Chat GPT proof reading experience - Alternative options?

[MafiaNoble]

I was wondering what everyone's experience was with proof reading and potentially doing that thru a AI or ChatGPT? I personally use grammarly premium to proofread since I don't change more then punctation (usually).

I've checked out ChatGPT and to my surprise the proof reader was free and if I asked for it to only do punctation and nothing else it did just that. The problem is that if I copy paste something in it it shows up as one connected blob. There's no proper spacing between it so you'd have to manually go over the entire chapter to add the spacing back at which point I might as well use grammarly.

Does anyone have a fix for this or maybe another way of doing this?

 

[LilRora]

Have you tried asking it to keep the paragraph spacing or something? It should be able to do this. I'm nowhere near an expert on this, but you should be able to set some constraints for it either in the chat itself (it remembers the conversation) or using more advanced tools I know exist but I don't remember how they're called (similar to the function where you input your information so it can tailor responses to you). There should be tutorials on that everywhere.

If you just want a grammar checker though, Grammarly is more than enough so long as you don't blindly follow its suggestions.

 

[Valmond]

My punctuation is fine, but it is not able to tackle itaclized text. This confuses it a bit, since the italics are meant to avoid that confusion.

What it does is put the text as normal text.

 

[MafiaNoble]

Have you tried asking it to keep the paragraph spacing or something? It should be able to do this. I'm nowhere near an expert on this, but you should be able to set some constraints for it either in the chat itself (it remembers the conversation) or using more advanced tools I know exist but I don't remember how they're called (similar to the function where you input your information so it can tailor responses to you). There should be tutorials on that everywhere.

If you just want a grammar checker though, Grammarly is more than enough so long as you don't blindly follow its suggestions.

Yeah, I tried asking it to keep it's spacing which didn't work.

Grammarly punctation and other grammar corrections aren't seperated though so I have to manually read the whole thing over, look all suggestions over. There isn't a punctation tab I can just go over, it'd have to check out all other things it wants to change as well. It often tries changing how the story is written (current past times) which is annoying because sometimes a character is in the current time but refers to a past time that grammarly then see's as incorrect.

Grammarly is also $12 a month for a year plan or $30 for a monthly which is starting to feel like a unnecessary expense now that I found out that the ChatGPT can do it for free just not exactly the way I want to which is frustrating. If ChatGPT did everything perfectly at the $20 grade I wouldn't mind paying that either. I just hate spending so much time re-reading on punctation, I don't mind proof reading if i'm changing the story and making it more enjoyable, changing words that can be better or contradict statements in earlier chapters. It feels like i'm improving and changing it, but punctation just feels like a chore.

 

[Corty]

I have used Grammarly for 3 years now, although I am on a subscription. It helped me a lot, and I wouldn't use anything else for writing.

I don't trust ChatGPT, although I understand those who use it because it is freely available. Sure.

But my experience with it is that GPT aggressively rewrites the text, and everything it changes has a samey, lifeless feeling to it. It kills the individual character's personality, especially in dialogue, and unifies them into cookie-cutter NPCs.
@MafiaNoble

Grammarly

Grammarly’s free writing app will make sure your messages, documents, and social media posts are clear, mistake-free, and impactful.

www.grammarly.com

You can use my referral for 1 month free Grammarly premium if you want to try that out.

Or anyone else. It still has 8 uses left, so... that's that.

 

[ArlindoFrancisco]

ProAidwritting is the best one for me but Grammarly is also good.
You should try ProAidWritting because ChatGPT doesn't put the spaces and there is no way to get it to spit out anything other than a blob of text.

For those that don't have the money to pay for the premium versions of those, you can just use the free version of Grammarly and after that use the free version of ProAidWritting. it will do a good job, and one will complement the other.

But if you have money just use ProAidWritting, I think is better but that is just me.

 

[JHarp]

It's pretty funny because GPT loves and is addicted to the point of overdosing on em-dashes. You can tell whenever someone posts something that GPT got its addiction over; most people barely know hyphens exist for using them, let alone semi-colons—or em-dashes that aren't on the keyboard by default.

I once read something (I don't fully agree with it) where semi-colons only belong in essays, but at least I use them somewhat commonly.
The amount of em-dashes is telling however.
(Edited to jokingly add an em-dash to get the grammar right)

 

[MarekSusicky]

It's pretty funny because GPT loves and is addicted to the point of overdosing on em-dashes. You can tell whenever someone posts something that GPT got its addiction over; most people barely know hyphens exist for using them, let alone semi-colons—or em-dashes that aren't on the keyboard by default.

