Abstract
The aim of this paper is to investigate the efficiency of spell checkers for Romanian language.
In computing, a spell checker (or spell check) is an application program that flags words in a document that may not be spelled correctly. Spell checkers may be stand-alone, capable of operating on a block of text, or as part of a larger application, such as a word processor, email client, electronic dictionary, or search engine.
Some critics of technology and computers have attempted to link spell checkers to a trend of skill losses in writing, reading and speaking. They claim that the convenience of computers has led people to become lazy, often not proofreading written, doing nothing but a simple pass by a spell checker. On the other hand, supporters claim that these changes may actually be beneficial to society, by making writing and learning new languages more accessible to the general public. Also, they claim that the skills lost by the invention of automated spell checkers are being replaced by better skills, such as faster and more efficient research skills. Other supporters of technology point to the fact that these skills are not being lost to people who require and make use of them regularly, such as authors, critics and language professionals.
Bearing all that in mind, it is the intention of the author to prove if the use of these programs is an effective shortcut to a good text checking. Therefore a corpus of 30 sentences, 30 phrases and 20 texts in the Romanian language will be proofread using the spell checkers AutoCorrect and Archeus. A success rate per each category of mistakes detected will be calculated and the research results will be presented statistically. |