Back in 2007 when I was still new to blogging I was unceremoniously pulled over by a helmeted laptop cop, a regular visitor to my blog, who cited me for misspelling ad nauseam. I Googled the expression and discovered that my version, ad nauseum, did not exist. Duh, I told myself. The expression is derived from nausea, so where on earth did I get that second u? I did a quick search of the blog and found I had misspelled the word not just in the current article, but in another I had posted a few months earlier. My gratitude for that citation was profound. I had always been a little--okay, a lot--impatient with writers who inadvertently break the rules of the language in their Internet scribblings (and, needless to say, in their books). Yet I had made this egregious spelling error on my own blog, not once, but twice. I was mortified, but thankful for the directness of the language cop. I admired her seeming inability to shrink from what some might consider a sensitive issue. I imagine that all writers are sensitive about errors in their work; I know I am, which is why, unlike my blog friend, I rarely point out glaring errors in the writing of authors I know--the exception being friends who ask me to edit their work and clients who pay me to do so.
Correcting minor errors in articles submitted by guests of Novel Spaces is something I do routinely. As a blog administrator, I also correct typos, incorrect formatting, and sometimes language errors in members' posts, not routinely, but now and then when I stumble across them. What I never do is send an e-mail to the author citing him or her for the mistakes.
I know, I know. I'm a craven coward who dreads causing offense or embarrassment. I've seen the reactions of writers across the web to having their errors pointed out, heard the screams of "Spelling police!" and "Grammar Nazi". I also have time constraints like everyone else; it's more efficient all around to just make a quick edit and move on. But I never do this without a little pang of remorse. The spelling-cop (who became a good friend) ensured that I'd never again embarrass myself on the world wide web or anywhere else by writing ad nauseum instead of ad nauseam.
What do you do? Do you point out language errors to writers as you find them in the knowledge that every word we write, even informally on the Internet, reflects on us professionally? Or do you just you move along knowing that we all err at times?
My shame is that though I go over and over my work ad nauseam, I still miss things. Amazing.
ReplyDeleteSo do I, Charles. Especially in longer works. Which is where a second pair of eyes comes in useful.
ReplyDeleteOnce while going over some writing for the Teacher's union in St. Kitts I saw the word "remuneration" and immediately corrected it to "renumeration." The person who wrote it defended the spelling, much to the chagrin of the entire group of teachers (including English teachers) who were in the meeting. Like me, they thought the word was "renumeration." Anyway, that teacher showed us from the dictionary that the word really was "remuneration."
ReplyDeleteHow could an entire union of teachers get it wrong? The problem is almost the whole country had it wrong. (Go figure huh!)
Since then I've been reluctant to correct grammatical/spelling errors in a public setting, especially a setting as open as the internet.
By the way Liane, I've had emails auto correct to the incorrect word especially when using my cell phone for email. There are times when I'm writing other, I write the "ot" and pause. When I go write the rest of the word it auto corrects to "There" so that the end result is "otthere" So sometimes it's not the fault of the author, its the technology.
ReplyDeleteNo need to send in the grammar police.
LOL, Jewel! Teacher's Union? You should hear some of the howlers here, from the parliament to the media. Cringe-worthy.
ReplyDeleteAuto correct is a pain in the butt. Thanks for reminding me that it's the technology to blame sometimes.
Ditto what Charles said. I can reread, read out loud, proof, and even sing what I've written, and I still wouldn't notice if I had left out all the verbs.
ReplyDeleteSorry, that last post was from me, not Carmen. Apparently my wife logged in when I was away. See - even more errors!
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ReplyDeleteLOL, William. I'm making some changes to a novel I wrote years ago. I've been over that thing at least five times and would have sworn I caught everything. I'm on chapter 6 and so far I've found one glaring typo and 2 punctuation errors in my perfect manuscript. :-/
ReplyDeleteMaybe I need to start singing it...