Not uncommonly, Microsoft’s grammar-check program will underline a sentence I’ve typed to inform me that it’s gramatically incorrect, when I’m confident it is correct. I’ll post other examples later, as they arise, but here’s the first one of the day.
Microsoft tells me that’s wrong. Is it? Why?
I know I could write:
But that’s not the same meaning and not what I want to say. Moreover, MS tells me that’s incorrect too. Is it? Why?
But why should that be required? Weren’t my first two perfectly proper? I resent Microsoft inserting green underlines informing my readers that my English is incorrect when it isn’t. Unless it was incorrect. But it wasn’t, was it?
MS’s grammar checker sucks. Don’t alter your grammar to please it.
It’s ok for highlighting places where your grammar MIGHT be faulty, but if your grammar looks ok to you after rereading it, it’s best to ignore MS. I keep it turned off, because it’s just an irritant.
I’m using Word 2004 for Mac, and using your original sentence, “Company A wishes to resolve all disputes with Company B as quickly as possible,” I don’t get any errors at all.
By the way - and I’ll apologize now because I know this is slightly off-topic - I read today that Word 2007 accurately employs “contextual spell checking.”
Mossburg’s tech advice is usually solid, but given your experience I guess I’m a skeptic.
I think a comma would have worked aswell. Basically you need to take a breath hence the requirement for punctuation. I’m not an English Teacher so their should be plenty of people here who can give you the grammer rule that MS is employing.
The original sentence looks fantastic. Word is probably getting spooked by the “A.” The grammar checker probably thinks it’s supposed to be an indefinite article thingy.
Type “Rolf wishes to resolve all disputes with Fifi as quickly as possible” and see is the error goes away.
Or just paste any piece of half-decent literature into Word and watch the green underlines flood the screen like swamp gas.
Yeah MS Word does that alot. I’ve often found that inserting the odd comma or semi-colon seems to keep it happy. The problem with that is, it doesn’t keep me happy.
No, I don’t believe a comma is needed in the following sentence and I’m really puzzled why MS said it’s wrong (incidentally, my actual sentence didn’t have A and B; it had names of actual companies).
But, I’ve come to realize maybe this isn’t as problematic as I first thought. MS’s erroneous advice is slightly annoying, but it would be far worse if it erroneously informed the recipient that my grammar/spelling was wrong. I now realize, of course, it underlines only for the author and not for the recipient, so I guess I’ll just put up with it and not re-write my sentences to please MS.
I’ve never understood this theory. Do smokers and folks who are out of shape use more punctuation?
I could see that happening, but god help us if people start taking MS as an authority on grammar. On second thought, I have no doubt that some people would assume you made a mistake.
[quote]Company A wishes to resolve all disputes with Company B as quickly as possible.
Microsoft tells me that’s wrong. Is it? Why?
[/quote]
I think it should be
“Company A wishes to resolve all its disputes with Company B as quickly as possible”
-or-
“Company A wishes to resolve all of its disputes with Company B as quickly as possible”