I use spell checkers sometimes, then check suggestions that look misspelled. I"ve given up on algorithms doing anything remotely intelligent but if someone is writing in multiple languages, grammar and spelling aids can be very helpful with preventing nonsense or unintentional insults. I thought Grammarly"s name was a joke when the product first appeared, designed to attract those whose grammar is adverbally challenged. Beyond the odd and still prevalent hyphenated spelling suggestions, grammar checkers can completely change the meaning of sentences if writers don"t have at least a reasonable understanding of how to express intent. If intent is lost, style is irrelevant unless confusion or mystery are intended. Online, I see more ambiguity from missing words than spelling or grammar errors. "The expert skier recounted, I focused on nothing but skiing as fast as possible approaching avalanche." One assumes the skier was attempting to outrun an avalanche and did so, instead of the written run toward an avalanche. Who knows? Social media inspires people to livestream crazy things!
A new set of self-marked weekend writing challenges was sent by email to Premium subscribers.
New to Kwiziq? Take a look at Weekly Writing Challenges to find out more and give them a try.
A1 French Writing Challenge
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Topic: “Friends from around the world”
Grammar lessons included in A1 exercise
A2 French Writing Challenge
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Topic: “Problems at the hotel”
Grammar lessons included in A2 exercise
B1 French Writing Challenge
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Topic: “What we’ll do in Paris”
Grammar lessons included in B1 exercise
B2 French Writing Challenge
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Topic: “Free museums”
Grammar lessons included in B2 exercise
C1 French Writing Challenge
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Topic: “Drôme provençale, a little piece of heaven”
Grammar lessons included in C1 exercise
Hey there! What kinds of topics would you like to write about? Please give us some suggestions!
Author info
Aurélie is our resident French Expert. She has created most of the wonderful content you see on the site and is usually the person answering your tricky help questions. She comes from a small village near Chartres in Central France, country of cereal fields and not much else. She left (in a hurry) to study English at the world-famous Sorbonne in Paris, before leaving France in 2007 to experience the “London lifestyle” - and never looked back! She's worked as a professional French teacher, translator and linguist in the UK since. She loves to share her love of languages and is a self-professed cinema and literature geek!
Laura is a French expert and Kwiziq's Head of Quality Control. Online educator since '99, Laura is passionate about language, travel, and cooking. She's American by birth and a permanent ex-pat by choice - freelancing made it possible for her to travel extensively and live in several countries before settling permanently in Guadeloupe. Laura is the author of Lawless French, Lawless Spanish, and other websites and books on French, Spanish, Italian, English, and vegetarianism. She spends most of her spare time reading, playing with food, and enjoying water sports.
Comments: 2
I really enjoyed doing this writing challenge- although my score was awful! I am finding kwiziq very helpful in finding my rusty areas. I did GCE French a very long time ago and am attending a continuing Education course at my local university, but it will finish soon and kwiziq will help to fill the gap.
Merci bien!