Errors and Reader Forgiveness

Hannah Charlesworth

ELANG 350: Basic Editing Skills

March 9, 2018
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Introduction

The goal of every publisher, editor, and writer is to help the reader have an enjoyable

experience. “Reassuring and impressing the reader keeps them coming back. It persuades them

to believe, to invest, to buy.”1 However, no human is perfect, and no book is either. Editors do

their best to catch every error, but inevitably, there will be mistakes that they somehow miss.

These errors bother readers, no matter the reader’s degree or occupation. Not only do the

errors negatively affect the experience of the reader, but they also “create misunderstandings of

the text’s meaning, and they harm the image of the writer (and possibly the organization to

which the writer belongs).”2 This is the last thing that anyone in the publishing industry, or any

industry, wants. If a reader views these errors in a negative light, that’s one less customer, and

possibly more depending on whether or not the reader complains about their experience to their

family and friends.

What might help publishers, editors, and writers is understanding the nature of these

errors, how they affect their readers, and at what point those readers dismiss their brand as a

result of these errors.

Research Question

Larry Beason, in his article “Ethos and Error: How Business People React to Errors,”

looked at whether or not grammatical errors bothered business people, which errors were

considered more bothersome than others, and how this impacted his test subjects’ experiences.

He concluded that all types of errors are bothersome, especially when considering the context of

the error.

1
Saller, The Subversive Copy Editor, 5.
2
Beason, “Ethos and Error,” 48.
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I wanted to explore this in the context of fiction. Many people read unedited fanfiction,

self-published novels, and other works despite the many grammatical errors they find within

these pieces. Other people refuse to read these pieces for the same reason. I wanted to know at

what point readers stop reading a story due to grammatical errors, and how genre plays into it. I

also wanted to know at what point readers will tolerate or forgive these grammatical errors, and

enjoy a story despite them. In order to find a concrete answer to these questions, I tested whether

grammatical errors found within the first few sentences of a text versus later in the text affects a

reader’s engagement with the story.

Methods

For this study, I handpicked ten participants who are avid readers. All of the participants

have the same ethnicity, affiliate with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and, with

the exception of Sophie, are currently enrolled in college. Although all participants vary in

personality, temperament, and life experiences, the main difference between all of the

participants is that five of them have studied English and the other five have not. My purpose in

employing this variation was to explore whether reading in an academic setting affects how a

reader views errors in fiction. Below is a table of all of the participants and any information that

is relevant to the study and may have had an impact on the data.

Participants who have studied English3

Anna Anna is an editing minor, and she has worked as an editor for a publishing
company.
Brenna Although Brenna is currently studying interdisciplinary humanities, she was an
English major prior to switching her major. She has written several novels and is
also an editing minor. She loves fantasy and reads the occasional fanfiction—
editing them as she goes.
Chris Chris is planning on going to law school, and he enjoys reading science fiction
and fantasy.

3
The names of all of the participants in this study have been changed in order to keep their information confidential.
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Sammy Sammy is planning on going to graduate school to become a professor. She loves
to write poetry, and, if given the choice, she doesn’t typically choose to read
science fiction or fantasy.
William William is also planning on going to law school. He is obsessed with science
fiction and fantasy, and many of his conversations center around The Lord of the
Rings.

Participants who have not studied English

Carrie Carrie reads at least two books a week. She loves young adult fantasy, science
fiction, and romance. Every once in a while, she’ll read fanfictions that are
recommended to her by friends.
Daniel Daniel is a very fast reader, and usually finishes a book within a day, if not
within a few hours. He enjoys science fiction and fantasy, but usually reads
based off of friend recommendations.
Ginger Ginger is obsessed with science fiction, and she loves reading fanfiction.
Jessica Jessica loves to read science fiction and fantasy. She also enjoys writing.
Sophie Sophie has been out of college for many years, but she reads one to two books a
week. If she has time, she will read more.

