Just about everyone need editing!

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kimbalabala

Contributor
Messages
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Location
St Louis
# of dives
200 - 499
I was just reading the intro to a scuba book that I think I might be interested in purchasing and was hit smack in the face with an error. Grammar errors, poor word choices and spelling errors are rife in every online publication as well as in the paper copies. We don't notice our own errors - we skim past them because we wrote it and our expectation is that it is correct. I recently spelled "payment" as "payement" and didn't notice it after reading it several times - and it was on my own website! I'd like to offer the services of my daughter for editing purposes. She just graduated with an English degree from the University of Connecticut and she's really amazing. I have no idea what she charges - but I'd guess she's cheap by industry standards because she's a poor college graduate! She needs to get a start and she's really great with online editing. She also knows enough about website management that she might be able to help out with some of the more basic issues. I'm sorry if this sounds like a sales pitch - and you know that I don't mean to break any rules on scubaboard. I'm not even going to give you her name. If anyone is interested they can contact me. I just get SO turned off by typos and grammar errors that I STOP READING. I won't buy that book because I assume it is rife with errors that will make my skin crawl. Maybe I'm strange, but if it bothers me then it bothers someone else too, right?Good luck!
 
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Verrrry funny! I know I'm a nudge ... I teach, and sometimes I feel like my eyes are bleeding as I grade papers ... which is why I don't assign many papers!!! And I'm always humiliated when I make grammar and spelling mistakes because I am such a grammar snob (but not a scuba snob!!). :p
 
One of the issues with using an editor as an author of publications related to diving is finding an editor that knows what you are talking about. Finding an English major is easy. There are plenty of them working at Starbucks and in restaurants. This is a niche market. So small that 500 copies of a work is right up there as a best seller when it comes to non agency publications. 1000 is like a John Grisham when it comes to scuba.

I get an offer for editing services every other week in my emails. Anywhere from 189.00 on up. The fear though is that the person(s) doing that editing would have no idea what a SAC rate, deco stop, kit, rig, or other term used by divers was. It is liable to result in a work so butchered up by the editor that it no longer makes sense and does not convey what I wanted to say.

Many don't seem to realize that mainstream authors don't edit their books. The publishing house has a staff of researchers, editors, publicists, etc. that back up the author's work. Authors of books on scuba often do not have that. I was very fortunate to have mine edited by a diver and one that was always asking questions and making suggestions that improved my own use of the written word in other publications. But I still make mistakes. Not as many but when you sit down and start putting thousands of words on paper or on the computer, and are not a person who actually writes for a living, things slip by. You don't want them to but they do.

What does happen though is that you are more aware of them and they gradually decrease. I am working on my second book off and on. I had a forward and chapter outline in process. Then I spent a week doing Technical Instructor training. It changed my whole outlook and now I, as a result, have to rethink the direction I want to go.

I have around 100 scuba related titles in my library from agency materials to books by divers to works of fiction. I can go through and find an error or two in just about every one. Some are actually painful to read at times due to errors in grammar, punctuation, spelling, and sentence structure. Yet when I put them in the context of getting the message across effectively those errors are not so bad. I also have to look at the question of whether or not the author wrote the intro to it on amazon or other site. They might not have, or may have and found out that it would not work. You only have so much room to work with and, on some once it's done, changing it can be a pain in the hind end.

I tend to cut scuba authors a break because they are scuba divers and instructors first in many cases, not full time authors. There are a few works in my collection that have my own handwritten corrections in them. Does that make them any less valuable a resource? No, not in the least. In some cases it has added to my knowledge as I have had to do a little extra research to make sure my corrections were accurate. I know there are typos in some of the stuff I have out there. I've gone back and taken a look at articles I wrote years ago and found mistakes that make me shake my head. Stupid little things. I correct and resave them. The important thing though is that out of all of the ones I have given away no one has come back and criticized my use of a comma when a semi colon should have been in there. No one has come back and said something I hyphenated that did not need it detracted from the message.

I wish they would so that I could correct it!

To disregard a work because of an error in the on line description of it seems unfair. I have also found that there are differences in language use depending on the authors origin and when they grew up. I recently started reading Robinson Crusoe again that I downloaded to my new tablet. Not the sanitized and cleaned up version. But a Google scan of a publication from 1866 of the original 1719 version. Looking at the first page from a 21st century perspective it would seem, on the surface, to be full of errors. In fact it is not. You just have to drop back 400 years to the language and terms of that period.

If it sounds like I may be making excuses for some of the work out there it is because I am. We are not, as previously stated, full time authors with the resources that are available to those that are. We do this out of a desire to pass on our experience, knowledge, and love of the activity. I have heard some criticisms of my work from those who can't put together a pair of complete sentences or have a marked lack of grammar or the use of punctuation. They have also never spent weeks, months, or years putting together a published work. It's not easy and is work.

