Day 18 - Conversational Grammar / Spell Check
Pretty easy one today. Just practice some grammar and spell checking with your LLM. Then two days off!
Quick, Short Checks
First thing, when you’re writing, you can throw a quick question at your LLM:
Is it regardless or irregardless? [don’t need quotes if it’s obvious without them]
Is it "between you and I" or "between you and me"?
Should I write "a lot" or "alot"?
Is it “misspelled” or “mispelled”?
How do you spell “feb you airy”? [phonetic spelling]
Extra credit: it’s a fun game to ask about common errors in a language you’re learning. So, try a question like this:
Think of 10 common language errors in Spanish, and list them as a question in Spanish, something like, “Is it X or is it Y,” and provide the answer in Spanish.
You can change the language, of course, and even mix and match languages for the errors and the explanations! Or, leave out the language and use the results as a study guide for English. Ask again to get more examples.
Longer Checks
Okay, same thing, grammar check or spell check, but a paragraph or a whole piece. Make sure your paragraph / piece doesn’t have anything that shouldn’t be shared with a cloud service, then put one of the following lines at the top of the prompt, and paste in what you want to check after that. Choose the prompt that ends in the action you want.
Check this for grammar and spelling errors. Just report the errors.
Check this for grammar and spelling errors. Correct the errors, making them bold.
Check this for grammar and spelling errors. Correct the errors. Improve the language, but keep the same tone.
Poof! By the way, it’s still a good practice to carefully check everything an LLM does. So, carefully re-read the changes, and make sure the finished piece is what you intended.
By the way, what shouldn’t be shared with a cloud / web service?
Think of a cloud LLM sort of like cloud mail or a cloud word processor. Many things you can paste into them, but some things, like account numbers, passwords, private information belonging to other people, or anything covered by rules at work, should not be pasted into them.
Happy language checking!
~ Pete