JUNE 2020 PCWorld 117Clicking the small ellipsis menu provides
additional options, such as ignoring a
deliberately misspelled word through the
entirety of the document.
At each step, Editor helpfully explains
why it is making each suggestion. While it
doesn’t expressly follow any particular
manual of style, Editor prefers short
sentences to improve readability, while
implicitly rewarding rich, diverse language. It
also assumes that you’re writing
formally, often recommending
eliminating informal contractions.
Finally, Editor is also politically
correct. Editor leads you away from
overly gendered language, or
“sensitive geopolitical references,”
such as referring to the Republic of
the Union of Myanmar as “Burma.” It
will also suggest that you double-
check the position of punctuation
inside or outside quotations,
knowing that this may vary between
the Queen’s English and American
conventions.
Keep in mind that Microsoft’s
Editor isn’t the definitive arbiter of
how you should write. As my editor
points out, language evolves.
Professional writers joyfully wade
into passionate attacks (and
defenses) of the Oxford comma. I
remain convinced that “Mbits/s”
more effectively conveys “megabits
per second” than “Mbps.” Running William
Faulkner’s “The Bear” through Editor would
probably crash Microsoft’s server. I found
it interesting, for example, that Editor’s
recommendation to shy away from
contractions contradicts Microsoft’s own
online style guide (go.pcworld.com/stgd).
No matter. Word’s Editor function is a
quick, handy reference to improve your
writing.You may find some suggestions handy, like this one to vary
your language.
You may want to disregard other suggestions for various
reasons, such as a technical word choice.