After picking my subjects, I created two different surveys using two excerpts from two

different science fiction stories: one from the classic, award winning novel Dune, by Frank

Herbert, and the other from an Ender’s Game fanfiction called “The Mandate of Heaven,” by an

anonymous author. In the first survey, I inserted errors into the beginning of the excerpt from

Dune, and errors into the end of the excerpt from “The Mandate of Heaven.” Then I asked the

participants whether or not they would want to continue reading each piece, which piece they

enjoyed the most, and why, and which piece they would choose to publish as is.4 In the second

survey, I did the same thing, except I put the errors at the beginning of the excerpt from “The

Mandate of Heaven” and at the end of the excerpt from Dune.5 This way there would be no

discrimination based on the different subgenres and writing styles.

Then I carefully distributed the surveys to the ten participants. The participants who

received the first survey were Daniel, Brenna, Ginger, Chris, and William. The participants who

4
Refer to Appendix A to view survey one.
5
Refer to Appendix C to view survey two.
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received the second survey were Becky, Emily C., Erika, Olivia, and Sheree. I tried to split the

surveys up semi-evenly between the participants who have studied English and those who have

not. I also tried to put an equal amount of participants who have a tendency to analyze things

more critically in each group. This way the results would not be skewed by personality or by

choice of study. However, I did not take into account gender or interests, which may have

affected the results.

After collecting completed surveys from all of the participants, I looked over the results

and compared the reactions to the two different surveys, the reactions to errors placed in the

beginning of an excerpt compared to the end of an excerpt, and individual responses. I tried to

find correlations between the objective responses and the numbers. I looked for responses that

were more concerned with the technical errors or were more concerned with the content of the

different pieces. My goal was to look for patterns in the data and the reasons for those results.

Results6

The results of the surveys were unexpected, but informative. The experiment ended up

exploring more than just how the presence of errors affects a reader’s experience; it explored the

role of genre and bias in those reading experiences. Although seven of the ten participants

preferred the excerpts with the errors placed at the end of them for publication, seven (not the

same seven) of the ten participants enjoyed the excerpt from the fanfiction better than the excerpt

from Dune. Three of the participants recognized the passage from Dune, and one of them

thought that the fanfiction was an excerpt from Ender’s Game. All three of these participants

received survey one, which may have affected their answers. Three participants told me after

they had taken the study that the survey was painful to read, and six participants mentioned the

6
Refer to Appendix B and Appendix D to view the individual responses of each of the participants to the surveys.
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presence of errors in their explanation of how they determined their preferences, but all of the

participants mentioned content as a deciding factor.

Discussion

Because the sampling was so small, I cannot make any concrete conclusions. If I were to

do this study again, I would find a larger sampling, use excerpts that were from the same genre

and subgenre, and take into account gender and interests when distributing the survey. However,

I do assert that readers have a tendency to forgive errors as long as what they’re reading is

something they enjoy. Even though the survey was riddled with errors, Ginger contacted me after

she had taken the survey and asked me about the excerpts on the survey. When I told her that one

of the excerpts was from a fanfiction, she asked me which one and put it on her reading list. Her

ability to enjoy the piece was based on the content, not the little technical errors.

Of course, the grammatical errors are still important and influence a reader’s experience.

For some readers, if errors are found at the beginning of a piece, they are more likely to stop

reading the piece before they can come to enjoy the story. Four of the participants, all of which

complained to me about the grammatical errors, put a one on a scale of one to five that indicated

their desire to continue reading the book after reading the excerpts with errors placed at the

beginning of them. Another participant, William, chose the fanfiction excerpt in survey one

(where the errors were placed at the beginning of the excerpt) as his favorite piece, but chose the

excerpt from Dune as the piece he would publish. Although the content of both pieces played a

larger role in his experience than the errors, the grammatical errors did affect how he felt about

sharing those pieces.

