Originally posted by ingmansinc:
Originally posted by walkinghorse:
The recent thread on gun writers, magazine articles, etc. has me thinking about published writing works and errors, particularly spelling and grammatical errors that occurs.
I am rereading some well known works, but only have later published versions in paperback. Throughout some of these works misspelled words, or other grammar errors appear fairly regular. Most of the misspellings appear to be words missing a letter or two, or a comma is dropped. This seems to make the overall structure of writing fit the format of the book. In short the occasional word does not run outside the structure of the body of the printing, and each side of the writing forms a neat vertical line.
Does anyone know if this is forced by the book, magazine, article publisher for convenience, or is it a true misspelling, or other grammar error? With all of the computer tools, and other electronic formatting available, it would seem that this would have to be deliberate, or is it just another error?
Souldn't that be "errors that occur."?
Yes. Walkinghorse made a boo-boo of the sort that he criticized.
I caught that, but was hoping that someone else would mention it first.
But check your own post. It has a misspelled word and a period that doesn't belong, before the second quotation mark. See how easy it is to make errors?
Back to the question...automatic typesetting machines and editing space cause some errors. And we have a generation of printers who never learned to spell. "Justification" of the printed work causes some dropped letters. They want columns of print to be even on both sides.
But arrogant reporters who have to spell a word that they don't know is an issue, as with the jerk who wrote "Garland" for "Garand".
A couple of writers have messed up in books. C.J. Box once had his game warden hero, Joe Pickett, use a Remington M-870 that he didn't have with him! He had left it behind in an earlier chapter and never went back for it. Suzanne Arruda (
www.suzannearruda.com ) just had Jade del Cameron use her knife to cut free her boyfriend, who had been captured by the bad guy. BUT...Jade had left that knife in a leopard's shoulder earlier. After throwing the knife at the leopard! I doubt that she'd have been able to get it to stick into the leopard, which was soon killed by a semi-tame lion in an animal dealer's warehouse. Nonetheless, her book, "The Leopard's Prey" is a good read, as is all of the Jade del Cameron series. I like her character carrying a Winchester in 1920 Kenya, and carrying a knife in her boot. She was raised on a ranch in New Mexico, the daughter of an American and a Spanish noblewoman.
I've talked with Mr. Box, a very nice man who readily admitted that he had lost track of the shotgun, which is the same model that HE hunts with. And I know Mrs. Arruda, who is also very nice, and an excellent writer. Errors like that just happen occasionally, because a book is so long that it gets hard for the author to recall all that has happened. If the writer is not particularly weapons-oriented, it's easy to "lose" a gun or knife, I guess, then have it miraculously appear in a later chapter.
I'd like to stress that these are fine authors, and I find no errors in their work, other than those mentioned. They write good books, well worth seeking out. And both defy the current trend in publishing in having armed characters who are on the right side!
Hint: keep an eye out for Jade del Cameron to change her Winchester M-94 for a more effective model in, "Treasure of the Golden Cheetah", due out in hardcover in September. (Teddy and Kermit Roosevelt would have approved of her new rifle. But it's not in the caliber that you may think it is! I suggested a .275 Rigby, but the author likes the idea of an American girl using a Winchester.)
T-Star
