Our teachers have been working with students on their expository writing lately and have been perplexed about the spelling checker in Google Docs. For some students, it works, for others, not so much. I did notice many of our students had never selected their language choice in the Drive Settings. I would encourage everyone to do that. To complete this task:
- Go to Drive and click on the Gear.
- Select Settings.
- Select Change Language Settings.
- Select English, United States.
- Go to the View Menu in Docs.
- Check Show Spelling Suggestions.
- Spelling
- Grammar
- Phrasing
- Eloquence
When you click on the See Suggestions button (that's when you create your account), it takes you through all of their suggestions. You have the choice to make the changes or not. When I suggested the teacher check it out, a couple of her students said they were already using it and really liked it. So there you go...from the mouths of students. It must be good!
Additionally, a new feature in Google Docs is the Explore button found in the bottom right corner of the doc. It instantly makes suggestions based on the content of your writing. This tool replaces the Research tool and does many of the same things except create citations. For that, using a Chrome extension like Cite This For Me is a great option.
