I propose that from now on book publishers appoint a spell-check editor whose sole responsibility is to not allowing spelling and grammatical howlers to make it into the published book. The spell-check editor should be named prominently inside the front of the book along with the technical reviewer. Geeks don't like compilation errors in code, and they don't like them in books.
On page 11 of Being Geek: The Software Developer's Career Handbook is the following: ... those who are closest to the code are imminently [sic] qualified ...
With all the automated spell checkers and grammar checkers available, such compilation-like errors should be rare ... for all intensive purposes [my favorite Malaprop].
Being Australian, I'm well-accustomed to both American-English and British-English. I'm not trying here to suggest culturally-preferred spellings or grammar. I am concerned mainly about unintended spelling and grammatical errors -- spelling and grammatical forms that fall outside American- and British-English -- which could easily be picked up by editors if they had noticed the errors.
ReplyDeleteI am also well-accustomed to non-English-speaking idioms of speech and writing, and that's no big deal either. Adequate spell-check editing would help all authors by keeping outright errors from getting into their published book. We all have words we regularly misspell or misuse (I do) and it's better if they can be caught before they are published widely. It's basic checking that would catch imminent (probably intended to be eminent) before publication. Nothing draconian.
I suspect that spelling and grammar editing falls between the cracks in the book publishing process, with none of the editors feeling responsible. That's why I suggest there be a specific editor for spell-checking.