Benefits of Digital Tools: 

Technologically speaking, some advantages of syntax-based grammar checkers include that grammar checking is always complete if its grammar is complete. Meaning, any incorrect sentence will be detected, no matter how unknown the error actually is. Advantages of rule-based grammar checkers include it is easy to configure and can be managed individually. Furthermore, these types of grammar checkers can offer a detailed error message, which can even involve stating and explaining the grammar rule that is in error. Lastly, a benefit to rule-based grammar checkers are that they cover almost all feature of a language, making it very versatile and effective.

Additionally, benefits of specific digital tool programs, like Grammarly, include helping students improve certain aspects of their writing skills. Through the use of this digital tool, students can improve their writing skills and become better writers by using many of the functions programs like Grammarly have to offer. 

Here is an ad for Grammarly that highlights some of the key features the digital tool has to offer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLFiZfvL_L8

This ad showcases some of the many ways in which digital tools, like Grammarly, can help improve someone’s writing and make them a better writer. The ad does this by highlighting how Grammarly can improve your writing through pointing out shifts in tone, word choice, punctuation errors, misspelled words, plagiarism, citations, etc. 

In addition to tools like Grammarly, some other benefits are that grammar teachers have found success in implementing spell checkers into their course curriculum. Students were able to understand the usage of spell checkers as well as improve their grammar with this integrated approach. Additionally, spelling and grammar checkers can be time-saving programs that positively impact someones writing. Overall, grammar checkers can help writers eliminate all contextual, spelling, and grammatical errors in their writing. However, despite all the advantages, spelling and grammar checkers can also have many limitations that can affect a persons writing skills.

Limitations of Digital Tools:

There are many limitations to spell and grammar checkers such as the intended word might not appear on the list of suggestions, unable to detect the genre, as well as other typographical errors. Technologically, some disadvantages in terms of syntax-based grammar checkers are that it requires a complete grammar that covers every type of text needed to be checked. Meaning, the program may detect that there is an error, but it will not be able to suggest what exactly the error is if the error is unknown. Some disadvantages to rule-based grammar checkers are that it is developed manually unlike the statistic-based grammar checkers. Another disadvantage is that rule-based grammar checkers have to be developed incrementally. Meaning, you have to start with one rule and extend it to the system one by one, which can be less effective than other types of grammar checkers.

Some disadvantages to programs, like Grammarly, are that it’s only going to catch about 30% of your mistakes. Meaning that most of the time, it seems to catch the most trivial mistakes non-native English speakers make. Furthermore, because Grammarly is just a program and not a human checking your work, like an Editor, it can often give incorrect suggestions because it simply may not understand. For example, it may not recognize some slang words or certain literary tones or styles you may write in, therefore making incorrect suggestions.

Additionally, some limitations of spelling and grammar checkers are that parents have started to worry about the future of writing for their children as a result of spell checkers. In addition, schools have started to stray away from writing exams and deducting points for incorrect spelling. This unchecked use of spelling checkers can have serious unintended consequences on our writing (e.g. Wrong gene names in gnomic papers).

These limitations can make perfecting and using spelling and grammar checkers more difficult as well as sometimes unreliable.