A.I.Kemp @alixcclay - Tumblr Blog

I think the thing that annoys me most about AI on a personal, day to day, level is what it has done to grammar checkers. If you've never done a lot of editing, or used to 5+ years ago but haven't really in the last couple years, I can't even begin to describe how fucking BAD this shit has gotten. And as an author it is EXHAUSTING.

I just want to catch spelling errors and accidental double spaces and repeated phrases and whenever I use the wrong too/to or affect/effect and shit. But no. They've shoved AI up the ass of every grammar checking software out there and now they all fucking suck and make the most random, obnoxious, nonsensical suggestions.

And yeah, I can ignore all the times it's trying to get me to cut out any semblance of my own voice, or shove things into the wrong tense, or make the most random suggestions on comma usage. But if it's getting all that WRONG, what is it just straight up missing that I SHOULD be correcting? What real spelling and grammar errors are still lurking in there?

scenerwiththegreenery

Okay, so I don't spend a ton of time using these features, but more than a lot of people, because I'm in school and so I have to write papers, emails, etc. I thought I was going crazy because the suggestions just.. do not make any fucking sense. Increasingly over the past few years (started back to college in 2023), Word and Outlook are both making terrible suggestions, and I don't get it because I've been using Word since the late '90s and it has never been as bad as it is now...

Did they add AI to Micro$oft's products? I already turn off Copilot, but is there anywhere else to turn off AI?

thatdisasterauthor

Disabling copilot will turn off the generative AI features, mostly, but the problem isn't coming directly from generative AI. It is coming from where these grammar checkers are pulling their data from, because they are essentially crowdsourcing their data now, rather than relying on real, determined rules.

You CAN make it somewhat better in Word at least by going to File>Options>Proofing>Writing Style>Settings, which will open up this big long list:

Unchecking everything from the "clarity" and "conciseness" sections will get rid of A LOT of the suggestions that try to really change your voice. It won't fix a lot of the stupid ass suggestions it makes for other stuff, but it at least gets rid of a bunch of the distracting junk.

However, the settings never seem to stick for me so I have to go back in and check this list pretty often, sometimes even in one editing session where I haven't closed and reopened the document at all.

birdofork

Yes, the spelling/grammar check has grown increasingly horrible, but Microsoft DID add AI a couple years ago and didn't tell its customers!

I have a shit computer and was wondering why Microsoft Word was basically unusable and it's because the AI takes up so much more processing power than normal, it was basically crashing my system.

BUT!

You can delete the AI without affecting the rest of the program.

Instructions under the cut cause they got long.

thatdisasterauthor

Thanks for the tip!

mortalityplays

hi, a lot of you need a perspective reset

the average human lifespan globally is 70+ years

taking the threshold of adulthood as 18, you are likely to spend at least 52 years as a fully grown adult

at the age of 30 you have lived less than one quarter of your adult life (12/52 years)

'middle age' is typically considered to be between 45-65

it is extremely common to switch careers, start new relationships, emigrate, go to college for the first or second time, or make other life-changing decisions in middle age

it's wild that I even have to spell it out, but older adults (60+) still have social lives and hobbies and interests.

you can still date when you get old. you can still fuck. you can still learn new skills, be fashionable, be competitive. you can still gossip, you can still travel, you can still read. you can still transition. you can still come out.

young doesn't mean peaked. you're inexperienced in your 20s! you're still learning and practicing! you're developing social skills and muscle memory that will last decades!

there are a million things to do in the world, and they don't vanish overnight because an imaginary number gets too big

alixcclay

I retire from my current career at 45 and fully plan to go to another country for my doctorate. I'm moving house, perhaps permanently, starting a new chapter and career in middle age.

mortalityplays

hi, a lot of you need a perspective reset

the average human lifespan globally is 70+ years

taking the threshold of adulthood as 18, you are likely to spend at least 52 years as a fully grown adult

at the age of 30 you have lived less than one quarter of your adult life (12/52 years)

'middle age' is typically considered to be between 45-65

it is extremely common to switch careers, start new relationships, emigrate, go to college for the first or second time, or make other life-changing decisions in middle age

it's wild that I even have to spell it out, but older adults (60+) still have social lives and hobbies and interests.

you can still date when you get old. you can still fuck. you can still learn new skills, be fashionable, be competitive. you can still gossip, you can still travel, you can still read. you can still transition. you can still come out.

young doesn't mean peaked. you're inexperienced in your 20s! you're still learning and practicing! you're developing social skills and muscle memory that will last decades!

there are a million things to do in the world, and they don't vanish overnight because an imaginary number gets too big

alixcclay

I retire from my current career at 45 and fully plan to go to another country for my doctorate. I'm moving house, perhaps permanently, starting a new chapter and career in middle age.

fox-croquis

WE WISH YOU A

AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR

writingmaz

Writing Tips

Punctuating Dialogue

✧

➸ “This is a sentence.”

➸ “This is a sentence with a dialogue tag at the end,” she said.

➸ “This,” he said, “is a sentence split by a dialogue tag.”

➸ “This is a sentence,” she said. “This is a new sentence. New sentences are capitalized.”

➸ “This is a sentence followed by an action.” He stood. “They are separate sentences because he did not speak by standing.”

➸ She said, “Use a comma to introduce dialogue. The quote is capitalized when the dialogue tag is at the beginning.”

➸ “Use a comma when a dialogue tag follows a quote,” he said.

“Unless there is a question mark?” she asked.

“Or an exclamation point!” he answered. “The dialogue tag still remains uncapitalized because it’s not truly the end of the sentence.”

➸ “Periods and commas should be inside closing quotations.”

➸ “Hey!” she shouted, “Sometimes exclamation points are inside quotations.”

However, if it’s not dialogue exclamation points can also be “outside”!

➸ “Does this apply to question marks too?” he asked.

If it’s not dialogue, can question marks be “outside”? (Yes, they can.)

➸ “This applies to dashes too. Inside quotations dashes typically express—“

“Interruption” — but there are situations dashes may be outside.

➸ “You’ll notice that exclamation marks, question marks, and dashes do not have a comma after them. Ellipses don’t have a comma after them either…” she said.

➸ “My teacher said, ‘Use single quotation marks when quoting within dialogue.’”

➸ “Use paragraph breaks to indicate a new speaker,” he said.

“The readers will know it’s someone else speaking.”

➸ “If it’s the same speaker but different paragraph, keep the closing quotation off.

“This shows it’s the same character continuing to speak.”

herstories

omg this is so helpful

writing-prompt-s

!!!!!!!

octoswan

I made these as a way to compile all the geographical vocabulary that I thought was useful and interesting for writers. Some descriptors share categories, and some are simplified, but for the most part everything is in its proper place. Not all the words are as useable as others, and some might take tricky wording to pull off, but I hope these prove useful to all you writers out there!

(save the images to zoom in on the pics)

firelightinferno

Oh, that’s very helpful indeed!

!!!

Curious

Cat attack

Wiggly boi

Stock associate got distracted

great-and-small

I hate that I’m always trying to find cool biology themed stuff to wear but all the “nature inspired” clothing companies just have like two crossed arrows or a minimalistic mountain on a sweatshirt. Fucking lame, that’s barely even nature-adjacent. Put the life cycle of a salamander on a jacket, put hyena skeleton patterns on leggings, put a damn field guide of birds of prey on a peacoat and THEN you can have my money. Do NOT give me a shirt with a leaf on it that says “stay wild” or some bullshit I would much prefer clothing that broadcasts to everyone around me how many teeth an adult Jaguar has or how some pitcher plants can catch and digest rats.