| | | Spelling checkers |
Many text editors and word processors come with spelling checkers.
Most Unix systems have an interactive spelling
checker that you can call from the command prompt
in a terminal window via "ispell filename". The
program prompts you to replace unrecognized words, and even
offers a selection of close matches to suspect words. When
checking a file with extension .tex, the ispell
program is smart enough to skip over most LaTeX control
sequences. The editor emacs can call ispell
internally via "Meta+x ispell". To check the spelling of a
Maple worksheet using ispell, try exporting the
worksheet as Maple text.
However, using a spelling checker does not absolve you of the responsibility of proofreading what you write, as the following poem illustrates. (The poem circulated around the Internet a while back--author unknown.)
I have a spelling checker,
It came with my PC;
It plainly marks four my revue
Mistakes I cannot sea.
I've run this poem threw it,
I'm sure your please too no,
Its letter perfect in it's weigh,
My checker tolled me sew.
Exercise
Find and correct the 13 errors in the poem.
The Math 696 course
pages were last modified April 5, 2005. | | | Spelling checkers |