Grammarly, WhiteSmoke WhiteSmoke now has a demo, and the results do not inspire confidence.
Wednesday, November 26, 2014
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Michael Leddy“Orange Crate Art” is a song by Van Dyke Parks and the title of a 1995 album by Van Dyke Parks and Brian Wilson. “Orange Crate Art” is for me one of the great American songs: “Orange crate art was a place to start.”
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Nancy, October 19, 1950.
“Who are we as a country?”
Michael Leddy
Don’t look for premiums or
coupons, as the cost of
the thoughts blended in
ORANGE CRATE ART pro-
hibits the use of them.
Comments are welcome, appended to posts or by e-mail. I moderate comments to keep out spam, so please be patient.
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Words to live by
Life is to be lived, not controlled; and humanity is won by continuing to play in the face of certain defeat.
Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man
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Νέος ἐφ’ ἡμέρῃ ἥλιος. [The sun is new every day.]
Heraclitus
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Every day is a new deal.
Harvey Pekar, “Alice Quinn”
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Nos plus grandes craintes, comme nos plus grandes espérances, ne sont pas au-dessus de nos forces, et nous pouvons finir par dominer les unes et réaliser les autres. [Our worst fears, like our greatest hopes, are not outside our powers, and we can come in the end to triumph over the former and to achieve the latter.]
Marcel Proust, Finding Time Again
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Surely, in the light of history, it is more intelligent to hope rather than to fear, to try rather than not to try.
Eleanor Roosevelt, You Learn by Living
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I don’t really deeply feel that anyone needs an airtight reason for quoting from the works of writers he loves, but it’s always nice, I’ll grant you, if he has one.
J.D. Salinger, Seymour: An Introduction
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I’m not afraid to get it right
I turn around and I give it
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Sufjan Stevens, “Jacksonville”
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L’attention est la forme la plus rare et la plus pure de la générosité. [Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.]
Simone Weil, in a letter
Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man
*
Νέος ἐφ’ ἡμέρῃ ἥλιος. [The sun is new every day.]
Heraclitus
*
Every day is a new deal.
Harvey Pekar, “Alice Quinn”
*
Nos plus grandes craintes, comme nos plus grandes espérances, ne sont pas au-dessus de nos forces, et nous pouvons finir par dominer les unes et réaliser les autres. [Our worst fears, like our greatest hopes, are not outside our powers, and we can come in the end to triumph over the former and to achieve the latter.]
Marcel Proust, Finding Time Again
*
Surely, in the light of history, it is more intelligent to hope rather than to fear, to try rather than not to try.
Eleanor Roosevelt, You Learn by Living
*
I don’t really deeply feel that anyone needs an airtight reason for quoting from the works of writers he loves, but it’s always nice, I’ll grant you, if he has one.
J.D. Salinger, Seymour: An Introduction
*
I’m not afraid to get it right
I turn around and I give it
one more try
Sufjan Stevens, “Jacksonville”
*
L’attention est la forme la plus rare et la plus pure de la générosité. [Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.]
Simone Weil, in a letter
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Nancy, October 19, 1950.
comments: 11
You'd gotten a computer-generated score of "adequate, can benefit from revision." Might I translate for you in the manner of crude marketing? Simplicity, in of itself. No one will be told "perfect." Everyone will be told of the monthly fee, the yearly fee and the legal terms and conditions which allow you to send them money. Nothing more. What would Dickinson's hyphens earned? Or Chaucer's spellings? Or Cummings' variety of punctuation? What would a legal bill receive? Or the flummoxed editorials of today's newspapers? All would receive the coded message, send us money. Please note the Barnum aspect of things. Even a criticism of them sends folks looking to their site. Right writing can be write righting. What would a computer program do with that? Send money!
Yes, that’s what I was implying by noting the consistent score of 80. Either their writing is inadequate, which doesn’t say much for their algorithms, or their algorithms are inadequate, which doesn’t say much for their service, or their demo is rigged.
I also tried the sentence “WhiteSmoke is great.” That earned a 60. I guess short sentences are automatically defective.
An update comment. You suggest "short sentences are automatically defective." As a computer geek, the pretense of programmers linked to "researchers" is usually drivel. It is assured that "their demo is rigged" but additionally that their service is about hoodwinking the gullible into continuing to pay, then pay and pay. Give me Dickens or a thousand other great authors any day. Reading is in part learning to write by example, isn't it? After all Chomsky's notion of the Universal Grammar suggests that learning language begins in innate mental faculties hardwired in the brain. Alas nothing can be sold from that, so -- algorithms and rigged demos and "scores."
Another update, for having become curious.
"Whitesmoke virus has been annoying PC users all around the world. In reality, it is closely related to Whitesmoke translator, which is presented as a translation software that 'enables you to take any text from any text-based application, and automatically translate it into a destination language'. However, next to its capability to return high quality translations, it has also been reported to install trojan on victim's computer and cause annoying redirections to unwanted websites. That's not the only unwanted activity of this seemingly innocuous software - after installing Whitesmoke translator, you may also find Whitesmoke toolbar installed on your PC without any permission asked. As you can see, this program may initiate unwanted activity on your computer and we do not recommend leaving it on your computer."
http://www.2-spyware.com/remove-whitesmoke-virus.html
So, I typed in a direct quote from Dickens, which received a "score" of 60. Then a direct quote from Steinbeck with a "score" of 60. And then another with the same "score."
