[Coco] OT: Grammatical nitpicking

[Frank Swygert]

Okay, enough of the nit-picking! I agree in principal with Bob -- it's 
not hard to at least run a spell checker over the text on a web site. An 
occasional misspelling or gramatical error doesn't detract from the 
site, but multiple obvious errors do. Rather than post such things in 
public, however, I suggest that you send the site owner a short message 
POLITELY telling them that they misspelled a few words or made such and 
such error and the site would look a lot more professional if corrected.

I edit a small magazine and have learned a lot! The best thing I ever 
did was take up a professional editor's offer (newspaper editor) to edit 
the first book I self-published (a 170+ page tome on old Ramblers). He 
simply asked for a copy he could mark up. He wrote me a nice cover 
letter with the book when he sent it back explaining the markings. He 
also stated that after the first chapter he stopped marking common 
errors because it was too much work! I wasn't embarrassed or anything at 
all. I learned a LOT from it though, and was a little embarrassed that I 
put something out that bad, though most errors were so common (misuse of 
commas, some words, other punctuation marks, etc.) that most people 
didn't notice -- but that pro editor sure did! He'd bought a copy, of 
course. He still praised the work, especially since at the time (1991) 
there was nothing like it on the market. He just stated it would be 
easier (for him) to read if there were fewer errors and it would look 
more professional if I either learned a bit more or employed an editor 
next time. I employed a spell check and grammar check program instead, 
but reading my marked up book several times through proved to be the 
best tool I had -- and I still have that marked up copy!!

-- 
Frank Swygert
Publisher, "American Motors Cars" 
Magazine (AMC)
For all AMC enthusiasts
http://farna.home.att.net/AMC.html
(free download available!)