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yes and no
In another book, I came to blows with one writer (American) who argued that I took her good jokes out of her writing. These were not sentences. The joke parts were stuck in her head. She was livid, mind you. I clarified something she said, and I woke up to a hate email saying "Someone wouldn't jester at a horse like that." That email had about 5 spelling funnies like that. So, imagine the book. And she would argue these points. (She was a self published deal, and her main client---according to her---were the inmates in a male Connecticut prison.
In the book I was working on, this guy is telling some folklore stuff, so you have to give leeway. Still, Americans won't have heard these. The words themselves have to make sense for a reader to get into the story.
The things that weren't sentences were not the kind you see with fiction writers for dramatic effect--timing, rhythm, etc. It was incoherent. It was because the person and the original editor (a nightmare who is gone) didn't know it wasn't a sentence.
About 35 percent would be a language thing. The other part was just not knowing what is correct. The beginning of the book had plural/singular mistakes all over the place. "the boy's and the girl's names..." "The class went to their place". The other stuff was stuff spell check wouldn't get but an editor (two had seen this already) should get. The children ate "desert," and a man wore a "stripped" shirt. Again, these aren't isolated.
Put that together with making sure the person's thoughts are getting through with the language exchange, and it's is pretty tedious going.
posted by
terpgirl30
on September 1, 2006 at 12:32 PM
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Terpgirl--- So, are the glaring errors (and others) the result of
translation from one language to another? I hope so. Then again, I find more errors in books today than ever before. Possibly I have a more critical eye today. But I don't think so.
posted by
Jazwolf
on September 1, 2006 at 11:57 AM
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