Do you use Google Maps or Waze to get everywhere? Have you ever noticed that relying on those apps actually makes your sense of direction worse? Without them, you probably wouldn't know how to navigate anywhere!

The same principle applies to spellcheckers. If you know your spellchecker will catch every mistake, you might never bother learning proper spellings.

You might be saying, "That's fine by me. What's the point of learning proper spellings if I always have access to them?" Well, there are two reasons.

One is time. Whenever you spellcheck a word, you're wasting time finding the error, right-clicking, and selecting the proper word. That might not sound like much, but it adds up over the long run. If you commit a little extra time upfront toward learning the spelling, you won't lose time to your spellchecker in the future.

One way to commit spelling to memory is to re-type typos. Sure, let your word processor point them out to you. But instead of selecting the correct word, try deleting it and writing it yourself. It only takes a handful of tries before you'll have a strong grasp of the word. Once you've got that, you won't waste time on spellchecking in the future.

What's the second reason you should commit spellings to memory? Because typos disrupt your flow. When writing, you probably enter a state in which you're totally focused on the words. You don't notice the birds outside your window or the hum of the fridge—you're just putting one word after another. Now imagine checking the screen and seeing a bunch of red underlines. You'll be tempted to go back through and correct them all, which will likely disrupt your flow. Think of it like getting slapped on the arm while shooting in basketball—except here you don't get a foul shot.

Our writing improvement software can catch any mistakes you make. Let us find them. Then you can retype them. Enjoy!

Next improve your writing tip: Improve Your Writing Tip #14: Strengthen your metaphors.