Would it KILL you to use the goddamn spell-checker?

[Redstone]

I've been reading an otherwise-excellent book about color correction and sharpening in Photoshop this evening, but have had to grit my teeth each time I see the word "dependant."

Spell-check is free. It only takes a few minutes, even for book-length text. Use it!

Sorry, guys, that's all I can contribute to this evening's discourse.

Redstone

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. I'm so sorry, my dear Redstone......

Hope this helps: :hug:

[Benfea]

2. That's really inexcusable in a printed book

What were they using for editors? 14 year olds from AoL chat rooms?

[Redstone]

7. I don't think there actually ARE any editors anymore.

Judging from the shocking number of typographical and factual errors in the average book these days.

And I do not think I'm being picky. If someone had the time to compare books from, say the 1970s to books from the year 2000 on, I think the number of errors in the newer books would be enough to give those editors from the 1970s a coronary.

Redstone

[XemaSab]

9. My mom's an editor

:bounce:

[Benfea]

11. Be sure to ask her what happened between the 70s and now. -NT

[XemaSab]

12. Uh... she had me and stopped smoking weed?

:hide:

[Benfea]

13. Tell her to kick you out and start smoking weed again.

;)

Tongue firmly in cheek.

[Redstone]

14. And? Tell me more. Does she insist that the authors run their

manuscripts though a basic spell-checker before she edits them?

I'm genuinely interested in your answer to this, and your mom's observations on the general state of editing in the 21st century, if you could pass them along to us...

Redstone

[XemaSab]

17. She politely asks them to and they blow her off

And she thinks editing has declined, and when she sees typos in the New York Times and in supposedly well-written books she's appalled.

[RebelOne]

21. I am a copy editor and I read and re-edit magazine stories after

the editors are finished with them. You would not believe all the errors that the editors miss.

[SofaKingLiberal]

3. I thought you were talking about posters here.

But a published book? There's no excuse for that BS.

[Oeditpus Rex]

4. First it was okay

because it was "just a chat room."

Then it was okay because it was "just a message board."

Now, maybe it's okay because it's "just a tech manual."

The dumbing-down of America.

:cry:

[hfojvt]

8. how is not relying on a computer to check your spelling

"dumbing down"? Spell check just makes bad spellers look as smart as the rest of us. Its not fair I tell ya. It just ain't fair! (Is their an apostrophe in aint?) :hide:

[Redstone]

15. Yes, there is.

Redstone

[Oeditpus Rex]

19. That spell check exists

is part of the dumbing-down, let alone that it too often goes unused or is taken as given.

[WritingIsMyReligion]

34. A-fucking-men, Rex.

:cry::cry:

[hfojvt]

5. maybe they have declared their independance

from spelling rules. Spell check is not totally dependeble. I tried it on DU once and my computer locked up. That may have been when I was still on dial-up.

[Redstone]

10. No, spell-checkers are not 100% dependable. That's why I always use

the two ultimate checking methods on things I write (things I'm getting paid to write, that is; not DU posts):

1) Let someone else read it, and

2) Read it aloud.

But for Christ's sake, if you're going to have your words printed in a book, at least use the damn spell checker.

Redstone

[hfojvt]

18. unless they have gotten better - they are not 100% dependable

for example "Is their an apostrophe in aint?"
Spell checker might not even include ain't in its dictionary, even if I prefer to unprofessionally use it (and in a novel it is totally appropriate to have characters who do not talk like English teachers). Second "their" is not spelled wrong there, but it is not the correct word either.

[Rabrrrrrr]

25. Who cares if they are better are not? If a person is writing, esp.

for publication, there is no excuse for not having the spelling checked by yourself, a spell checker, AND an editor, and there is no excuse for typos making it into the final publication.

America is dumbing down - just as Oeditpus Rex said. First it was message boards being okay to be sloppy, then apparently tech manuals, and now it even seems okay in newspapers and books, and pretty soon I'm sure we'll be back to the pre-1800s, when everyone spelled words however they felt like it.

