The Trojan Horses of Writing: Grammarly, Spellcheck, Grammarcheck, Microsoft’s Spelling & Grammar

They are pervasive in the online classroom: Spellcheck, Grammarcheck, Grammarly, and Microsoft’s Spelling and Grammar. Their promise is to correct, suggest, and improve one’s writing. As the distance learning course is one that touts and encourages the students’ use of resources in the online classroom and offered by the school, these editing tools are like a beautiful gift found sparkling on the seashore, begging to be welcomed inside the writer’s world. Yet each has an inherent danger: They become Trojan horses: offering so much good at first glance; yet, often delivering the incorrect and incomprehensible. The more one knows the pitfalls of these editing tools—as well as plusses—the better one can assist students in their misuse and use.