Shooting the messenger in the foot

The (UK) Booksellers' Association blog regularly features stimulating articles, but boy could it do with a proofreader, let alone an editor. It does not take comments, so one is forced to suffer in silence while reading items such as this one ("Open access opt out at Harvard"):

"Harvard are now planning to change things albeit quietly by voting to enable its arts and sciences faculty to distribute their scholarship freely online. If passed an open access repository run by the library would instantly make maretial available on the Internet. Authors would still retain copyright and the ability to publish anywhere. In fact the system would be an opt out one which would automatically include works unless the author opted out. An interesting position for authors who could be said to be dammed iof they do and dammed if they don’t."

My subedited version:

"Harvard is now planning to change things, albeit quietly, by voting to enable its arts and sciences faculty to distribute its scholarship freely online. If passed, the resolution would allow an open-access repository run by the library to instantly make material available on the Internet. Authors would still retain copyright, allowing them to re-publish the article anywhere. In fact, the system would automatically include all work published by an author employed or funded by Harvard, unless that author opted out. An interesting position for authors, who could be said to be dammed if they do, and dammed if they don’t."

There is another, equally stimulating but equally grammatically challenged post here, about the book-publishing industry. From that post, entitled "Oprah kicks [sic] start digital":

"But then comes a breath of fresh air from that book star and number one bookseller – no not jef bezos [sic] but Oprah Winfrey. She has announced that a free downloadable PDF version of Suze Orman's bestselling book WOMEN & MONEY (published a year ago by Spiegel & Grau) is to be available at Oprah.com today and tomorrow. It is to be offered in both English and Spanish and will include a clear copyright notice that reads, ‘This book is copyrighted. You may view and download the file, but you may not copy the file or share or forward it to any other person."

My freelance editing services are available for a very reasonable fee.

Comments

[kimbofo]

Hee, hee. Glad I am not the only one who does this.

I also hate blogs/websites that don't use paragraphs, so the whole page becomes so filled with text it hurts my eyes.

[Peter]

Criminy, I should show you some of the sub-literate swill I am expected to process at my newspaper, some of it already "edited" by assigning editors.

I'd have thought "Harvard are" was characteristic of British English, though. The English seem to prefer the plural form for colelctive nouns where North Americans use the singular, e.g., "The government are ... "
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[Maxine]

Maybe, Peter, though Nature's house style (via Fowler I guess) is singular for collective nouns and so I adopt that.
In the example I give, the author gives a singular and a plural for the same collective noun in the same sentence -- frankly I don't mind which he uses, so long as he is consistent!

[crimeficreader]

I prefer the singular too. How else would people write about such things as "Governments across the western wrold are focused on the developing..."? There's a singular and a plural form.
Inconsistency = carelessness in my book of pedantry.

[VWXYNot?]

I'm an obsessive compulsive editor of bad English too.

On the other hand I'm addicted to LOLcats, so bad spelling and grammar are not absolute impediments to enjoyment.

[Clare D]

Heh. That does make it so much easier to read, astonishing, really, what a little alteration can achieve...
Actually I think I might be your first customer, Maxine! Quite often I find that I write a post on my blog and it seems OK at first, then I look at it the next day and feel embarrassed at the grammar and punctuation -strange how blindingly obvious things can be after a little time or sleep.