This is all valuable information for editors and publishers because it directs them to know

which pieces, and where within those pieces, to focus their editing the most. Of course, the goal
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of every editor and publisher is to eliminate all of the errors found in the pieces they publish, but

money-constraints force publishers to use the terms light, medium, and heavy to guide the

amount of time and focus a copyeditor should put into a manuscript. Einsohn points out that in a

perfect world, levels of copyediting “would be based solely on an assessment of the quality of

the writing and the needs of the intended audience. But in many cases, financial considerations

and deadline pressures win out.”7 Publishers can use the information from this study to decide

which books they should assign to have a heavier or a lighter copyedit. They can determine this

by asking themselves Is this text in a genre that is more widely read? Does this author or this

book series already have a fan base? etc. When copyeditors are asked to do a light copyedit, they

can determine to focus their efforts on the beginning of the story and in the places in the story

where the content may seem slower or less interesting than the rest of the story in order to keep

the reader from putting the book down.

There is value in knowing how different errors affect different readers, but the placement

and the context of those errors are just as important. Paying attention to these trends may not fix

all of an editor’s or a publisher’s problems, but it can guide them to know where they need to put

the most energy and how to use their time and resources wisely.

7
Einsohn, The Copyeditor’s Handbook, 13.
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Appendix A: Survey 1

Read the following passages and answer the questions below.

500km above the surface of the Earth, the plannet looks much the same.
Such were the thoughts of Comander Girik Singh as he looked through the bridge
viewport of IFS Agni. Nicknamed “the agony” by it’s crew, even though it has never left the
Solar system to take part in the 3rd Invasion. Built as late as it was, one didn’t cross the vast
reaches of space in the blink of an eye. Somewhere, his sister was on a colony ship to a world
that she wouldn’t see in fifty Terran years, but for her, it would seem like mere months.
Somewhere, his parents were on the blue and green marble that was Earth—key word on
“somewhere.” Last he’d heard they’d been trying to flee for Sri Lanka as Chinese forces closed
in from the north. As the Agni hovered over the Indian Ocean, he looked down at the Indian
subcontinent. From here, it looked like it always had for hundreds of thousands of years. From
space, no borders could be seen, nothing to separate India from Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, or
China. To the untrained eye, India was part of one giant landmass that covered what humanity
knew as Asia, Europe, and Africa.

On a scale of one to five, how much would you desire to continue reading this book?

In the week before their departure to Arrakis, when all the final scurrying about had
reached a nearly unbearable frenzy, an old crone came to visit the mother of the boy, Paul.
It was a warm night at Castle Caladan, and the ancient pile of stone that had served the
Atreides family as home for twenty-six generations bore that cooled-sweat feeling it acquired
before a change in the weather.
The old woman was let in by the side door down the vaulted passage by Paul's room and
she was allowed a moment to peer in at him where he lay in his bed.
By the halflight of suspensor lamp, dimed and hanging near the floor, the awakened boy
sees a bulky female shape at his door, standing one-step ahead of his mother. The old woman
was a witch shadow—hair like mated spiderwebs hooded 'round darkness of features eyes like
glitering jewels.

On a scale of one to five, how much would you desire to continue reading this book?

Which piece did you enjoy more, and why?

If you had to pick one, which piece would you choose to publish as it is?
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Appendix B: Results from Survey 1

Rank Rank Which piece

Name of 1st of 2nd Which piece they enjoyed more and why is fit for
piece piece publication
Brenna 1 2 The second one, because it seemed a little more 2nd piece
cohesive.
Chris 4 4 The first was unfamiliar to me, so it was a bit 2nd piece
more intriguing for that reason. I am familiar with
the second and have read it before. That being
said, the language was more interesting in the
second piece, and the first was more of an info-
dump. Both had errors, but I think the second had
fewer.
Daniel 4 3 I enjoyed the first one more because it had less 1st piece
typos, a clear background, and a clear main
character. The second was more in media res,
while the first seemed to actually be at the
beginning of a story arc.
Ginger 4 4 Both sound pretty interesting to me, but I’d 1st piece
probably enjoy the first one more since it reminds
me of Ender’s Game. The second one seems to
have more potential for world building, but the
quality of the world building would change how I
view the second piece.
William 10 (5)8 5 (3) Well, Dune is a classic that should be required 2nd piece
reading for everyone. I’d like to read the other
book because its politicism isn’t as deep and is
more relevant than the second. I was interested
because it is interesting to combine different
science fiction tropes. Normally in science
fiction, at least space age sci-fi, the world is
united. Here it isn’t, and I want to see that take.

