Correcting Mistakes,

[contentedscot]

Anyone following my posts over the past couple of years will know that I have joined a local rugby suppoters group. As one of the most computer-literate members I have taken on the task of looking after the website - addiing minutes, future meetings, etc. Now the problem I have is that very often the minutes and other files members send me for adding to the website have some glaring errors - eg using é at the end of a verb, instead of er. We are not talking about young people using texto-French - I would say the average of the members is well over 50. Do I correct the mistakes?

[rynd2it]

Originally Posted by contentedscot

Anyone following my posts over the past couple of years will know that I have joined a local rugby suppoters group. As one of the most computer-literate members I have taken on the task of looking after the website - addiing minutes, future meetings, etc. Now the problem I have is that very often the minutes and other files members send me for adding to the website have some glaring errors - eg using é at the end of a verb, instead of er. We are not talking about young people using texto-French - I would say the average of the members is well over 50. Do I correct the mistakes?

I have faced this issue as well, you have three choices:

a) ignore it and post as is
b) post as is and add (sic) after each mistake
c) correct the mistakes and mark the file as edited

Tricky issue though

Cheers

[Bevdeforges]

Oh dear, you're turning French! When I was editor of the AVF bulletin, I basically told folks that when they submitted text electronically, they should proof it for errors, because I couldn't be expected to catch them.

I still caught hell for grammatical errors in the text and for "changing" submitted text for any other reason - and even after I handed the editor position over to a "real French person" they set up a committee to proof read the bulletin (several times!) for both grammatical and "political" or policy errors.

You might see if there is someone willing to serve as a proofreader for you (or run all text through a commercial grammar checker like Antidote or Le Correcteur 101 - the freeby ones aren't all that good) so at least you can "blame" a neutral third party.
Cheers,
Bev

[contentedscot]

Thanks for your comments - I think I'll go down the "correction" route - I don't think any of the committee members will come up and say that their French leaves something to be desired.

Ian

[Marianne2010]

I doubt anybody will notice anything with the solution you choose.
Anyway, I'm in the same situation and we opted for checking the "official" announcements at the bureau meetings (once a month) but leave the rest under the responsibility of their authors, with a note at the top of the pages that say that we check the content but do not adress the form issues. We also say that any message in text message linguo will not be accepted. It leaves us with enough leeway to work with.
Marianne

[Coton90]

Originally Posted by contentedscot

Anyone following my posts over the past couple of years will know that I have joined a local rugby suppoters group. As one of the most computer-literate members I have taken on the task of looking after the website - addiing minutes, future meetings, etc. Now the problem I have is that very often the minutes and other files members send me for adding to the website have some glaring errors - eg using é at the end of a verb, instead of er. We are not talking about young people using texto-French - I would say the average of the members is well over 50. Do I correct the mistakes?

Glad to hear you're an athletic supporter Ian! (Sorry, couldn't resist that, although Amazon UK informs me there is no "er" at the end of support as in the US, where they are commonly referred to as "jock straps").

To get to the issue, yes I would make the corrections if I were in your situation and if challenged, I would refer the complainant to le dictionnaire.

I say this because you are in a position of educating the unsophisticated masses and you are actually doing them a favor as they will no longer be judged as ignorant boors because they don't know how to spell. If you do have any young readers you're increasing their chances of landing a job as nobody is going to hire a kid that can't spell correctly (Very bad for business as it makes a poor impression).

Lack of policing the language leads to it's degradation. Thus in the US, we're saddled with such abominations such as "factoid". Also in the US, people don't "eat" lunch they "do" lunch. Apparently people have forgotten what one does with food!

The same will happen to French if no one takes a stand. Come to think of it, French could use some improvement? See here Ian, if you're going to change French, get rid of all those verb endings no one uses and declare "henceforth all verbs will be feminine"

Cheers

[Bevdeforges]

Oh dear, Coton, you are still somewhat of a newby here in France, aren't you?

Maybe it's just the Ile de France, but I'd never recommend to a "foreigner" to noticeably correct French grammar. It's just too sensitive an issue here.

I got hauled on the carpet for posting a statement saying basically that the editor reserved the right to edit all copy submitted for publication. Apparently, under the law of associations of 1901, the president is the person responsible for everything that appears in all association publications, and is officially the only person who can bless (or not) or make changes to things. (Yeah, we have a few a-holes on our board, too.)

Even if Ian doesn't bother actually buying a software to do the correction and just says he ran the text through a corrector, it's probably the "diplomatic" thing to do.
Cheers,
Bev

[Coton90]

Originally Posted by Bevdeforges

Oh dear, Coton, you are still somewhat of a newby here in France, aren't you?

Maybe it's just the Ile de France, but I'd never recommend to a "foreigner" to noticeably correct French grammar. It's just too sensitive an issue here.

I got hauled on the carpet for posting a statement saying basically that the editor reserved the right to edit all copy submitted for publication. Apparently, under the law of associations of 1901, the president is the person responsible for everything that appears in all association publications, and is officially the only person who can bless (or not) or make changes to things. (Yeah, we have a few a-holes on our board, too.)

Even if Ian doesn't bother actually buying a software to do the correction and just says he ran the text through a corrector, it's probably the "diplomatic" thing to do.
Cheers,
Bev

I see a need to include a disclaimer on some of my posts:

"CAUTION. The following post is satirical in nature and is not intended to be taken seriously. "

Cheers

[contentedscot]

And in the blue corner ........

The least diplomatic thing would be to suggest that my wife gives some French lessons to selected committee members - but that might mean the end of free trips to Scotland every 2 years to watch Scotland v France.

Running a spell-checker seems a good fall-back position, though I think most of the committee members would look at me blankly.

Making all verbs feminine seems another good suggestion - but what are we going to do with the French nouns which are masculine when singular, but change to feminine when plural. Now there's an initiative test for a wet Sunday.

I do like, however, telling my younger pupils how to text in English - for example "A+" becomes CUL8R

[Coton90]

Originally Posted by contentedscot

And in the blue corner ........


Making all verbs feminine seems another good suggestion - but what are we going to do with the French nouns which are masculine when singular, but change to feminine when plural. Now there's an initiative test for a wet Sunday.

I do like, however, telling my younger pupils how to text in English - for example "A+" becomes CUL8R

Warning! The Following is Satirical in Nature!

If anything, this grammar rule underscores the need for language reform.

It seems to me whoever devised this rule was having a perverse joke.

Cheers