Spellcheckers are not a way around proofreading

A pet peeve of mine is people relying on spellcheckers to ensure their written material is accurate and error free. Although useful for picking up on the odd typo, spellcheckers will miss many, many mistakes.

This poet hits the nail on the head:

Eye halve a spelling chequer by Sauce Unknown
I have a spelling checker.
It came with my pea sea.
It plane lee marks four my revue
Miss steaks aye can knot sea.
Eye ran this poem threw it,
Your sure reel glad two no.
Its vary polished in it's weigh.
My checker tolled me sew.
A checker is a bless sing,
It freeze yew lodes of thyme.
It helps me right awl stiles two reed,
And aides me when I rime.
Each frays come posed up on my screen
Eye trussed too bee a joule.
The checker pours o'er every word
To cheque sum spelling rule.
Bee fore a veiling checker's
Hourspelling mite decline,
And if we're lacks oar have a laps,
We wood bee maid too wine.
Butt now bee cause my spelling
Is checked with such grate flair,
Their are no fault's with in my cite,
Of nun eye am a ware.
Now spelling does knot phase me,
It does knot bring a tier.
My pay purrs awl due glad den
With wrapped word's fare as hear.
To rite with care is quite a feet
Of witch won should be proud,
And wee mussed dew the best wee can,
Sew flaw's are knot aloud.
Sow ewe can sea why aye dew prays,
Such soft wear four pea seas,
And why eye brake in two averse
Buy righting too pleas.

My article Spellchecker: Friend or Foe has more detail on the dangerous assumption that these tools get it ‘perfectly write’.

Nothing replaces careful, thorough proofreading, so for more tips on how to do this, check out my article Ten Top Tips for Proofreading.