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Sometimes I have trouble picking the right words to use when I write an English phrase, i.e., I mix tenses, double negate some expressions and so on.

One thing that helps me write better English and improve my own knowledge is by learning from my own mistakes using software like StyleWriter, but since it is quite old and we are in the Web 2.0 era, I'd like to know if there is any online service / tool that I can use to achieve the same effect.

Thanks in advance!

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"I've" should be "I have" in this case. The contraction sounds awkward here. – Nighthawk Sep 10 '09 at 12:00
Maybe that's why he's asking for help :) – Isxek Sep 10 '09 at 13:23
@Nighthawk & Isxek: See? I had no idea of that concept... – Alix Axel Sep 15 '09 at 1:25
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3 Answers

See SpellCheckPlus:

"SpellCheckPlus" is a grammar checker that finds common spelling errors and grammatical mistakes in English. Simply type (or paste) your text into the window below and hit the "check text" button.

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I just use Google. Most times it’ll suggest the correct version, or the first few results will be to dictionary and language sites explaining correct usage; and even if it doesn’t, a cursory examination of the results will give me an idea of how to use the expression I’m looking for. If all else fails, and I’m trying to decide between a few versions of a sentence, I’ll Google each of them and see which one has more or better results.

The built-in dictionary in OS X has also been a huge help for me, too.

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StyleWriter does much more than a simple spell check, Google Wave spell checker seems close to what I want but AFAIK it hasn't been released to the public yet. – Alix Axel Sep 10 '09 at 2:03
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You can also try WhiteSmoke's online grammar checker.

"WhiteSmoke uses Natural Language Processing (NLP) to take your writing to a professional level. At the core of WhiteSmoke are the highly advanced grammar and text enrichment engines."

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