Dangling participles get ready to be undangled! (A review of the Ginger Software spelling and grammar checker)

By Luke Hsieh, AT Advocate at the Community Access Center in Riverside


I first saw this software at the CSUN International Technology & Persons with Disabilities Conference in San Diego. I was so impressed by the demonstration that as soon as I got back to Riverside, I purchased a copy of my own and ran it on a 96 page document (the novel that I happen to be working on).

Let’s just say, it was a vast improvement over traditional grammar and spelling checkers and for $70.00, it is an affordable vast improvement. Any lover of this language will tell you that English is very analytical; it’s notorious for its many grammatical exceptions and prepositional oddities. This means that the vast improvement on traditional grammar checkers still requires human tweaking here and there. So don't expect Ginger to perform a miracle, the 96 page document still took a little less than three hours to correct.

Furthermore, its heavy dependence on the Internet server means it may not function properly without an Internet connection. Ginger Software will also be a hard sale when trying to convince an I.T department that may see it as making the system vulnerable. Other than that, I think the software has much potential.

Who knows? Maybe in the near future, Ginger will even correct my subject-verb agreement, dangling participles, and split infinitives. Since I’m not too paranoid about Internet security, I consider my $70.00 well spent.

Check it out by clicking here.

Have you tried Ginger Software yet? What did you think? Has anyone tried another type of software that is similar? Let us know in the comments section below…