Spell-Check Can Make Writing Worse 

　　How might you drag a good writer's work down to the level of a lesser scribe? Try the spell-check button. A study at the University of Pittsburgh indicates spell-check software may level the playing field between people with differing levels of language skills, hampering the work of writers and editors who place too much trust in the software. In the study, 33 undergraduate students were asked to proofread a one-page business letter half of them using Microsoft Word with its squiggly red and green lines underlining potential errors. The other half did it the old-fashioned way, using only their heads. Without grammar or spelling software, students with higher SAT* verbal scores made, on average, five errors, compared with 12.3 errors for students with lower scores. Using the software, students with higher verbal scores reading the same page made, on average, 16 errors, compared with 17 errors for students with lower scores. Dennis Galletta, a professor of information systems at the Katz Business School, said spell-checking software is so sophisticated that some have come to trust it too thoroughly. "It's not a software problem, it's a behavior problem," he said. Microsoft technical specialist Tim Pash said grammar and spelling technology is meant to help writers and editors, not solve all their problems. The study found the software helped students find and correct errors in the letter, but in some cases they also changed phrases or sentences flagged by the software as grammatically suspicious, even though they were correct. 


　　*SAT：Scholastic Assessment Test的简称，即“学习水平评估考试”，亦作Scholastic Aptitude Test。由美国大学委员会(The College Board)委托“教育考试服务机构”(Educational Testing Service)主持进行。美国没有统一的大学入学考试，各大学通常以SAT成绩作为录取标准。普通的SAT包括英文(verbal)和数学(math)两部分。


　　怎样可以将杰出作家的作品降低到劣等作者的水平？点一下“拼写检查”键吧。匹兹堡大学所作的一项研究表明拼写检查软件会拉近不同的人在文字技巧上的差距，妨碍那些对其过分信任的作者和编辑的工作。研究者们让33名大学生校对一份长1页的商业信函，其中半数学生使用微软文字处理软件，该软件会在可能有误的文字下面划出红色或绿色的波浪线；另一半则使用传统的校对方式，也就是靠自己的头脑来判断正误。在不使用语法及拼写软件的情况下，那些SAT英文成绩较好的学生平均出5个错，而成绩较差的学生平均出12.3个错。用了软件之后，英文成绩较好的学生校读同一篇东西平均要出16个错，而成绩较差的学生平均出17个错。凯茨商学院的信息系统教授邓尼斯-加莱塔说，拼写检查软件的先进性使一些人对它达到了迷信的程度。“这不是软件问题，而是(人的)行为问题。”微软的技术专家蒂姆-帕什说，语法及拼写检查技术能为作者和编辑提供帮助，但并非万应金丹。研究发现，拼写检查软件能帮助学生发现并改正信函中的错误，但学生们有时也会被其误导去改动那些被它标示为语法有问题的正确语句。


　　Remarks：的确是人的问题。其实我自己的得意文字下面就经常划着红红绿绿的波浪线，只是我当它不存在而已。人在多数情况下还是比机器聪明的，不是吗？

来源：《英语学习》