Writing Mistakes
Written on Mar 28, 2026
When I started blogging in 2006, I had to rely on my education and what the English courses in high school taught me when it came to grammar. I made so many grammatical mistakes that it was embarrassing.
Spelling was never an issue. Most word processing applications had spell checkers built in, and if that wasn't enough, it was easy enough to look up difficult words online. The same was not true for grammar.
Eventually, web browser extensions became available to help me along. There were web services available, such as Grammarly, but I couldn't justify their monthly costs. After all, I wasn't a professional writer and I was living on a fixed retirement budget.
Perhaps those who wrote for online magazines wouldn't have an issue with the cost since those services would help them in their profession. Judging by the quality of writing I always saw, I'm sure they used something to assist them.
The Last Web Browser Extension
The most recent extension I employed in Firefox was originally available at no cost for personal use. Something happened, and the company that owned it did away with the free tier. It had to be something about being abused by people who should've been paying for it.
The free tier wasn't that good to begin with, but it helped me correct what should've been obvious mistakes. When they decided to start charging for it, I had to find something else.
Zoho Writer
When I found Zoho Writer, I couldn't believe it wouldn't cost me anything. It would only cost me something if I used the automation or the AI, neither of which I needed for writing on this blog.
When I first started this blog, I paid too much attention to some of the suggestions. Informal writing is one example. I stopped using contractions because it wasn't deemed professional. A couple of days ago, I realized I should've been using contractions all along. Personal blogs are supposed to be informal.
Passive sentences is another example. Sometimes, a passive sentence is the only way to write something that loses its meaning when not written passively.
Correcting My Mistakes
I spent hours correcting my articles. Words like "cannot" had to be changed to "can't", and phrases like "it is not" had to be changed to "it isn't". I made another mistake by blindly using the search and replace function of my text editor. Some instances shouldn't have been changed.
I spent more hours reading and correcting every article I've written, one by one. I'm sure I'll have to go through them again and correct word usage in certain instances. These aren't rewrites or updates; they're corrections.
I can continue using Zoho Writer to advise me of simple mistakes or better ways to explain something, but I can't let it dictate how I write articles on my personal blog.
Image by Pete Linforth from Pixabay