Justine Larbalestier

reading, writing, eating, drinking, sport

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Fact-checking, Spelling and Blogs

My blog has no copy editor, no proof reader, and no fact checker. It’s just me. Occasionally I’ll get Scott or one of my friends to proof a post, but not often. They’re busy. Even more rarely my readers will point out errors. Yesterday someone wrote and told me I’d misspelt Count Basie’s name on my bio page. *Blushes*. I was extremely grateful. That mistake had already been there close to a year! Who knows how many more such errors there are all over this blog?

I’m not a great speller and I find proper nouns especially difficult. The copy editors on my last two books, How To Ditch Your Fairy and Liar, found I’d spelled various of the characters names in two or more different ways. I hadn’t noticed. Apparently that’s because spelling is linked to visual memory and mine is crap.1

There are very few blogs out there that are copy edited or proofed or fact checked. Something I frequently forget even though I have a blog myself.

This is just to remind myself to try and be a little bit less credulous.

That is all. Resume your Friday night festivities or Saturday morning frolicks.2

  1. Note that I have no idea where I got that factoid from and no idea if it’s true. Told you I had no fact checker. [↩]
  2. Half my audience is back home in Oz and the rest here in the US of A or Europe. [↩]

Posted by Justine at 18:03, 15 May 2009 under Bloggery, How To Ditch Your Fairy, Liar | 9 Comments »

Comments

  1. John Scalzi Says:

    This is the BEST POST EVAR.

    May 15th, 2009 at 6:05 pm

  2. 2. Justine Says:

    And you are my MOST SARCASTIC FRIEND EVER.

    May 15th, 2009 at 6:07 pm

  3. sara z. Says:

    This is hardly the world’s most boring blog post, as you claimed on twitter. You have some competition
    http://dullestblog.com/
    Though apparently the dude has had nothing dull to say since early 2006…

    May 15th, 2009 at 6:30 pm

  4. Dave H Says:

    How did you misspell “Count”?!?

    May 15th, 2009 at 6:42 pm

  5. caitlin Says:

    I have a visual memory and my spelling is atrocious. Great post. I send teens to you site all the time since you (in my opinion) have one of the best blogs out there.

    May 15th, 2009 at 7:43 pm

  6. 6. Justine Says:

    Sarah Z.: You’re right. It was just moderately boring.

    Dave H.: It’s easy to mock.

    Caitlin: Thank you!

    May 15th, 2009 at 8:10 pm

  7. Rachel Says:

    Re: what caitlin said: I’m a champion speller and my visual memory is atrocious! Can we team up?

    May 15th, 2009 at 9:03 pm

  8. Rebecca Says:

    My anecdotal evidence of also having zero visual recall and being a terrible speller supports your factoid!

    May 16th, 2009 at 12:22 am

  9. Tim Keating Says:

    I only pointed out that thing last week because it was funny. My Spelling and Grammar Nazi days are largely over, thank dog.

    (Heh I tyoped that “largely overy.” See, it happens to everyone!)

    May 19th, 2009 at 11:05 am

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