Computerised writing aids: do they really help?

At present, more and more software is being launched which is intended to assist authors in solving all kinds of writing problems. However, most studies into the effects of using these new writing aids show disappointing results, especially when grammar and style checkers are concerned. The main problem with these programs is that they lack the knowledge needed to analyse sentence and text structures in an appropriate way. It seems to be more promising to develop advisory databases that authors — when confronted with a writing problem - can easily access, cats is a prototype of such an advisory database. CATS definitely is not a panacea for writing problems, but as the results of a first, small-scale study indicate, software like cats could eventually grow
into a really useful tool for professional writers.