Spelling & Grammatical Errors - Published Works, Books, Magazines, Etc.

[Roose Hurro]

Originally posted by rocketdog:
Guessing just errors.

I read a lot and find gun errors annoying. Recent goofs run across include the Marines using Garland rifles in Korea, a detective using a Takarov pistol, someone leaving a Glock with the safety off, someone loading a Beretta 92 14 shot magazine, someone using a Browning HP with 14 shot magazine, a character in one chapter using a shotgun which somehow turns into a 98k two chapters later etc.

I had one that was worse: A character's gelding turned into a mare within two paragraphs (or was it a mare into a gelding?)....

Actually, the worst error I ever encountered in a book was this hardcover edition in which one chapter ended in another chapter. You know, reading along, suddenly BANG! the scene shifts, and the rest of the chapter is the ending of a totally different chapter. Ended up buying another copy of that book in paperback, and found nearly an entire chapter had gone missing in the hardcover.


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[Onomea]

A very fun blast from the past! Ten years. (Usually these zombie threads pop up and I’ll be reading through and come across a remarkably perspicacious post ... only to realize it my post from years before that I have totally forgotten.)

 

[Golddollar]

In the olden days when I was a legal secretary, we "proofed" property descriptions by reading them backwards with someone else. When you read forwards, your brain naturally fills in the gaps.

Boy does that bring back memories! I can remember many times how the managing partner in my office and I would work together on legal descriptions, with one of us reading aloud the printed legal description of a property with the other one following along on the survey. It was amazing how many mistakes we caught. Errors going into the Land Records have a tendency to last a very long time.

 

[rwsmith]

One thing that definitely extinct......

...proofreading.

 

[Bill 76]

I read quite a lot and sometimes I see errors but for I to critique someone else's spelling or grammar is a path I will not walk

 

[5Wire]

Sir, no editor or publisher would introduce spelling or grammatical errors on purpose, and neither QuarkXpress nor Adobe InDesign (common page layout programs) will introduce such errors when justifying columns. Microsoft Word will sometimes introduce errors via auto-correction, but the editors and proofers are supposed to catch those. Old-school typesetting can, too, but I don't know how much of that is still done today. The magazine I work for went to fully digital printing years ago, as did many others.

In short, the errors you see are just that--errors. Frankly, if you're reading some publication and *not* finding errors, you're not watching closely enough.

Hope this helps, and Semper Fi.

Ron H.

Absolutely correct, Ron.

Most errors are copy editing and proofreading. Never ever proofread your own stuff, the same mistakes you missed when preparing copy you'll miss when proofing it. Publishers should employ at least one competent proofreader. It helps to be able to afford these things.

Some mechanical errors creep in as "overset" when making up pages—especially multi-column pages—using dedicated page makeup software. Pre-output check utilities are helpful.

 

[Absalom]

Simple typos or common misspellings are not much fun to point out.

It gets interesting if the incorrect spelling either creates something unintentionally funny, or reveals a writer’s lack of preparation or ignorance. These generally are not grammatically wrong and might not be caught by a proofreader.

I’m pointing this out because just the other day, in a book about WW II, I came across a reference to the 1942 St. Nazaire Raid in which the British destroyer involved was repeatedly mentioned as “HMS Cambletown”. Now that is indeed how you pronounce it. However, it is spelled “Campbeltown”, thus revealing the author as a superficial phonetic speller who apparently didn’t bother to actually read up on it, but heard about it somehow.

 

[TX-Dennis]

Two well regarded authors that I read regularly have had safeties on their Glocks. I have yet to read a book without a spelling error or two. Grammatical errors are common. I make them too. No one is perfect int hat regard.

I once bought an ebook on amazon that had the most atrocious grammar and spelling I've ever seen. It was written and self published by a fellow with three Master's degrees (or so he claimed). Evidently none of them were in English. I found it to be literally painful to read, and I had to stop trying to read it a couple of chapters in.

 

[Alk8944]

I suggested a .275 Rigby, but the author likes the idea of an American girl using a Winchester.)

