C&E correction.

My August Campaign & Elections Magazine column, which appears on p. 50, contains the following sentence:

This will permit campaigns to map social networks and target alpha members of discreet groups, knowing that the campaign’s message will filter down.

Of course, that should be “discrete,” not “discreet.” I don’t advocate charting secret groups, only individual ones. An overzealous copyeditor changed the word, making me look like somebody who lacks a proper grasp of the English language. Let it be known: I English good.

Published by Waldo Jaquith

Waldo Jaquith (JAKE-with) is an open government technologist who lives near Char­lottes­­ville, VA, USA. more »

12 replies on “C&E correction.”

  1. And with some bloggers, we’re still working on the difference between “then” and “than” …

  2. Waldo,

    In putting together a feature article on a famous old football coach for a magazine a few years ago, an editor made a couple of wee changes in my copy, after the supposed final pass. They made me look bad to people who notice such things, such as the old coach, himself, who had been an English major.

    Then in a worse move, the same editor made a copy change, which unbeknownst to him, altered the meaning of a sentence. Uh, oh. The result made it appear to the coach that I had broken my word to him about something, a small thing. He was the kind of military guy who doesn‘t ever want to hear excuses, no matter what. So, I didn’t call him.

    It still bothers me. When I heard recently that editor is no longer on the job, I smiled.

    And, I’m glad I can fix a typo on SLANTblog, or post an update.

  3. You gotta love James — he keeps hoping he will find a venue in which spelling doesn’t count.

    Sorry, James. It will not be Mary Wash. Take that BIG dictionary along.

  4. Del. Amundson: The question, of course, is if he picked up on the irony. Actually, if one is an engineer, it seems that spelling does not count, as evidenced by my father’s attempts at the crossword puzzle. Sigh…

  5. I vividly remember having to learn to spell the days of the week in 2nd grade, but I always manage to write “wensday” on everything…

    Thank God for whoever invented spell-check (and Waldo for teaching me that i could get it for Firefox).

  6. An overzealous copyeditor changed the word

    ROFL!

    Wow. Behold a man who can never, EVER be wrong about anything… to the point that he blames his misspelling on a professional copyeditor. Unreal.

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