I’d Like to Have a Word with Word about Grammar

I wish Word would stop trying to correct my grammar. If I only wrote simple sentences with a minimum use of phrases (only prepositions and infinitives, perhaps), then, it might be right more often (maybe – I’m not sure). As it is, it’s incorrect at least 99% of the time because it doesn’t understand complex clauses, phrases, or punctuation. Of the other 1%, at least half of it is made up of sentences that are deliberately written somewhat incorrectly as part of artistic license (such as fragments, formatting, or dialect).

Yes, I realize that I can probably find a way to turn it off. What worries me, however, is that there may be people who rely on it – people who do not know grammar well enough to know if that wavy green line is right or wrong. What then? Even if they assume their grammar is wrong based on that line, how can they correct it without knowing why it’s wrong? What about all the errors that it does not catch? Will they begin to believe that those errors are correct grammar?

It’s a scary thought.