spelling etiquette

[calimac]

The question has been asked: should you correct obvious typos when quoting someone else's online posting in your own?

If it's just a minor typo, I do that. It makes me itch to leave it uncorrected. Grammatical errors and such, except for punctuation typos, no.

It helps that quoting online is usually cut-and-paste. If I had to retype it all, I'd find it harder to leave it alone.

This came up for me once before. In my college days, when computers were either behemoths in the basement of the math building or the Pong machine in the dorm lobby, and some students still had manual typewriters and others had none at all and couldn't type, I earned a little extra money typing my fellow students' papers. And I faced a dilemma with spelling, punctuation, and grammatical errors. They were numerous, and it seemed to be a particular problem for non-typists. The only perfectly written paper I ever typed for someone else was by a student whose typewriter was in the shop. I couldn't stand to leave the errors unfixed, yet if I fixed them I was denying the authors the opportunity to learn which is what they were writing the papers for in the first place.

I tried to compromise by fixing the errors and discussing them with my clients. But the clients didn't want to listen; they wanted to grab the finished paper and run off to class. After a few cases of this I reached the only remaining solution I was comfortable with: I stopped typing other people's papers.

Comments

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

No one seems to appreciate it, so I've been trying not to do it.

But it does drive me bats for about half a minute when I see people typing de rigeur" and missing that first u, or talking about books "laying" about.

I try only to query a tyop if it prevents my understanding what I think the post is trying to say.

[mithriltabby]

I believe it’s appropriate to insert [sic] when quoting something misspelled or ungrammatical.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

The problem with [sic] is that it looks condescending.

In library cataloging, where exact transcription is vital, we use it even for typos, but practice is to limit its use as much as possible.

In academic writing it's used more often.

I don't think there's much need for it in online block quotes, because it's assumed you've cut-and-pasted, so there's less need for a marker to say "hey, I didn't do that."

[wild-patience.livejournal.com]

"The problem with [sic] is that it looks condescending."

Not only that, too many people have no idea what it means nowadays. I ran into this at work about 15 years ago. I was quoting something in a memo, it had a boo-boo, so I used [sic] after it. One of the Chinese engineers got all upset, thinking I was saying something was "sick." Aaarrrrgggghhh!

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

And I certainly couldn't have used [sic] when typing student papers.

[mithriltabby]

Yeah, that’s a case where I’d consider spelling correction to be part of the service. sturgeonslawyer very sensibly charged a premium. :-)

[bibliofile.livejournal.com]

I usually copy and paste text to quote it, which means it's easy to leave any typos as is.

I have corrected some typos, but I usually try to restrain myself. Many folks on my flist aren't fans and therefore aren't necessarily as blasé as fans about casually correcting one another. For another, education and intelligence don't have an exact correspondence with spelling ability; it's just part of who they are.

As for you clients, I think you were obligated to at least mention them. If they didn't want to listen, that was their decision.

[skelkins.livejournal.com]

Depends. If you like or approve of the person you are quoting, you may fix the error. If you despise them, on the other hand, then you must be sure to leave the error intact, and to follow it with a snotty little [sic].

[smofbabe.livejournal.com]

I had this problem when I was a typesetter, back in the days when manuscripts had to be typeset, especially when I was typesetting for a book publishing firm in Israel, many of whose clients were not native English speakers. I couldn't stand to reproduce errors but I also was only supposed to be transcribing. It was driving me crazy so I finally got permission from my boss to fix the most egregious errors but leave minor ones, which distinction was largely up to me.

As for online quoting, I'll sometimes fix a minor typo but not others. (This is especially satisfying as I find that the people who make the most errors are the people I disagree with so I don't mind them looking sloppy/ignorant.)

[sturgeonslawyer.livejournal.com]

I also typed people's papers for money, a little, back then. My solution was simple: I gave them a two-tiered price structure. It was $1/page just to type what they'd written, or $1.50/page to type it and correct grammar, spelling, and any facts I could identify as incorrect (to do this they would leave the appropriate text with me as well as the paper).

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

You bastard (said Al Ashley). You charged more than I did, even for not making corrections.

[sturgeonslawyer.livejournal.com]

I also probably got a lot less business. I think I had maybe ten, fifteen papers to type in the two years I did this. (I stopped when I left the dorms because I had no source of business.)

Correcting

[nwl.livejournal.com]

It depends on where - if it's LJ, I cut and paste. If I'm replying to an email, I use spell check and theirs gets corrected along with mine if I'm in a rush or it's unclear.

I wish I could do corrects on signs. Yesterday I was at the grocery store in the produce section. There was a lovely basket with large orange tubers that had a big sign, "YEAMS". Well, was it supposed to be "YAMS" or is this a new variety of sweet potato (which is spelled in the produce section as "potatoe" by the way)? One can never be sure with all the varieties of vegatables nowadays. I mentioned the YEAMS to one of the checkers. It still says, "YEAMS" today.

Re: Correcting

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

If there's nobody watching, and you're carrying a boldface pen ...

There's a college library with an outdated and misleading stack map on its wall. Every time I go there, which is about every six months, I point this out to them. They promise to get it fixed immediately. This has been going on about 3 or 4 years now.