It's just fucking laziness, pure and simple, and a total disrespect for the medium of communication, and a total disrespect for the people with whom one is trying to communicate.

[WritingIsMyReligion]

35. And a total disrespect for the art of writing.

:grr::grr:

[Rabrrrrrr]

37. Damn straight!

And it pisses me off.

[Katherine Brengle]

6. I hate typos in books--makes me want to puke.

:puke:

[0007]

28. Third world mentality!

[Katherine Brengle]

29. I truly have no idea what you meant by that... n/t :)

[0007]

36. I mean that it is a very common thing found in third world counties,

or at least the ones I've visited.

[Rabrrrrrr]

38. And that's just what the republicans want us to be - a third world country

because then they can really take over the land, the factories, the businesses, and the government, and turn most of America into the serfs and peasants that those evil fucks need to satiate their greed and egos.

It's the reason they wage war on education and intelligence and intellectualism and critical thinking.

And the truly sad thing is that 90% of America thinks not only that that is okay, but that it is the best way, that it is an excellent way, and they are willingly handing their lives over to what amounts to a satanic ideology.

[TennesseeRain]

16. As a matter of fact, I think it might.

It just might be the thing that does me in.

[ContraBass Black]

42. Somebody had to say it.

[RebelOne]

20. Believe it or not, but in my American Heritage Dictionary

right after the entry for dependent, it reads "Also dependant." That's why spell checkers don't pick it up.

[Oeditpus Rex]

39. It should be remembered

that dictionaries reflect popular use, not necessarily correct use.

There's a difference between "correct" and "acceptable."

Or should I say "acceptible"?

[Robeson]

22. I try to, But are we evil if spell-checker doesn't pick it up?....

...does that put us on the dark side?.....:shrug:

[DeepGreen]

23. dependant is a variant of dependent

Webster shows dependant as a variant of dependent. So, it is possible
that a spell checker might not catch it. The spell checker for this
message did not.

[LisaL]

31. It's not just possible spell-checker won't catch it.

There is no way spell-checker would catch it. It's an actual word.
How on Earth would spell-checker catch it?

[TheBaldyMan]

24. what about british vs american spellings ?

through habit I routinely use and abuse the UK version but have no problem reading american spellings, there is sometimes a little difficulty with idioms and the like. US spellcheckers are hopeless when I use them.

Surely the line is crossed when ambiguity creeps in because something is badly phrased or spelled. I'd rather read something that was well written but badly spelled than have a grammatically perfect piece of nonsense.

"Reading maketh a full man, conference maketh a ready man and writing maketh an exact man"

[In_The_Wind]

26. I try, really I do.

:shrug: But sometimes I even confuse spell-check.

[Minnesota Libra]

27. In a book-no doubt written on a computer-that's inexcusable but.......

.....here on DU I just plain forget sometimes.:shrug: Will try to remember in the future because even I find it's hard trying to read around misspelled words sometimes.:spank:

[LisaL]

30. Spell-checker won't get this one, considering dependant is a word.

4 entries found for dependant.
de·pen·dant Audio pronunciation of "dependant" ( P ) Pronunciation Key (d-pndnt)
n.

Variant of dependent.
www.dictionary.com

[Burma Jones]

32. Yew R eh Esspeleeng Gnat Zee

and I concur

[UrbScotty]

33. Yes it wood kil mi! Im Dann Kuayl. (nt)

[LynzM]

40. That bugs me to no end, as well

One of my text books for last semester hadn't even had first-round editing, I swear. Drove me freakin' batty. Things like missing punctuation at the end of sentences, words spelled incorrectly (ok, only some, it was a British text), grammar errors. But spelling, especially. Drop the whole damn thing into MS Word if you've got no alternative, and use that. The internet is one thing, a published text is another.

[SOteric]

41. Nope. It probably wouldn't kill anyone to use a spell-checker.

But, it might kill you to be getting so wound up over spelling errors.