Comments on: A long tale of verification

By: Carol Kennedy

Carol Kennedy — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 14:36:42 +0000

My experience, in more than 25 years of copyediting, is that the concept of a single, settled “official spelling” is often an editorial myth. The best one can do is decide on a source and stick with it. (I started out as a copy editor in the legal publishing field, where official spelling has importance apart from editorial consistency, but even there, the publishing house picked certain sources as reliable and just went with them.)

By: Misspelled signs at Deanna Hoak

Misspelled signs at Deanna Hoak — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 23:01:05 +0000

[...] For those of you who remember the long and frustrated post I made about attempting to verify the spelling of “La Guardia,” you’ll enjoy this story: After twenty years, Hagerstown, Maryland, has corrected the spelling of a town sign directing people to “Municpal Stadium.” [...]

By: deannahoak

deannahoak — Thu, 11 May 2006 13:14:29 +0000

Web11 recommends “Web site,” but many of the publishers I work for specify “website” in their guidelines for copyeditors; I definitely prefer it as one word. Even CMS, in their online Q&A, recommends “website” for informal usage.

By: deannahoak

deannahoak — Thu, 11 May 2006 13:11:20 +0000

Cute. :)

By: deannahoak

deannahoak — Thu, 11 May 2006 13:11:04 +0000

I did end up looking the term up in The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage, and they recommend “La Guardia.” That’s good enough for me.

By: anonymous

anonymous — Thu, 11 May 2006 12:28:20 +0000

By the way, is it okay to use website nowadays, instead of Web site?

Thanks.

By: anonymous

anonymous — Thu, 11 May 2006 12:21:25 +0000

I didn’t read your original posting close enough. Believe me, I know that Web sites can be fallible. I update the internal Web site for the medical center I work at, which lists dozens of doctors and the issues they do or do not see. I can’t tell you how many corrections for spelling and ungrammatical sentences I’ve had to make because of the semi-literate supervisor who’s in charge of it.

That said, a Web site tends to be more official, because of the fact that it’s easily changed in case of error. With a huge painted sign, you can just plant flowers around it in case of error. But I suppose my comment above about my workplace just adds another uncertainty factor to everything.

Mark

By: anonymous

anonymous — Sun, 07 May 2006 17:03:18 +0000

My eldest daughter subscribes to a children’s edutainment magazine “Which Way USA?” One of the latest additions was about Maryland, and each edition includes a map and gazetteer.
So, as a non-traditional writer/illustrator/editor, I have a BS in Geography and an AAS in Technical Illustration & Publication, who grew up in Maryland, I was anxious to see their map.

Not a complete map by any stretch, but it included a few place names that were familiar to me, and one on the southwest side of Baltimore caught my eye, “Reistertown.” Now, I knew of such a place growing up, and it was pronounced “RICERSTOWN”–note the S in the middle. Sure enough, I was able to confirm by looking at a host of other maps & atlases that it really is Reisterstown, with an S.

Now and again, headlines bemoan how little our children know about geography. Is it any wonder, given that a map with about 10 place names misspells one. On a side note, when I left Maryland ~1970, Lacrosse was the state sport, but according to Highlights for Children, Inc., it’s Medieval Jousting.

By: anonymous

anonymous — Wed, 03 May 2006 16:29:02 +0000

This post was hilarious. I do believe it is LaGuardia, not La Guardia, but that’s just me. :D

By: rosefox

rosefox — Wed, 03 May 2006 06:35:27 +0000

This reminded me of you. *)