked in my writing for 16 years. Word is now analyzing my word choices, looking for contextualization problems, flagging words that are overused or too casual, hinting when a word is overly complex.
It’s trying to improve my writing, and I’m having some issues with that.
First off, don’t you dare try to use AI to fix my writing! I’m OK with AI helping me drive better in a Tesla, or shutting off the lights in my living room when I’m not home, or finding a better deal on travel when it sees how much time I spend scouring Expedia for good flights to Vegas. I can handle AI probing my email and weeding out the fluff, or even suggesting better web sites. Someday, I might have a discussion with Amazon Alexa about my health conditions, and I’m perfectly fine revealing all of those details.
But flagging me for Too Many Determiners? Calling me out for an Incorrect Auxiliary? You’ve gone too far and you know it. I was perfectly fine living in my cocoon of illusion, never knowing I had issues with Vague Adjectives or an Indefinite Article. I liked being indefinite! Now, I am carrying around all this excess baggage realizing I have some work to do. For example, I really should not have ended that sentence with the word do. (There I go again.) There are ways I can improve, and I’m not happy about that.
Link to the rest at Inc. and thanks to Dusk for the tip.
PG doesn’t think he exactly replicated this behavior. The OP refers to Microsoft Word 2017, but PG thinks the latest desktop version of Word is 2016. The latest Word 365 also shows it as being the 2016 version.
PG thinks he sumbled onto grammar central on Word 2016 under {File} {Options} {Proofing} then clicking the Settings button under the “When correcting spelling and grammer in Word” section (way to be intuitive, Microsoft).
After clicking the aforementioned Settings button, the following box popped up:
He’s not certain he found the same place that originated the behavior described in the OP or if it is another 15 levels down in the MS Word menu system.
PG welcomes comments that will illuminate his understanding.
Okay, now that really scares me. It’s bad enough when I have to disable those kind of functions for my work e-mail (we use Outlook at my job), but when Pesky Little Brother wants to correct my business writing to make it more gender neutral/inoffensive, that’s where I draw the line.
Fortunately for me, I still write on ye olden Word2003 (I do have ye olden Word2013 for my main computer), which allows me to write any way I see fit. I’ll continue to rely on the smarter set of the human race (non-editors but fellow writers with more experience than I have) to help point me in the right direction.
It is a genuine feature:
Editor assists you with the finishing touches by providing an advanced proofing and editing service. Leveraging machine learning and natural language processing—mixed with input from our own team of linguists—Editor makes suggestions to help you improve your writing. Initially, it will help you simplify and streamline written communications by flagging unclear phrases or complex words, such as recommending “most” in place of “the majority of.”
https://blogs.office.com/2016/07/26/the-evolution-of-office-apps-new-intelligent-services-such-as-researcher-and-editor-in-word-and-outlook-focused-inbox-as-well-as-continued-powerpoint-innovation-with-zoom/
It sounds like its an Office 365 add-on cloud feature rather than a Word built-in feature. And it definitely sounds like it’s targeted to corporate writers. It might even be necessary in some of those circles.
I recently bought Word 2016 for a new computer. I opened a file to see if it has an editing feature. On the far right side of the screen it does say “Editing” — but it’s not clickable. I have no clue how to activate it. Anybody know how?
Something tells me if the “passive voice” box is checked you will *not* get suggestions on how to make your text more erudite, gently funny, or legally precise. 😀
(Oh, come on. Someone had to say it!)
Nicely done.
Dan
I don’t mind Word’s suggestions, because it forces me to think about what it’s suggesting. It hates sentence fragments, so that rule gets dumped when it appears. Otherwise, I have to justify it in my head (most of the time, “you’re wrong, that rule doesn’t apply here” works).
“Long before that, Word stayed out of the way.”
I’ve used Word since like DOS3 and I’ve never seen Word, or MicroSoft either, for that matter, “stay out of the way.”
Scrivener, on the other hand…
YMMV, of course.
And some of Word’s suggestions leave you wondering just what language it thinks you’re writing in. (Like the wording of some of those spam emails where you could tell they had no idea how to string English(either type) words together.)
I have spelling/grammar check switched on for work (using Office 365), but I ignore most suggested changes because I’m writing to meet the expectations of a particular set of reviewers who have clear ideas about the proper way to phrase the reports.
My pleasure writing I do with other programs (typically Notepad or Scrivener) though I do sometimes put a draft into Word (Office 365) to spell check it.
Your comment FTW today, Paula.
I have more than sufficient bad habits of my own when writing. I don’t need Microsoft to add still more. I have an older version of Word (thank heaven!) and I ignore everything it suggests, because its suggestions are generally boneheaded.
It’ll be funny when Word starts doing sensitivity edits.
It does already. My Word 2007 flags “landlord” because it’s masculine.
A common attribute of people who write poorly is that they don’t recognize that they have done so, even if their noses are rubbed in it. A bit of humility is in order here – turn it on and see what it has to say.
The microsoft site seems to know nothing of Word 2017 and asking it about “Word Editor” points to a so-so app in the Windows store.
Of course, even if it refers to a new feature in Word the simplest solution is to turn it off. Word’s grammar features are aimed at corporate memo writers not fiction writers. Good for budget proposals but not narrative prose.
I thought that was common knowledge among word users.
Most odd, especially considering the source.
Agreed. 🙂
suggest the fellow turn it off. Each person’s voice is often different until ‘copy editors’ meaning they copy a flat, rote way of writing, get a hold of it.
Since being insulted by more than one copy editor who liked to cross out my regionalisms, subsequent contracts contained clauses that no one gets final say except the author.
Indie publishing is far less stressful because of things like that.
However, I suppose if one likes to write that way, all good luck to them. Everyone is different. You dont always realize until you get old, that everyone is alike with a decent heart, but very different in the execution of that heart
You can mess with my style when you pry it out of my cold dead fingers.
Or when I decide to change it myself.
It took me over twenty years to develop, and the last thing I want to do in the middle of a huge work is change.
Amen. Yet another reason to stay well away from Word when writing fiction. But for business people who no longer have secretaries, or who hail from a generation that was never taught to spell? I suspect this cookie-cutter approach probably makes business communication possible. 🙂
I turn off all the grammar suggestions from Word but now I want to turn them back on and see what they have to say about my writing style. Just for kicks and giggles.
Otherwise, I’ll let my excellent human editor tell me when my grammar needs fixing, thank you.
That said, I’ll research this weekend with my WIP and report back.
Yeah me too. I don’t need the robot sanitizing my style.