I’ve been reading an eARC by invitation today (the invitation consisting of a request to not[e] (Thanks Colin!) errors that “might have slipped by” editing/proofreading, and submit them via email before final publication). Most of the errors have been either homophonic (such as “peak” for “pique”) or mistakenly writing compound words as two separate words, with only a few actual word misuses not attributable to homophonic errors.
Almost all the mistakes are likely due to the writer having a larger _verbal_ vocabulary than is available in written form to the writer. This can really only be mended by more reading of well-written text by the writer. Until then, the writer is at the mercy of editors and proofreaders whose (and that was one: using “whose” when “who’s” was required) literacy may well–as seems to be the case with this eARC–be no better than the writer’s own.
Oh, and LOADS of misplaced commas, as well as just plain old everyday missing commas. VERY few comma splices, though. That’s nice.
Now, there are likely a number of problems I have not made note of for the writer, since I am NOT line-editing this book but just noting things that jump out at me. Line editing is demanding work, and I’d have to charge for that.
to not errors that = to note errors. Typos always creep in, you just cannot avoid them. I commonly type ‘you’ when I mean ‘your’.
Exactly, Colin. My “biblical method” typing (“Seek and ye shall find”) has devolved from there over the years into “mostly hit the right keys. . . most of the time.” And then, whenever I use my tablet, all THAT goes out the window, what with the itty-bitty virtual keyboard and whatnot.
What was interesting about the eARC I read is that there was only ONE error I could attribute to a typo. That’s uncommon, but then we (the advance reader group) were told it had already been through copy and line editing, so that was not surprising. Sadly, it was not surprising to see “affect” misused when “effect” was required, along with other word misuses, because more and more folks nowadays are not well-read enough to really know the meanings of the words they (mis)use.
At least here in the US, things have not improved since the 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy.