WhiteSmoke Survey: “85% of all writing contains at least one grammar error.”

Americans complain about bad grammar yet their writing is laced with errors

Wilmington, Delaware, May 2008. The majority of adults are unable to write letters, emails or presentations without making grammatical errors, according to a survey released today by WhiteSmoke Inc., developers of an advanced English language grammar checker and writing engine that is popular worldwide.

'Be', 'have', 'do', 'in’, ‘on’, and ‘at' caused the most problems, with 27% of writers forgetting to include these words when needed in simple sentences. Also missing were ‘a’, ‘an’ and ‘the’ in the 5,000 pages of text analyzed by WhiteSmoke.

Despite numerous errors, nearly one half of 1,000 survey participants, age 18 – 80, claimed good grammar and spelling were important to them when writing or receiving written material.

While 50% took time to check their writing for grammar errors before they sent it to their bosses, one in five said they paid less attention to grammar when writing to friends and family. Surprisingly, colleagues and customers get shortchanged on grammar – only 11% of the survey participants said grammar mattered when sending material to these individuals.

The text analysis and research by WhiteSmoke coincides with the launch of its latest release-- WhiteSmoke 2008 Extended Edition. The 5,000 writing samples were analyzed by the software leader’s team of linguists and 85% of all documents contained one or more errors.

After missing words – usually prepositions or articles - writers failed on punctuation with 24.3% of them forgetting to put a question mark, period or comma in the right place.

Some 7% of writers mixed up subtleties in their verb usage by using singular verbs instead of plurals. For instance, “The members of the team runs well”, which should read, “The members of the team run well.”

Other problem areas are spelling, using the wrong words, and repeating words.

Amit Greener, VP Sales and Marketing for WhiteSmoke said: ''The poor quality of writing today is troubling. However, it is encouraging to know that despite getting basic sentences wrong, the majority of survey participants regard quality writing as important. For instance, when they feel a document is critical for their career, they do proofread more carefully and use technology by companies such as WhiteSmoke to help them eliminate errors.”

Unlike many other grammar checkers and spell checkers included with word processing and email applications, WhiteSmoke 2008 Extended Edition spots missing words and faulty punctuation. The product also helps people improve their grammar by showing them why it is suggesting changes. The spell checker dynamically updates to keep up with the pace of new words being introduced in business and on the Internet. In addition, the new Biotech Version contains 130,000 up-to-date medical and scientific terms.

“WhiteSmoke is like having a second pair of eyes when checking grammar, punctuation, spelling, and content,'' adds Greener.

WhiteSmoke 2008 Extended Edition is available in May 2008 and offers several new functions that can improve English writing. Based on patented natural language processing technology, WhiteSmoke performs advanced and context-based English grammar, spelling, and punctuation checking, as well as text enrichment to enhance writing with synonyms, adverbs and adjectives.