If you don't believe me try to put 70,000 words down without a mistake.
 
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Verrrry funny! I know I'm a nudge ... I teach, and sometimes I feel like my eyes are bleeding as I grade papers ... which is why I don't assign many papers!!! And I'm always humiliated when I make grammar and spelling mistakes because I am such a grammar snob (but not a scuba snob!!). :p

This is acceptable? To me this seems to be a big reason that kids today can't write. They are no longer made to. I would argue that not assigning papers is a copout and a contributes to the ignorance of the student. Assign them papers and fail them when they screw up. Then teach them how not to do that. I have to think that a number of young sales people at my day job had teachers just like this. Which is why they can't put together an email that conveys professionalism and education. They come across as 12 year old semi literate boobs sending a text to each other. No one held them to a higher standard.

---------- Post added June 22nd, 2014 at 10:53 AM ----------

Oh and by the way, I believe the title of this thread should be "Just about every one needs editing!" since it appears to be related to every book rather than every author.
Or since it's actually an ad for your daughters services perhaps "Editing services for SCUBA authors offered by English major."
 
One of the issues with using an editor as an author of publications related to diving is finding an editor that knows what you are talking about. Finding an English major is easy. ...

Tell me about it, I wrote a couple of books in the early 90s on CAD (Computer Aided Design). The second was a version of the first for a different operating system. Between engineering and computer jargon, it took almost as much writing to explain it to the editors as writing the books. The second editor complained about unchanged wording from the first version. Even with all that, I found tons of errors over the years.
 
Verrrry funny! I know I'm a nudge ... I teach, and sometimes I feel like my eyes are bleeding as I grade papers ... which is why I don't assign many papers!!! And I'm always humiliated when I make grammar and spelling mistakes because I am such a grammar snob (but not a scuba snob!!). :p

Hehe, no worries. I hate it when I notice a spelling or grammar mistake in my own posts or writings. Neither are a strong point of mine but still they still annoy me.
 
This is acceptable? To me this seems to be a big reason that kids today can't write. ....
Or since it's actually an ad for your daughters services perhaps "Editing services for SCUBA authors offered by English major."

You're being a bit harsh. First, let me say that I teach Sociology - not English - and by the time the students get to me they are supposed to be reading and writing at a college level. My job is supposed to be to teach theories and how to apply sociological concepts to their everyday world. If I spend my time correcting a plethora of papers I won't have time to teach my subject. I'll also add that I'm adjunct - the translation for that is 'poorly paid and not much appreciated but I love to teach' (but not English). I DO have an assignment every semester for which they have to write a nearly perfect paper with the assistance of me and the writing lab. It's time intensive and it's time NOT spent teaching Sociology but I find it important enough to force them to learn the difference between there, they're, and their and between defiantly and definitely, and loose and lose. My stated reason for this pain-in-the-arse assignment is that they will have to write scholarly papers when they transfer from our 2 year school to a 4 year school and I want to help prepare them. But I'm sorry, I don't have time to assign several papers in 16 weeks and still teach what my contract says are the stated curricula goals. And if you're really disappointed about Johnny and Sally not performing well in the workplace you might start with the parents and the public school systems who graduate them and present them to us as "college ready".

Having said that, I'm not advertising my daughter's services. Remember, I didn't even tell you her name. And in light of what Jim said I agree that she would not be an appropriate choice for any technical writing unless she is intimately familiar with the subject.

---------- Post added June 22nd, 2014 at 05:29 PM ----------

Oh, and I read at least one of your books Jim, and I do not recall thinking that you needed a better editor. :)
 
This is acceptable? To me this seems to be a big reason that kids today can't write. They are no longer made to. I would argue that not assigning papers is a copout and a contributes to the ignorance of the student. Assign them papers and fail them when they screw up. Then teach them how not to do that. I have to think that a number of young sales people at my day job had teachers just like this. Which is why they can't put together an email that conveys professionalism and education. They come across as 12 year old semi literate boobs sending a text to each other. No one held them to a higher standard.

---------- Post added June 22nd, 2014 at 10:53 AM ----------

Oh and by the way, I believe the title of this thread should be "Just about every one needs editing!" since it appears to be related to every book rather than every author.
Or since it's actually an ad for your daughters services perhaps "Editing services for SCUBA authors offered by English major."

Cop out. Not copout. The term has not yet reached the status of a neologism.

Etymology can be endlessly fascinating. The earliest organized police force, Sir Robert Peel's Metropolitan Police, had badges that were made of copper.

The earliest flush toilets were designed by a man named Crapper.

Sometimes I intentionally use British spellings and alternate American spelling for the same word in the same paragraph, usually when it's an s/z difference. I've come to realise that these pass unnoticed because few people give a sh!t. I do realize that the mention of Crapper affected my penultimate sentence.
 
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