Proof reading?

sodapop In this case you were mistaken, but you are absolutely right that proof-reading has become very poorly done or is even non-existent these days. There is far too much reliance on the automatic spell check.

More than 40 years working in publishing means that I have a very sharp eye for literals and other inaccuracies. Dan Brown had no idea where the American Embassy is in Paris; Lee Child didn't know about British pub opening hours back in the day and in some detective story I read recently the body was lying prone with its eyes staring at the ceiling – obviously Death of a Contortionist.
Even if the author gets it wrong, there should automatically be checks by the editor, copy editor and proof-reader. Things can still slip through because nobody knows everything, but too much slips through these days.

I have no idea whether the story is true, but it is said that many years ago OUP fined its editors and proof-readers for any mistakes that appeared in the final printed version. I would guess that such a regime was brutal but effective – and wouldn't happen these days.

Just for the record, I am still embarrassed by a few real horrors I let through when I was green and and in my salad days all those years ago.

I read a great deal and it is annoying to see mistakes which should have been spotted during proof-reading. It suggests sloppy editing, and gives a bad impression. Another area where standards have slipped.

I can also spot very quickly whether the author is British or American, simply by the standard of English.

'Desserts' are sweet, with two sugars in the middle. That's how I taught my DD to distinguish between the two. The two in common usage anyway.

As a 'Grauniad' reader of some 40 years standing, I quite enjoy spotting errors.

I am equally capable of generating a few myself. I was meeting friends for lunch and advised them I had booked a table at the Sunborne Yatch. My friend spent some time unsuccessfully googling it, to check her journey on a map, before she realised I meant Sunborne Yacht ...

Are you being a trifle too picky? ???

Phew! I readthe OP and thought what is going on? Have suddenly lost the ability to spot a mistake. Thank goodness for other posters or I might have believed it should be double 's'.That's the trouble with getting older you start to doubt your abilities.

Well I never! I don’t think I’ve ever written it down, but I’m sure I would have written ‘desserts’. When you think about it, saying someone gets a pudding when they get their comeuppance is a bit daft, though!

The title is correct. To mete out just deserts means to deal justice to the perpetrators.
Desserts = puddings
Deserts = vast tracts of barren land or can mean retribution.

I work as a (non-fiction) editor and proofreader, and it is sadly true that in a few rare cases we do get fined for errors in important texts such as medical ones. Luckily it is very rare now that so many are involved in publishing each text.

As for 'just deserts': Our English word 'dessert' comes from a French word meaning “to remove what has been served” or de-serve: desservir.

'Deserts' here is the plural of 'desert', meaning 'that which one deserves'. 'Desert' in this sense is now archaic and rarely used outside this phrase.

Hence the confusion, I suppose. I keep wondering about doing a fiction editing course, but most trade publishers don't bother that much, as we have seen!

Desserts are "super sweet" whilst deserts are just "sandy". That's how I teach my pupils to remember it.
I used to proof-read for a publishing company 30 years ago. I'm told it isn't done in-house any longer due to costs. It often shows.

Ok Maw I give in. I will strive for perfection in all my dealings with Gransnet in future.

Only then will you get your just deserts sodapop

I wish they had been called 'Just Desserts' as I love to imagine vigilantes as meringues or profiteroles (what does it profiterole a man if he gains his just desserts but loses his soul?" to paraphrase or is it parachute? Mark 8:36)

Of course they'd have to ride into the Black Forest for gateau, shoot a renegade mousse as it charged and when they sprained an ankle doing all this, apply RICE pudding.

I love this thread. It's very sweet...

Don't thinks it's an incorrect spelling - it's an archaic spelling. Is the book set in modern day or in the past.

Proofread for an educational book company. The problem is that many authors don’t like being corrected!

Its OK Sodapop to have got it wrong, I often think a word doesn't look right. Oh JRM wouldn't like me using got or like, better get in the naughty corner.

I used to be a proof-reader for various publishing enterprises.

And then that nice Mister Gates gave us Microsoft with a spell-checker facility.

End of my career.

(Incidentally, whilst a spell-checker can do grammar, punctuation and spelling it's not smart-arse enough to do context. Why?)

My DD was a journalist in another life and became a proof reader. She saw the writing on the wall (no pun intended) and left before she was made redundant. Proof readers do not exist any more - journalists are supposed to proof their own copy which is almost impossible to do as you do not pick up on your own mistakes.

I despair of our education system every time I look on social media. The majority of users have no idea of basic grammar and spelling. What annoys you? I would have went, loose instead of lose, would of,I seen etc.???

Well, I always thought it was ‘just desserts’, so have had some re-thinking to do today!

As regards computer spell checkers, I refer to mine as the mango checker, when it wanted to change ‘among’ for ‘mango’. ‘Mango’ in the letter didn’t make ANY sense at all, but it was correctly spelled! ??

No way I am afraid scottiebear - but good try!

Yes patronising Maw, we can't all be well read , erudite, correctly schooled, or grammar 'perfect'

The problem arises because of pronunciation. Deserts we tend to pronounce one way, desserts we pronounce another.

'Would of' and 'stood standing '.......??

That's the weird thing about English language. Many words sound the same as others which are spelled differently. Some are not pronounced as they are spelled.

I was sat There...
Shudder