GrammarLint

Description

This is a Node.JS implementation of the grammar verification Bash scripts by Matt Might. Taking his work a bit further, this implementation installs as a global binary, allows for future expansion of modules, and outputs the found errors in various ways that best suit the user.

Checks

The linter checks for the following things:

• Lexical illusions - Repeated adjacent words such as "the the" even between lines.
• Overuse - Overuse of non-common words such as articles.
• Passive Voice - Use of passive rather than active voice.
• Spelling - Uses OS-native spellcheck functionality.
• Weasel Words - Use of lazy or "weasel" words such as very, fairly, many, etc.

Installation

Install the command line tool globally using npm's -g option:

# sudo npm install grammarlint -g

Usage

General Usage

# grammarlint /path/to/text

Options

• --irregulars Override the default list of verbs used when finding passive voice. It can be a path to a text file with each verb on a new line or a JSON array passed-in directly.
• --weasels Override the default list of weasels words. It can be a path to a text file with each word on a new line or a JSON array passed-in directly.
• --skipWords Specify words to skip during spellcheck.
• --commons Specify which words to treat as "common" during word overuse checking.
• --overuseThreshold Specify frequency of use to qualify as overused. (Defaults to 10)
• --skip Optionally skip some checks. Options are the names of each check. (i.e. "Passive Voice")
• --formatter Output the results using different formatters. Default is "table" but "csv" is also available.

To Do

• Build subject verb agreement module
• Build capitalization detection module
• Build Checkstyle output formatter
• Integrate https://github.com/maxogden/common-english-errors