Main Area and Open Discussion > General Software Discussion
need duplicate word scanner
IainB:
A few years back, I was assigned to work on a huge documentation project that was using Word 2003 as the main documentation tool. I read a book called "Taking Word for Windows to the Edge" (or something like that), and learned lots of good stuff from it. One thing it taught me to do was to switch ON all spelling, grammar-checking and proofing functionality in the settings. This greatly assisted in automated checking of all written text - including thoroughly parsing the grammar and checking for repetitive use of words. For example, if you wrote something repetitive but properly punctuated such as (say) "Very, very good but the rest of it was very, very bad and very, very smelly." it would not object to any of it, but it would spot any duplicated "very" that was without the necessary punctuation to make it grammatically correct.
However, it was not smart enough to check for bad use of English - for example, by pointing out that repetitive use of a phrase such as "Very, very something" was potential redundancy.
It could also sometimes spot the use of jargon and would suggest alternative terms.
I am currently using Word 2013, and it still has all this functionality.
I did once briefly trial an old software package called Grammatik (per Wikipedia) that went some way beyond MS Word's limits:
Grammatik was the first grammar checking program developed for home computer systems. Aspen Software of Albuquerque, NM, released the earliest version of this diction and style checker for personal computers, in 1981. Grammatik was first available for a Radio Shack - TRS-80, and soon had versions for CP/M and the IBM PC. Reference Software of San Francisco, CA, acquired Grammatik in 1985. Development of Grammatik continued, and it became an actual grammar checker that could detect writing errors beyond simple style checking.
Subsequent versions were released for the DOS, Windows, Macintosh and Unix platforms. Grammatik was ultimately acquired by Corel and is integrated in the WordPerfect word processor.
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I don't know, because I haven't tried it, but SmartEdit looks like it goes some way towards doing the same kind of thing, using a different approach. It's clearly aimed at parsing/improving writing, anyway.
bit:
Like the hungry fish said, "No corpus is truly complete until you finny shit." ;D
bit:
I'll go back to my fav review method; text-to-speech playback.
Works like a dream.
dr_andus:
Another possibility: Hemingway
Hemingway highlights long, complex sentences and common errors; if you see a yellow highlight, shorten the sentence or split it. If you see a red highlight, your sentence is so dense and complicated that your readers will get lost trying to follow its meandering, splitting logic — try editing this sentence to remove the red.
Adverbs are helpfully shown in blue. Get rid of them and pick verbs with force instead.
You can utilize a shorter word in place of a purple one. Mouse over it for hints.
Phrases in green have been marked to show passive voice.
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dr_andus:
Have you looked at SmartEdit? There used to be a free version I think, but maybe the trial version will do the job, too.
-dr_andus (October 18, 2014, 05:12 PM)
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SmartEdit for Word - Word Processing Software - is 60% off for PC today.
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