8
For the sake of the study, I modified William’s original answers in order to prevent the data from being skewed.
However, I included the original answers and my modifications here.
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Appendix C: Survey 2

Read the following passages and answer the questions below.

In the week before there departure to Arrakis, when all the finale scurrying about had
reached a nearly unbareable frenzy. An old croone came to visit the mother of the boy Paul.
It was a warm night at Castle Caladan, and the ancient pile of stone that had served the
Atreides family as home for twenty six generations bore that cooled-sweat feeling it accquired
before a change in the weather.
The old woman was let in by the side door down the vaulted passage by Paul's room and
she was allowed a moment to peer in at him where he lay in his bed.
By the half-light of a suspensor lamp, dimmed and hanging near the floor, the awakened
boy could see a bulky female shape at his door, standing one step ahead of his mother. The old
woman was a witch shadow—hair like matted spiderwebs, hooded 'round darkness of features,
eyes like glittering jewels.

On a scale of one to five, how much would you desire to continue reading this book?

50,000km above the surface of the earth, the planet looked much the same.
Such were the thoughts of Commander Girik Singh as he looked through the bridge
viewport of IFS Agni, nicknamed “the Agony” by its crew, even though it had never left the solar
system to take part in the Third Invasion. Built as late as it was, one didn’t cross the vast reaches
of space in the blink of an eye. Somewhere, his sister was on a colony ship to a world that she
wouldn’t see in fifty Terran years, but for her, it would seem like mere months. Somewhere, his
parents were on the blue and green marble that was Earth—key word on “somewhere.” Last he’d
heard they’d been trying to flee for Sri Lanka as Chinese forces closed in from the north. As the
Agni hovered over the Indian Ocean, he looked down at the Indian subcontinent. From here, it
looked like it always had for hundreds, if not for thousands of years. From space no border’s
could be seen, nothing to separate India from Pakistan, Nepall, Bangladesh, or China. Too the
untrained eye, India was part of one giant landmass that covered what humanity knows as Asia,
Europ, and Africa.

On a scale of one to five, how much would you desire to continue reading this book?

Which piece did you enjoy more, and why?

If you had to pick one, which piece would you choose to publish as it is?
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Appendix D: Results from Survey 2

Rank Rank Which piece

Name of 1st of 2nd Which piece they enjoyed more and why is fit for
Piece Piece publication
Anna 1 3 I personally liked the second piece better because 2nd piece
it was a little easier to follow what was going on.
In addition, the grammatical and punctuation
errors of the first piece were distracting and
confusing. The second piece had more context,
and I felt I had a better understanding of what
was happening.
Carrie 2 4 I enjoyed the second piece better because it was 2nd piece
more understandable. Though the first one was
more comprehensive, I would have chosen that
one based on the genre.
Jessica 1 3 I enjoyed the second one more because it wasn’t 2nd piece
absolutely atrocious. The first one had so many
errors in it that it distracted from the actual
reading of the section, and what I could read was
worded so awkwardly, I sometimes had to piece
together what I had just read was actually
supposed to mean. The second one seemed to
have an interesting enough plot, and though it did
have some errors, especially near the end, I was
able to understand what it was trying to say
despite the issues it had.
Sammy 3 1 I like fantasy stories more than science fiction, 1st piece
and I felt like the first one is going more in that
direction than the second. I don't think that it's a
question of which one is better written. I think it's
just a genre preference.
Sophie 1 3 The first piece had so many obvious spelling 2nd piece
errors it was almost painful to read. I enjoyed the
2nd piece more although, once again, there were
a few spelling errors. The author of the 2nd piece
gave a concise back story description, enough
that I want to know more.
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Bibliography

Beason, Larry. "Ethos and error: How business people react to errors." College composition and

communication (2001): 33-64.

Einsohn, Amy. The Copyeditor’s Handbook: A Guide for Book Publishing and Corporate

Communications. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2011.

Saller, Carol Fisher. The Subversive Copy Editor. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press,

2016.