My critique partners would tell me I used passive voice and though they explained it, I couldn’t quite grasp it. When I first starting writing fiction, I battled passive voice. Now let’s look at some errors Word found in my short story Mystery on Maple Hill. Please remember that Word does make mistakes! Aggravating, I know, but this tool is still very useful. Word will now begin to walk you through the errors in your manuscript. Go to your Review Tab and hit the Spelling and Grammar button. Select Proofing, and under “When correcting spelling and grammar in Word,” select “check grammar with spelling” and “show readability statistics.” Under Writing Style, select “Grammar and Style” from dropdown menu. Once you select Word Options, that window comes up.
If you use another version of Word and aren’t sure how to access these items, do a Google search on your version of Word along with the words “readability statistics.”įirst thing you need to do is assure that you have turned on readability statistics.Ĭlick on the Windows circle at the very top left hand corner of Word, and then select Word Options. I use Word 2007, so what I show you today is based on that. Today, I’m going to show you how to use MS Word’s readability statistics to help clean up those kinds of errors. Maybe for you that weakness is grammar, or spelling, or passive voice. We also know that we each have our specific weaknesses in writing. There are some additional scenarios under which Word won't compute readability statistics, but those probably don't apply to Karl's situation.As writers, we all know how important it is to make our story as strong as possible. You may need to check your styles to make sure that spelling and grammar checking is not turned off for the styles you want to check. Note, too, that the language settings apply to selected text (whatever is selected when you display the Language dialog box), but they can also apply to styles. If the Do Not Check Spelling or Grammar check box is selected, then a grammar check is never done, and the readability statistics never computed. Display the Review tab of the ribbon, click Language, then choose Set Proofing Language to display the Language dialog box. You'll also want to check to make sure that you have spelling and grammar checking turned on in the languages area. Word displays the Readability Statistics for the document while also displaying the Editor pane. You will then need to display the Review tab of the ribbon and click Check Document in the Proofing group. In order to display the Readability Statistics in later versions of Word, make sure the Show Readability Statistics check box is selected under the Proofing options in the Word Options dialog box. The Proofing options in the Word Options dialog box. If you are using Word 2019 or Word in Office 365, you will notice that the Check Grammar with Spelling option is no longer available under the Proofing options in the Word Options dialog box (see Step 2 above).
The reason for this is because readability statistics are calculated only when a grammar check is completed, and a grammar check is completed only when the checking is turned on as described here. In order for them to appear, you also need to make sure that the Check Grammar with Spelling option is selected. This is not so if you are using earlier versions of Word. The Proofing options in the Word Options dialog box.īased on the options in the dialog box, you might believe that only one of them controls the display of readability statistics: the Show Readability Statistics check box.
He has checked the appropriate box under the proofing options ("Show Readability Statistics").
As a writer, Karl needs the readability statistics as a guide for his work.