Remember those old Virginia Slims commercials? “You’ve come a long way, baby!“ That same sentiment may be applied to editing software. It’s come a long way since those laughable spell checkers unable to distinguish between “from” and “form.”
Today’s editing software has much more robust capabilities only strengthened with the advent of artificial intelligence (AI). Programs such as Grammarly, Hemingway, ProWritingAid, PerfectIt!, and AutoCrit give writers a helping hand when it comes to spelling, punctuation, and grammar.
However, they’re not infallible. Neither are humans, for that matter.
Because editing software is programming, meaning it’s basically a complex series of instructions, it understands rules. It does not and cannot comprehend context, style guide idiosyncrasies, and more. Professional freelance proofreader Melanie Cotton explained the failure of of AI with an extensive—but not exhaustive—post on LinkedIn. AI misses many, many problems related to numbers, capitalization, typefaces (bold, italics, underlining), abbreviations, compound items, lists, formatting, layout, tone, terminology, structure, etc.
In addition to AI’s inadequate understanding of the myriad facets of good writing and style, a lot depends upon the writer’s own comprehension. As Cotton succinctly put it: “[Y]ou have to have enough knowledge to know whether Grammarly is right or talking nonsense.” If you don’t understand writing well enough to know whether the “corrections” suggested by AI actually improve what you wrote and are even correct, then you may very well be accepting the introduction of even greater errors into your work.
Although recognizing the inadequacy of editing software, I don’t discourage writers from using it. It helps many writers with basic grammatical and spelling issues that otherwise would slip through their own processes of editing and revision. Its work enables poor or mediocre writers improve upon the craft they’ve adopted as their own. It may even help tighten flabby or weak writing. Editing software is good. It’s just not as good as a human editor. I encourage you to use editing software, just approach it with caution and a healthy dose of critical judgment.
One consequence of relying solely on editing software is its style-numbing effect. If you’ve read AI-generated content, then you know how depressingly and uniformly banal it is. AI rigorously applied to human-written content has the same effect, deadening an author’s distinctive voice and turning an author’s distinctive style into uniform content consistent in its banality.
A human editor works to improve the quality of the content while preserving the author’s voice and style.
Perhaps in the future, AI might be able to truly replace human creativity and mental agility, but until then it’s best to engage the assistance of a skilled professional editor.
Every word counts.