[bksvol-discuss] Question on Spelling
- From: "Amy Goldring Tajalli" <agoldringtajalli@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 23 Mar 2007 15:33:12 -0400
Faulkner, like many authors, invents words and also has very creative spelling
which may or may not be caught by his publishers and the scanners or
validaters. Even when caught, how does one decide on what to correct or not to
correct. So far my choices have been hit or miss but as a rule I try to stick
with his spelling even when it is just misspelling - he often uses s instead
of z in words like realize and I try to leave them as I think he wrote them
even if he had not meant to misspell the words. I am a devout believer in the
idea that an author's intentions are irrelevant when dealing with what s/he
actually wrote even if we know them. I have, however, heard a lot of the
opposing point of view to admit that correcting misspellings is not altogether
wrong.
Having read so many misspelled papers by freshman composition students that I
am not always sure of correct spelling, I often look up words but if you don't
know the correct spelling looking up a word in a dictionary is not particularly
easy. Thank heavens for Spell Checks but they, too, are not always reliable. I
would welcome more comments on the subject.
Amy
omsm
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