I read an NYT op-ed that I wanted to respond to with a letter to the editor. The NYT guidelines call for no more than 150 words in length, so I googled a word counter and got Grammarly’s. It worked fine, but then it flagged my letter as being plagiarized! This was news to me, given that I didn’t even look at any other source when composing it.
Clicking the plagiarism flag, it said I had to sign up for their Chrome extension to learn more. So I did, curious to see this source I had supposedly cribbed from. But then after adding that, it still dangled the info just out of reach, saying that feature was only for premium users, who pay $12 or something in that range. I wasn’t about to do this just to satisfy my curiosity, but it made me wonder: do they just tell everyone their text is plagiarized to get their curiosity going and sign up for a premium account? On the one hand that would be devilishly clever; but it also seems like a risky way to build your brand, starting out of the gate with something people know is not actually true.
Why don’t you write something else, an anodyne paragraph, and try again. If it flags that as plagiarized, well you have answered your question. I would do it, but I don’t want any more crap on my computer.
Here is the grammarly word counter. You don’t have to download anything. Just type your letter to the editor into the text box and click on “Your text might contain writing issues - Check now.”
I composed my insightful letter to the editor
It told me that I had one word choice issue and 2 passive voice misuses. But it said “Plagiarism was not detected.”
Okay, so your letter ain’t got no plagiarism, just insights.
But will somebody please tell me where the “word choice issue” is, and where are the two misuses of passive voice?
Me, I can see a minor issue of style: don’t start the 4th sentence with “So”.
I would combine the two sentences, using a comma. “These powers should not be abused, so Congress should pass a law…”
As for the passive voice, I don’t see any misuse anywhere.
Oh, and thanks for raising the important and insightful question: What to do with the empty building on Capitol Hill?
We need a thread for that…Maybe even a whole forum
Yeah, these computer programs for checking grammar are crap. Mike Royko fed the Gettysburg Address into one of those programs some years ago, and it came back with something like seventeen errors. That machine didn’t like the word ‘rather’ for one thing.
Someone should explain to these language twats, machine and human, that passive voice is NOT a grammatical error, but a stylistic choice. A written passage using nothing but active voice can tend to be quick and choppy. But maybe you want smoother, more serene prose. Passive voice, used deftly, can serve that purpose.
These kinds of machine pendants need to be taught a lesson, Office Space style.
“These powers should not be abused” uses the passive voice, but that doesn’t mean it’s a misuse. The best a machine could do would be to flag possible misuses.
I wonder how large a snippet of text it considers when testing for plagiarism?
Given the size of the web, and the fact that it’s growing everyday, I can see how a short enough phrase could accidentally duplicate something that already exists online.
The use of a famous quote might also trigger a plagiarism detector.
I tried putting your letter into the word counter one sentence at a time.
The plagiarism was detected in the second sentence:
I wonder why no one is talking about a universal entitlement of a health savings account (HSA) paired with a high deductible health plan (HDHP), which could be supplemented by employer insurance (but no longer tax deductible).
That’s really weird. I can now sympathize with those standup comics who think they are performing original material, but then someone accuses them of plagiarism.
And if someone is saying things so similar to that, I’d like to know who–because the sentiment there is true, that I thought it wasn’t “in the conversation” around health care.
I’m mildly impressed that the parsers can detect passive voice at all. It’s asking a lot to expect them to distinguish good and bad passive usages — humans have trouble with that!
Maybe that’s what others are similarly saying: that that thought should be but isn’t in the conversation!
We don’t live in a vacuum, and most of our knowledge and opinions about “big issues” are formed by reading and hearing other people’s thoughts on the matter. You could very well be subconsciously parroting something you read or heard someone say nearly verbatim, while firmly believing that it is an original turn of phrase.
