Grammar check example

I thought it might be useful to show the power and the limitations of grammar checkers.

Let's take the following paragraph written by a non-native writer:

And anyway these kind of youth activities is good way how to understand how people are living in different countries. Understand the way how they are thinking and behaving. “I'm crazy about traveling!” Pandy says. Almost all China is conquered by Pandy. She have traveled in most parts of the China. She have even been in the Africa. But now she is going to take her camera and visit most brand new place for her – Europe. Czech Republic, Prague, small villages in France and Latvia is that what had attracted the attention of young Chinese girl.

If you run this through Microsoft Word's grammar checker and accept their changes, you get the following:

And anyway these kinds of youth activities are good way how to understand how people are living in different countries. Understand the way that they are thinking and behaving. “I'm crazy about traveling!” Pandy says. Pandy conquers almost all China. She has traveled in most parts of the China. She has even been in the Africa. But now she is going to take her camera and visit most brand new place for her – Europe. Czech Republic, Prague, small villages in France and Latvia is that what had attracted the attention of young Chinese girl.

Here's what the grammar checker changed:
• singular kind to plural kinds
• the way how they are thinking is changed to the way that they are thinking
• passive voice of Almost all China is conquered by Pandy replaced by active voice of Pandy conquers almost all China.
• Incorrect verb tense of She have traveled is replaced by she has traveled.
• Incorrect verb tense of She have even been is replaced by she has even been

Although I actually prefer the passive voice in the "conquered" sentence above, the other Microsoft Word edits are correct and will improve your writing. However, to convert this to English that is more grammatically correct and more idiomatic, I would rewrite it as follows:

These kinds of youth activities are a good way to understand how people are living in different countries, the way that they are thinking and behaving. “I'm crazy about traveling!” Pandy says. Almost all of China has been conquered by Pandy. She has even been in Africa. But now she is going to take her camera and visit brand new places in Europe: Prague in the Czech Republic and small villages in France and Latvia are what attracted the attention of this young Chinese girl.

Note the deletions as much as the substitutions. The original version is 94 words; mine is 85.

Finally, the open source program Language Tools only made the following three suggestions, which are basically just one suggestion:

• Use third-person verb with 'She': has, hasn, hast, hath or was.
  ... and behaving. “I'm crazy about traveling!” Pandy says. Almost all China is conquered by Pandy. She have traveled in most parts of the China. She have even been in the Africa. But now she is going to take...
  
• Use third-person verb with 'She': has, hasn, hast, hath or was.
  ...ndy says. Almost all China is conquered by Pandy. She have traveled in most parts of the China. She have even been in the Africa. But now she is going to take her camera and visit most brand new place for...
  
• The pronoun 'She' must be used with a third-person verb: has, hasn, hast, hath.
  ...ndy says. Almost all China is conquered by Pandy. She have traveled in most parts of the China. She have even been in the Africa. But now she is going to take her camera and visit most brand new place for...

Oh, well, not too useful, eh? See for yourself at: http://community.languagetool.org/