Gone are the days when you needed to peruse dictionaries to make sure you spelled the word ‘chiaroscurist’ properly. You can find out how to spell this or that word in the blink of an eye by simply entering it into the Google search box and the omniscient engine will redirect you to a variety of helpful resources like online dictionaries, forums, and educational websites. Furthermore, the majority of word processing programs, social networking sites, and popular messengers feature built-in spell checkers that help users craft effective and grammatically impeccable posts and messages.

Needless to say, spell check tools are great and fun to use. Nevertheless, they often lull people into a false sense of security. Oftentimes, writers end up relying too heavily on their ‘digital proofreaders’ and failing to proofread and edit their documents. In today’s article, we’re going to share some useful tips on how to not only use spell checker software efficiently but also improve your own spelling skills wherewith these useful tools.  

Don’t Enable Your Spell Checker from the Get-Go

If you’re afraid that your poor literacy skills can affect your career goals, reputation, or just interpersonal relationships it’s about time you started working at improving your spelling.

Practice makes perfect. So, the fastest way to learn to write effectively and correctly is to do this over and over again. But if you don’t give up your spell checker for at least some time, chances are you won’t succeed at your spell improving undertaking.

So, next time you get down to your research paper or start putting together an attention grabbing post for your blog, take it time and put much thought into what you’re crafting. Let each and every word run through your mind. Try your best to recall their proper spelling and write them down. Once you’re finished with your writing, enable the spell check and see how successful you were at your writing quest. Hopefully, over time, you’ll manage to improve your grammar and writing skills without having to lean on specialized software.

Add More Words to the Custom Dictionary

Apart from the millions of words that constitute the dictionary of your default spell checker dictionary, there are lots of lexical units your spell checker might be unable to identify. Geographical names, borrowings, neologisms, and foreign names may prove to be too tough a nut for your spell checker to crack. So, make it your rule to add such ‘unfamiliar’ words to your dictionary every time your checker deems them incorrect. Note that the tool may automatically change the allegedly misspelled word to the one in its dictionary that most closely resembles it. So, be attentive and always read through the auto-corrected words not to end up with a wrong word in your writing.

Proofread Manually

It’s great to have a professional tool by your side wherewith you can quickly fix your grammar, spelling, and even punctuation mistakes. Spell checks are also indispensable when you’re hard-pressed for time and need everything to be done without a hitch. That being said, you should never forget that spell checkers cannot be considered a panacea. It doesn’t take a sophisticated grammar or spell checking tool to create a paper that both looks and reads great. With this in mind, you should try and read through each word you type. It’s also a good idea to go over your document or whatever piece of writing you were working on after you have completed it. Do trust your checker, but also make sure to verify. This, to our mind, represents the surest recipe for improving your spelling skills!