Program to help college students write papers

[T2urtle]

I'm looking for something more then MS office to help people where english isn't their first language.As it doesn't pick up some grammar issues and stuff that doesn't make sense like typing "buy" instead of "by". Office is a decent start but far from perfect.

Couple people at my friend's college has been using "Pearson writer" but it seems like a online app that has a yearly cost. $30-50 or something.

I don't mind paying but I rather have a real software like ms office. Because this is something that can help them for life and not just the few years of college.

Let me know if u guys have something or know of something.

 

[TheNiceGuy]

There's no such thing, and likely never will be. Spell checkers are great, but grammar is another matter. It's infinite and too complicated. Your friends need human proofreaders for grammar checking. Computers can't do it.
One option if native speakers aren't available is online proof reading / translation freelance websites. You can get a professional proofreading from a human.
Even better, most universities offer proofreading or language exchange partners through their ESL depts.

 

[gmaster456]

I've always used MS office (MS Works before that) and had someone proof read it. I'm pretty good with grammar but something always slips through and having another human read it who knows that they are doing is often the best solution.

 

[cabri]

I've always used MS office (MS Works before that) and had someone proof read it. I'm pretty good with grammar but something always slips through and having another human read it who knows that they are doing is often the best solution.

Always have someone else proof read; when the writer proofs it, many times they read what they expected to write, not what actually was written.

 

[gmaster456]

Always have someone else proof read; when the writer proofs it, many times they read what they expected to write, not what actually was written.

Exactly. That's why I always have someone proof read.

 

[MrColin]

If the issue is grammar, I also recommend having a native speaker proofread it instead, on paper, marking and explaining the problems. That will help them to learn more grammar than software that just tries to fix it like a spell checker (which can make corrections that may be incorrect).

 

[MtnMan]

MS Word can be set to check grammar in addition to spelling, and will question some grammatical/word usage that should be reviewed.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

That's what English 101 is for. It turned me into the studly wordsmith I am today.

 

[Imaginer]

Even better, most universities offer proofreading or language exchange partners through their ESL depts.

This. There is too many idiosyncrasies with any language that context will be lost translating to another context.

Human proofreading with experience and possibly intimate language experiences on both sides of the language being translated is still needed - not any app in the world can solve this.