In general, proofreading skills seem to have deteriorated over the years. A couple of week ago I was reading the "Twilight" series, and the phrase "off of" jumped out at me every now and then. Unthinkable in the good old days.
Chess Life Magazine
Sort:
Jed_Leland wrote:
A magazine editor who doesn't know the difference between reign and rein...?
http://www.dailywritingtips.com/free-rein-or-free-reign/
Crazychessplaya wrote:
In general, proofreading skills seem to have deteriorated over the years. A couple of week ago I was reading the "Twilight" series, and the phrase "off of" jumped out at me every now and then. Unthinkable in the good old days.
I'm sorry, you've made one spelling error here. Please correct. Thank you.
nimzovich wrote:
Your proofreading skills are most certainly better than mine, and I agree, we should hope for better from an editor, but that piece stacking cover was, to me, actually a stroke of genius, increasing excitement in the game among our youth.
Silliness, one might say, and I would agree; but sometimes kids needs such fun components to balance the seriousness of our great game.
Dear Sir or Madman:
You have also made a spelling error here. Please address this issue. Thank you.
Chess Life is only so-so. On the one hand, it is amazing that there is a magazine for chess, but on the other hand um...it just seems to be lacking something.
bomtrown wrote:
Crazychessplaya wrote:
In general, proofreading skills seem to have deteriorated over the years. A couple of week ago I was reading the "Twilight" series, and the phrase "off of" jumped out at me every now and then. Unthinkable in the good old days.
I'm sorry, you've made one spelling error here. Please correct. Thank you.
"Weeks" not "week"... Good catch.
Crazychessplaya wrote:
bomtrown wrote:
Crazychessplaya wrote:
In general, proofreading skills seem to have deteriorated over the years. A couple of week ago I was reading the "Twilight" series, and the phrase "off of" jumped out at me every now and then. Unthinkable in the good old days.
I'm sorry, you've made one spelling error here. Please correct. Thank you.
"Weeks" not "week"... Good catch.
I expect spelling errors on the Internet especially in discussion forums. There are bound to be mistakes. I make them regularly.
BUT one would expect a formal print publication to be as error free as possible because it is a reflection on the organization that is publishing the content for members to read.
This is old news, but I just read John Hillery's comments from 2000 at chessnews.org. He wrote, "Given free reign [sic]..." and "there will be less [sic] columns..."
A magazine editor who doesn't know the difference between reign and rein, and less and fewer? Not a good sign. Well, maybe he's gone by now. I haven't subscribed to Chess Life since 1994. I should have stopped when I saw the cover devoted to a piece-stacking contest.
UPDATE: It's not a question of proof-reading, but of expecting an editor to know grammar and spelling. I hold professionals to a higher standard in these matters.