Bleeping Computer: Google Docs crashes on seeing “And. And. And. And. And.”. “A bug in Google Docs is causing it to crash when a series of words are typed into a document opened with the online word processor. Once crashed, you may not be able to easily re-access the document as doing so would trigger the crash again.”
TechCrunch: Grammarly SDK beta lets developers embed automated text editing in any web app. “Grammarly, the popular auto editing tool, announced the release of Grammarly for Developers today. The company is starting this effort with the Text Editor SDK (software development kit), which enables programmers to embed Grammarly text editing functionality into any web application.”
Neowin: Grammarly expands support for Google Docs, brings premium features and more. “Grammarly is expanding the features available for users of the Chrome extension on Google Docs, bringing some premium features to the search giant’s online service. The company launched the service in beta form for Google docs back in 2018. Now, the extension is getting new additions such as a dedicated sidebar for suggestions, and premium features that include feedback on ‘clarity, engagement, and delivery’, and more.”
EGM: Games Are Discovering an Expressive New Tool: Internet Grammar. “Last year, Gretchen McCulloch published her book Because Internet: Understanding How Language is Changing. ‘We write all the time now,’ she points out, ‘and most of what we’re writing is informal. [There is] a vast sea of unedited, unfiltered words that once might have only been spoken.’ Not only has this constant use of informal written language meant we need ways to inject tone into text, it’s allowed for it by opening up who’s writing and why. Grammar is no longer prescribed by books and formal articles, McCulloch argues. It’s created by all of us.”
Neowin: Google Docs gets an AI-based grammar checker with Early Adopter Program . “Google Docs has now received an AI-based grammar checker to help get rid of silly grammatical mistakes users make when writing textual content. This AI-based grammar checking functionality will work alongside the already existing spell check that Google Docs already has. The new feature uses machine learning algorithms to suggest grammatical corrections as you type. It is now available to those who apply for the company’s Early Adopter Program for G Suite.”
Phys.org: Punctuation in text messages helps replace cues found in face-to-face conversations. “Emoticons, irregular spellings and exclamation points in text messages aren’t sloppy or a sign that written language is going down the tubes—these ‘textisms’ help convey meaning and intent in the absence of spoken conversation, according to newly published research from Binghamton University, State University of New York.”
TheEdWire: 73% of Teachers Think Social Media and Texting is Bad for Grammar and Spelling. “According to a study released today by Dictionary.com, the leading online and mobile English-language resource, a vast majority (73%) of teachers think social media and texting are bad for grammar and spelling but half (50%) use it to better understand their students. Perhaps the online world is making both teachers and students apathetic to these skills because one-third (32%) of teachers say they see their students struggle with grammar, yet admit they care very little about it (15%) in comparison to other skills, like meaning and comprehension (64%).”
Now available: a database of English sentences written by non-English speakers. “After thousands of hours of work, MIT researchers have released the first major database of fully annotated English sentences written by non-native speakers. The researchers who led the project had already shown that the grammatical quirks of non-native speakers writing in English could be a source of linguistic insight. But they hope that their dataset could also lead to applications that would improve computers’ handling of spoken or written language of non-native English speakers.”
Larry Ferlazzo has a writeup on WordSift2, an apparent upgrade from the old WordSift. “Paste in a text, and you get all sorts of stuff in return — word clouds sorted in various categories, images of words to enhance understanding, sentences showing the words in context, word webs, and more!”
The AP is going to change its style guide: “Internet” and “Web” will no longer be capitalized. “Associated Press editors announced a new stylebook change Saturday ahead of a session at the annual American Copy Editors Society’s conference — the 2016 stylebook will lowercase the words ‘internet’ and ‘web.’” Wow, this is going to be one difficult habit to break.
For all your English majors: a new Web app highlights syntax like it’s code to make it easier to identify all the parts of speech. “You can copy a tranche of text into the box, hit tab, and the secrets of our peculiar language are illuminated before your very eyes.”
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