Perhaps an update warning against the site itself would be apt at this point?
A second update: Whitesmoke is registered in Delaware, but its creator is in Tel Aviv, according to the WhoIs look-up service. Somehow taking English grammar advice from a web site is silly enough, but taking it from another country is more so.
As to the algorithms, here is a summary:
Patents by Inventor Liran Brener
Method and Apparatus for Language Processing
Application number: 20110270603
Abstract: A method for language enhancement, including receiving text, identifying grammatical constructs within the text, and suggesting at least one alternate text portion for at least one original portion of the text, the alternate text portion being consistent with the grammatical constructs of the original portion and having substantially the same meaning as the original portion but conveying a different impression. Apparatus is also described and claimed.
Type: Application
Filed: February 21, 2011
Issued: November 3, 2011
Assignee: WHITESMOKE, INC.
Inventors: Joel Ovil, Liran Brener
SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR AUTOMATIC ENRICHMENT OF DOCUMENTS
Application number: 20060247914
Abstract: A system and method enable the enrichment of sentences according to a specified style. The enrichment is based on the analysis of documents having the specified style and the sentence is then revised accordingly.
Type: Application
Filed: December 1, 2005
Issued: November 2, 2006
Assignee: WHITESMOKE, INC.
Inventors: Liran Brener, Joel Ovil, Hilla Ovil, Liran Brener
Method and apparatus for language processing
Application number: 20040030540
Abstract: A method for language enhancement, including receiving text, identifying grammatical constructs within the text, and suggesting at least one alternate text portion for at least one original portion of the text, the alternate text portion being consistent with the grammatical constructs of the original portion and having substantially the same meaning as the original portion but conveying a different impression. Apparatus is also described and claimed.
Type: Application
Filed: July 3, 2003
Issued: February 12, 2004
Inventors: Joel Ovil, Liran Brener
So, one can guess from the patent summaries that these algorithms are not substantively anything other than routines meant to offer "alternatives" and therefore cannot be said to "score" any prose, especially that which is artistic, quixotic, humourous, poetic and the like.
Warning: Whitesmoke is not what it says it is.
Thanks for the background information, Anon. I wouldn’t judge by country of origin: Daniel Naber, the creator of Language Tool, is in Potsdam. But yes, neither Grammarly nor WhiteSmoke seems worth the investment.
My purpose was not to disparage Israel, where I have worked a number of times in my travels, or Israelis.
My purpose was to show that when one seeks language advice from a web site, one is getting advice from people about whom one knows next to nothing. Dear English professor, were I in your class I would expect a give-and-take towards the common goal of understanding about language, expression and style. Moreover I as a student could know of your education, status and experience. WhiteSmoke is of no such standing, nor could it be. Its algorithms are not about grammar, per se, but about making "suggesting at least one alternate text portion for at least one original portion of the text, the alternate text portion being consistent with the grammatical constructs of the original portion and having substantially the same meaning as the original portion but conveying a different impression." Somehow I think you offer far, far more to your students. The other bit of information is that free downloads of such "tools" often have viral infections, of which one should also be aware. Best wishes.
Here is an Economist re-review of Grammarly:
http://www.economist.com/blogs/johnson/2012/08/grammar-software
The Economist's reviewer concludes with "The best way to learn to write is from other humans...."
Anon., I didn’t think you were disparaging any country. I was only pointing out that a much better tool also comes from someone in a non-Anglo country. And I agree that none of these services or apps can replace constructive criticism from a thoughtful reader.
Thanks for the Economist review.
Anon., Blogger put your most recent comment in the Spam folder. When I labeled it “not spam,” it just disappeared.
I’ll give some idea of what the comment said (I could only glance): there are many reports that WhiteSmoke is a form of malware.
My looking online suggests that the nasty versions of WhiteSmoke may come from shady download sites. But again, as far as I’m concerned, neither Grammarly nor WhiteSmoke is a worthwhile investment, even in a legitimate, malware-free form.
Grammarly is headquartered/hosted in San Francisco but also administration is in the Ukraine. WhiteSmoke is headquartered in Delaware, while its originators are in Israel. Though "shady" download sites offer the free download mixed with malware, the programs are also available through such sites as cnet, softonic and softpedia. When one considers that the programs are free from the originator sites, but the angle is to get "log in" and fee-based work done, one wonders why these companies make their programs available in other software purveyors. I never download programs unless from the originator and know full well the supplier and purpose to which some program will be put. As these grammar checkers cannot replace a teacher, which reviews all tell, they become merely pricey adjuncts to students' work with real live teachers. My point in alerting you as regards algorithms and such is that most companies' "free" products are merely bootstraps to a student's wallet. We agree that they often fail, and that is the problem, merely exacerbated by malware issues.
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