"History of Swildens Hole" - would you buy it?

[graham]

I have changed the question in the poll accordingly. To all who have voted - you have the option to review your choice and change it if you want to.

How? I dont see an option to change my vote, which is now wrong because my origional yes should be a no with the new question.

Which just goes to show that when attempting to communicate with others, which is, after all the primary purpose of Language, there is no substitute for clarity.  8)

 

[Peter Burgess]

Eh? I don't understand. When I set it up I left it with the option to change your vote. And I remember seeing it. But now that option has gone and I can't set it again. I think the option to change your vote probably only lasts as long as the normal option to edit your posts. What a nonsense. Sorry people, I messed up. It's probably not worth setting up again - the point I wanted to make was in an earlier post, that as long as there are significant numbers of people who wouldn't buy a book if the spelling was poor, then it is in an author's best interests to get it right.

 

[Peter Burgess]

And anyone who wants to make pompous or self-righteous comments at my expense - this is your chance....

 

[kay]

At the risk of leaving the main path of the discussion, I think many young people are LESS tolerant. Less tolerant of their peers who want to try their best. Is it not cool (especially for boys) to be seen to be part of the lowest common denominator of achievement? Are those who want to try hard seen as nerds and geeks?

It's not so much the 'trying hard' as the being interested in anything remotely academic. It's OK to try hard at sport. But even being interested in something that is not physical sees you labelled as 'sad'.

[quote author=langcliffe]

Standards have declined - according to a survey of vice-chancellors half of English universities now supply remedial classes in literacy and numeracy. "Poor mathematical skills were the biggest problem facing the universities, but the vice-chancellors also complained about declining writing skills, their students struggling with basic grammar and unable to write essays."

[/quote]

Standards at uni doesn't say anything about standards in the population as a whole. Bear in mind getting on for 50% of young people now  go to uni compared with ?3% 50 years ago, and that all post A-level institutions (polytechnics, teacher training colleges etc) are now classed as universities.

Similarly, 16 year olds now take an exam designed for virtually the whole spectrum rather than one designed for the top few per cent, so it's not surprising that I look at GCSE mathematics work and am horrified at the lack of numeracy.

That said, I'm appalled at the sloppiness of 'shop window' information from many large and reputable organisations  - brochures intended for the public, web pages, with elementary mistakes like "it's" instead of "its", ad "complimentary" instead of "complementary". I tend to the view that sloppiness in spelling and grammar means a sloppy approach in general, and a 'do as little as we can get away with' approach.

 

[langcliffe]

Standards at uni doesn't say anything about standards in the population as a whole. Bear in mind getting on for 50% of young people now  go to uni compared with ?3% 50 years ago, and that all post A-level institutions (polytechnics, teacher training colleges etc) are now classed as universities.

You are right of course, but the fact is that society in general (i.e. the government and taxpayer) now has a very low regard for academic excellence, and have compromised standards to get bums on seats and reach that iconic 50% target.

Similarly, 16 year olds now take an exam designed for virtually the whole spectrum rather than one designed for the top few per cent, so it's not surprising that I look at GCSE mathematics work and am horrified at the lack of numeracy.

As an employer, I became very confused by all the changes made to secondary education qualifications.

As the years went by, I learned not to trust paper qualifications, and I used to conduct numeracy and literacy tests at the time of interview. Quite often I used to come across people who had good A-levels and reasonable degrees but who couldn't express themselves in writing, or work out a percentage.

I was technical director of a large software company at the time, which developed pretty sophisticated system software. It was vital that my software engineers could communicate their thoughts and ideas clearly in writing both to their colleagues, and to those who came after them. Excellence in developing software was not enough.

 

[kay]

Standards at uni doesn't say anything about standards in the population as a whole. Bear in mind getting on for 50% of young people now  go to uni compared with ?3% 50 years ago, and that all post A-level institutions (polytechnics, teacher training colleges etc) are now classed as universities.

You are right of course, but the fact is that society in general (i.e. the government and taxpayer) now has a very low regard for academic excellence, and have compromised standards to get bums on seats and reach that iconic 50% target.

Agreed. (I wasn't disagreeing your assertion, just your choice of evidence)

Quite often I used to come across people who had good A-levels and reasonable degrees but who couldn't express themselves in writing, or work out a percentage.

Don't start me on percentages! "the risk is 120% lower than ...". What is that supposed to mean?

Not to mention the new usage: X "is four times higher" than Y - to me that means X is 5 times Y, ie 4times X on top of the original X.

 

[paul]

I wouldn't buy a reference book that was obviously poorly edited.

Any other type of book, well it depends. For Example the "Molesworth" books by G Willans...

 

[bubba]

I think the option to change your vote probably only lasts as long as the normal option to edit your posts.

You're right, though this is the first time this problem has reared it's head. A vote is just another type of post, so the same restrictions are place upon it as there are on regular posts, i.e. only allowed to edit for 1/2 an hour.

This may seem crap, but really it's a good idea as discussion following a vote could become nonsensical if the vote changes considerably.

The best thing would be to start another topic with the correct voting options. I could turn off the permission entirely but then if you made a spelling mistake you would have no chance to correct it. Allowing a limited edit time is the lesser of two evils imho.

In response to the original question, I doubt i'd buy a book with such a spelling mistake, unless it was an obvious colloquialism.

 

[Elaine]

Tricky question really, it would depend to a degree on whether it was a book that I had intended to buy, or if it was a book about a cave or something in which I was interested in. In these cases then I expect the spelling error would deter me, but not stop me from buying it. After all, it would probably still have some pretty pictures in it.

I would probably buy one for the ACG library with their money first so that I could get a good look at it and decide whether the rest of the book seemed ok. 

Overall though it does make you wonder about the accuracy of the content if the author didn't even make sure that he spelt the name of the cave correctly.