I once read something (I don't fully agree with it) where semi-colons only belong in essays, but at least I use them somewhat commonly.
The amount of em-dashes is telling however.
(Edited to jokingly add an em-dash to get the grammar right)

I love em-dashes! They are—for what I want to say—the best!

 

[JHarp]

I love em-dashes! They are—for what I want to say—the best!

Someone can know how to use them. You just have to remember that they aren't even appropriately taught in university, while semi-colons are to a greater degree.
However, this website is where people who aren't English first language post novels in abundance. Semi-colons are taught in secondary school to a minor degree, more so in grammar schools.

However, anyone who used em-dashes was fed what to type or, for the most part, trained with degrees in some literary field in university.
That is why I take issue with the sudden influx of em-dashes.

 

[MarekSusicky]

Someone can know how to use them. You just have to remember that they aren't even appropriately taught in university, while semi-colons are to a greater degree.
However, this website is where people who aren't English first language post novels in abundance. Semi-colons are taught in secondary school to a minor degree, more so in grammar schools.

However, anyone who used em-dashes was fed what to type or, for the most part, trained with degrees in some literary field in university.
That is why I take issue with the sudden influx of em-dashes.

Well, yeah...

I will spam them like there is no tomorrow to convey a sudden thought that interrupts my character's mind train, or when someone cut them off mid-sentence.

 

[ElijahRyne]

I was wondering what everyone's experience was with proof reading and potentially doing that thru a AI or ChatGPT? I personally use grammarly premium to proofread since I don't change more then punctation (usually).

I've checked out ChatGPT and to my surprise the proof reader was free and if I asked for it to only do punctation and nothing else it did just that. The problem is that if I copy paste something in it it shows up as one connected blob. There's no proper spacing between it so you'd have to manually go over the entire chapter to add the spacing back at which point I might as well use grammarly.

Does anyone have a fix for this or maybe another way of doing this?

Use something like Grammarly or ProWritingAid to correct grammatical/spelling mistakes, but take their style suggestions with a 1,000 grains of salt if you have a middle school + understanding of English. It tends to make your writing seem like the average AI mediocrity, imo.

Yeah, I tried asking it to keep it's spacing which didn't work.

Grammarly punctation and other grammar corrections aren't seperated though so I have to manually read the whole thing over, look all suggestions over. There isn't a punctation tab I can just go over, it'd have to check out all other things it wants to change as well. It often tries changing how the story is written (current past times) which is annoying because sometimes a character is in the current time but refers to a past time that grammarly then see's as incorrect.

Grammarly is also $12 a month for a year plan or $30 for a monthly which is starting to feel like a unnecessary expense now that I found out that the ChatGPT can do it for free just not exactly the way I want to which is frustrating. If ChatGPT did everything perfectly at the $20 grade I wouldn't mind paying that either. I just hate spending so much time re-reading on punctation, I don't mind proof reading if i'm changing the story and making it more enjoyable, changing words that can be better or contradict statements in earlier chapters. It feels like i'm improving and changing it, but punctation just feels like a chore.

The free version of Grammarly is enough, and these grammar checkers should be the last line of editing. Yes they might not be as simple as plugging in your writing and getting a grammatically correct version out, but the fact you get to see the issues and choose which ones to change is better for your writing in the long term, at least imo.

 

[Tyranomaster]

I have used Grammarly for 3 years now, although I am on a subscription. It helped me a lot, and I wouldn't use anything else for writing.

I don't trust ChatGPT, although I understand those who use it because it is freely available. Sure.

But my experience with it is that GPT aggressively rewrites the text, and everything it changes has a samey, lifeless feeling to it. It kills the individual character's personality, especially in dialogue, and unifies them into cookie-cutter NPCs.
@MafiaNoble

Grammarly

Grammarly’s free writing app will make sure your messages, documents, and social media posts are clear, mistake-free, and impactful.

www.grammarly.com

You can use my referral for 1 month free Grammarly premium if you want to try that out.

Or anyone else. It still has 8 uses left, so... that's that.

Yeah, I'd say Grammarly is the way to go. I haven't used it at all yet in my current story. When I go to do the rewrite, it's the go-to right now. If something else overtakes it as "The best" by the end of the year, then I might use that instead, but right now, the best by far is Grammarly.