T-Star

Overall an excellent response to OPs question. I would like to point out that having a Winchester, Model 25 or Model 70, in .275 Rigby (7x57 Mauser), would not have been inappropriate, but would probably require a parenthetical explanation for many people to understand.

 

[Golddollar]

As an occasional writer, I find myself making these sorts of errors for a reason that sounds odd. I write what I am thinking, then when I go back over a paragraph I find my brain feeding back what I MEANT to write not what I DID write. This is why it is a good idea to proof read after some time, maybe a day or two, has passed so you are less likely to gloss over the errors you made.

At my last job I seem to remember an intention to create a "Paperless Office." As one who did not grow up with a computer in my crib, I found that I could not trust myself to proof read from a computer screen. And I always found it to be a good idea to let a writing "sit and cool" for at least a couple hours before trying to proof read, not only for errors but for content too. I had a professor whose lesson was always "Draftsmanship" and 35 years later I could still hear his words ringing in my ears.

 

[rockquarry]

If it's good material worth reading, I can easily ignore the occasional error that becomes a daunting stumbling block for the obsessive.

 

[Rustyt1953]

If it's good material worth reading, I can easily ignore the occasional error that becomes a daunting stumbling block for the obsessive.

Exactly!!

I know what folks are saying no matter what the delivery is.

For example:

"cnduo't bvleiee taht I culod aulaclty uesdtannrd waht I was rdnaieg. Unisg the icndeblire pweor of the hmuan mnid, aocdcrnig to rseecrah at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mttaer in waht oderr the lterets in a wrod are, the olny irpoamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rhgit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whoutit a pboerlm. Tihs is bucseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey ltteer by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Aaznmig, huh? Yaeh and I awlyas tghhuot slelinpg was ipmorantt! See if yuor fdreins can raed tihs too."

Pro tip: "Preview Post" is a remarkable tool.

 

[Absalom]

If it's good material worth reading, I can easily ignore the occasional error that becomes a daunting stumbling block for the obsessive.

Exactly!!

I know what folks are saying no matter what the delivery is.

....

The line between maintaining certain standards and OCD is fluid in most aspects of life.

You can make yourself perfectly understood while misspelling many words, just like you can survive quite well without taking showers, but both will likely have a negative impact on your interactions with other people and your reputation

 

[292]

I write weekly newspaper column on outdoorsy stuff. Every now and then I’ll make mistake that gets by my proof reading and the editors. Then, when I read the actual paper the mistake sticks out like a sore thumb. Stuff happens.

 

[rockquarry]

I write weekly newspaper column on outdoorsy stuff. Every now and then I’ll make mistake that gets by my proof reading and the editors. Then, when I read the actual paper the mistake sticks out like a sore thumb. Stuff happens.

I've seen the same a number of times and always regret it; a natural reaction to a mistake. For me, the regret is momentary and unimportant if I've done an otherwise good job.

 

[Doug627]

One time, my grandmother was corrected by one of my uncles. Her response was epic. She asked him if he knew what she meant? He said he did. She told him that if he understood her he should just shut up. That was the end of corrections. As to this forum, we have many people of different education levels. Education is not the same as wisdom and intelligence. Many wise and intelligent people have not had the privilege of an advanced education. That does not equate to being less intelligent than those better educated. I first learned this while sitting on the front porch of my grandmother's house in West Virginia and listening to all the different people stopping by to visit. I picked up more wisdom listening to those people than I did in most of my classes. They conveyed the wisdom through broken English but I understood it. This also was proven to me when speaking to people while looking for witnesses in cases as an attorney. The lesser educated people, or those with poor grammar, were ignored by others but I spent time with them hearing their stories and observations. They frequently were witnesses that turned the case to my favor. Rather than spend time on how something is conveyed, why not just listen to what is being said? You may be surprised at the wisdom.

 

[crazyphil]

Let he (or she) who has never committed a spelling or grammatical error
cast the first stone.

 

[Golddollar]

I've seen the same a number of times and always regret it; a natural reaction to a mistake. For me, the regret is momentary and unimportant if I've done an otherwise good job.

That's happened to me too with my minutes for the town planning commission.

