Aside from the obvious uses for research and finding writing-related sites, I often use Google to fine-tune my writing itself.
- Word usage. Not sure if you used a word correctly? Look it up on Google News and you’ll usually find some examples.
- Finding quotes or phrases that you forgot. Use the asterisk (*) as a wild card, and Google will fill in the blanks for you. Along with other search operators, this also has many other uses. For example, if I wanted to find parodies of the quote “let them eat cake”, a search for “let them eat *” -cake reveals humorous phrases like “let them eat Prozac” and “let them eat bullets”.
- Originality. If I come up with what I think is a unique joke or phrase, I sometimes look it up in Google just to double-check. While the phrase “penguin breaking a ukulele” doesn’t have any results (though maybe it will now), the idea of pairing penguins with ukuleles is not original; a search for penguin+ukulele shows that thousands of websites contain the two words, and searches for “penguin * ukulele”, “penguin * * ukulele”, “penguin * * * ukulele” and so on reveal several sites that use the two words near each other.
- Awkward phrasing. Even as a native English speaker, I sometimes phrase things strangely, especially if they involve idioms or phrasal verbs (like hand out, give in, wait on and put off). A quick search on Google shows how the expression is usually phrased.
So, how do you use Google (or any other search engine) for your writing?
I’ve seen various people mention using Google as a spellchecker — due to its handy “Did you mean: CorrectlySpelledWord” feature.
My main use for Google as a writing aid is for research. For example, when one of my ficiton characters went out for pizza in Chicago, I was able to find a restaurant online that seemed appropriate. When she went to a certain university, I was able to find a campus map online, so I could be very specific as an author in navigating her around.
I also use the highlight feature on my Google toolbar to look for plagiarism when I’m fact-checking certain pieces from other sources.
Kiri – Yup, I’ve used it as a spell checker too, though the built-in spell checker in most word processors and the one in Firefox work much more quickly.
lornadoone – I’ll have to remember that highlight feature for later! Sounds useful. Thanks!
I also use Google to find lists of definitions sometimes by searching for “define:word-to-be-defined-here”. Again, though, other methods work better.
Hei Liz
Google is a very useful site indeed!
Keep so well and swell. Rii