 

[Corty]

It's pretty funny because GPT loves and is addicted to the point of overdosing on em-dashes. You can tell whenever someone posts something that GPT got its addiction over; most people barely know hyphens exist for using them, let alone semi-colons—or em-dashes that aren't on the keyboard by default.

I once read something (I don't fully agree with it) where semi-colons only belong in essays, but at least I use them somewhat commonly.
The amount of em-dashes is telling however.
(Edited to jokingly add an em-dash to get the grammar right)

Grammarly also likes to suggest it in editing, and I picked up the habit of using them regularly by now. Am I an AI?

 

[Daydreamers]

However, this website is where people who aren't English first language post novels in abundance.

Em dash isn't exclusive to english

 

[JHarp]

Grammarly also likes to suggest it in editing, and I picked up the habit of using them regularly by now. Am I an AI?

Not necessarily. Although I can't claim to be sure in your case; it just makes for interesting statistics. I'm sure that now that they are being incorporated into more writing, they are going to end up more common overall.
People will just start becoming more used to them. That's how words become more common and fade out as they gain relevancy through use. It just happens that the movement seems to be spearheaded by those tools.

Em dash isn't exclusive to english

I agree; many symbols aren't exclusive to English. However, English grammar rules often influence their usage in a way unique to English writing. Advanced punctuation typically reflects an author's confidence in their writing style and knowledge of a subject. English as a dominant language has gained a lot of influence over many instances and uses of terms, regardless of how inaccurate English was when it adopted those terms.

Your comment also doesn't directly acknowledge that it remains advanced punctuation while present in other languages, even in languages where it is more actively present, such as Russian, French, and Spanish, which primarily focus on usage in dialogue. It does not stay consistent across every language, so many translations will prefer simpler punctuation. The same languages which still don't actively have the em-dash as a key on the keyboard, requiring more than foundational knowledge to utilize.

Ergo, to use them efficiently in English writing like many new writers and authors have started to, the probability is that AI-assisted grammar tools likely have some degree of influence, not to discredit that there are many smart people here who more than likely have enough experience to have learnt and implement these things on their own.

My comment wasn't about the impossibility, but the statistics of how many hundreds of novels are uploaded every week, many who don't have a trained editor who qualifies as one of those university-level literacy students, posting novels in large quantities overall which suddenly conform to advanced English punctuation standards and grammar.

It is a general indicator for something like AI tools, which are becoming more common.

Edit: It would help if I didn't try copy-pasting from Scrivener because I prefer to put my replies into my normal writing app first, then I wouldn't post duplicate paragraphs.

 

[Tyranomaster]

As a side note. Gpt works well as a research assistant (note I said assistant). It can help compile info for you and give you good jumping off points.

Grammarly works as a novice proofreader. It's not perfect and has problem with tone and style if you step out into weird places on purpose.

Both individually can act as strong assistants for writing. They're only assistants though. If you use them as more than that, people will know, it comes out weird.

 

[Clo]

I love em-dashes! They are—for what I want to say—the best!

My neurodivergent–autistic with high potential–brain just cannot get enough of em-dashes. I use them. A lot. (Not to confuse with the mythical alot, for those of us who remember hyperbole and a half)

There. The neurodivergent writing style, demonstrated! xD

 

[Corty]

As a side note. Gpt works well as a research assistant (note I said assistant). It can help compile info for you and give you good jumping off points.

Grammarly works as a novice proofreader. It's not perfect and has problem with tone and style if you step out into weird places on purpose.

Both individually can act as strong assistants for writing. They're only assistants though. If you use them as more than that, people will know, it comes out weird.

I hope GPT gets better at that. I tried asking it a few times to look up information for me in my draft, stuff I forgot if I mentioned it already or not. Or when. But it struggles a lot and comes back with wrong data if the document is too long, leaving me with manually searching for it after all.

 

[Hoshino]

I hope GPT gets better at that. I tried asking it a few times to look up information for me in my draft, stuff I forgot if I mentioned it already or not. Or when. But it struggles a lot and comes back with wrong data if the document is too long, leaving me with manually searching for it after all.

Umm. You need very specific prompts for that. If the document is too long that is a problem but you could always... hack into gpt and change that..

 

[Corty]

Umm. You need very specific prompts for that.

I am very Well aware of how to prompt an AI. The issue I am talking about is that it still comes back with wrongful information after scanning it and it presents it with full concidence. Including that it wrongfully points toward in which chapter it found the info. Maybe the very expensive models can handle it, the free and 20$ tier can’t.