 

[Texas Star]

Overall an excellent response to OPs Moquestion. I would like to point out that having a Winchester Model 25 or Model 70, in .275 Rigby (7x57 Mauser), would not have been inappropriate, but would probably require a parenthetical explanation for many people to understand.

First, I think you mean a Model 54 or Model 70, and at least the latter came in 7X57mm Mauser, same round as the .275 Rigby, Rigby's patented bullets being the only difference. I think Model 54 was also made in 7mm; will check..

The Model 25 Winchester is rather obscure, but I think it was a solid frame (not take-down) version of the Model 12 pump shotgun. Where did you get that model in your head for a 7mm rifle?!

Next, her books are set in Kenya in the 1920's, so a Model 70 was out of the question. It wasn't made until 1937!

Mrs. Arruda credits me as a firearms consultant in her later books, which I deeply appreciate. But she was pretty stubborn about wanting Colt and Winchester arms, those being probably the only iconic American brand names she knew. Like most academics, she is woefully ignorant of firearms.

Because Rigby, H&H, Westley Richards, Mauser, Mannlicher-Schoenauer, etc. were widely used in her setting, I'd have preferred one of them, as they were technologically more advanced than US rifles of the day. A sporting version of the Lee-Enfield .303 would also have been a very likely choice for her characters. In fact, she did have a British lord use a Mannlicher. A Springfield sporter would fit.

I wrote 33 stories on FanFiction.net Most were about a TV show, "Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World." One was a "Criminal Minds" fic, but made more authentic than the TV show, while remaining in character for the BAU and a plausible case. In these, I was very careful to use appropriate firearms and other items.

For instance, the characters drink tea from British firms in business then, enjoy Canada Dry ginger ale only after I confirmed that it has been made since 1907, and the guns, cars, animals, etc., are all very realistic for the times and places. I did have character Finn exchange her little crossbow for firearms,all types she could acquire in the circumstances.

BTW, these fics were for average readers, so I did not specify that her S&W M&P .38 was a Model of 1905, 4th Change, made late enough to have had a heat treated cylinder and Made in USA marked on the frame. That would be too technical for most readers. But I thought about the exact one she'd carry and even had it use the gold medallion stocks used by guns made a few years before. I thought I'd explain that if I had to by saying that S&W had found a barrel of older grips and used them a few years after they were no longer made. A very real possibility, as the company used older parts rather than discard them.

I may check on your M-25 Winchester, but am almost certain that it was a variant of the M-12 shotgun. I think Elmer Keith mentioned it in,"Shotguns." I'll dig out my copy and see. BTW, in my fan fiction, I did have, "Lost World" character Ned Malone use a M-54 Winchester in .270 and a Griffin & Howe .30-06, but only after the explorers had left the Plateau, married, and were on safari. By then, 1928-29, the M-54 was available, and Ned might well have wanted to try the new high velocity .270. His friends used .275 Rigbys and a .318 Westley Richards in that role, and had sporting .303's and heavier rifles for larger game. Finn got a Westley Richards .450/.400 for her heavy rifle, and others had .465 H&H and .500 double rifles, and Lord Roxton had the .416 he used on the TV show.

I know firearms quite well, and always proofread material at least three times before publishing. So, I was horrified to read several years after I posted one story that Ned had a Griffen & Howe rifle, not a Griffin & Howe! No one caught the error, but I did and was frustrated and embarrassed. And by then, I could no longer edit that story

Errors occur to all of us. Some are caused by sloppy proofreading or research. Others by typesetters.

 

[Peak53]

I admit to being a bit of a spelling and grammar snob, but am not a Nazi about it. I make a lot of mistakes myself. I usually know what the writer intended with the misuse of to and too, etc. What interests me more is how language is changing with the new technologies. Short cuts abound. For example, I see a lot of posts on this forum that begin with something like, "Went to the gun show on Saturday and saw ..." What happened to the personal pronoun? Is it even needed in this case? I find myself doing the same in texts and emails. We used to acknowledge the correct usage of the King's English as an unspoken class identifier, similar to knowing which fork to use at the table, to understand if the person should be in the conversation or at the table. Does the advent of "netspeak" change the rules? Did I make any errors (commas are my downfall) above?