What type of error to report?

Some grammar rules (and embarrassing mistakes!) transcend the uniqueness of different regions and style guides. This new International Grammar section by OnlineBookClub.org ultimately identifies those rules thus providing a simple, flexible rule-set, respecting the differences between regions and style guides. You can feel free to ask general questions about spelling and grammar. You can also provide example sentences for other members to proofread and inform you of any grammar mistakes.

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Kaushiki Parihar
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What type of error to report?

Post by Kaushiki Parihar »

I found 2 errors in the book I am currently reading. It will be my first time reporting errors. However, I am not sure whether they really are errors or it's just that i find them errors. I am not even able to differentiate the error I found is objective type or subjective type. Will i not be adhering to guidelines if i report them as errors and later on i got to know that they actually are not errors that are worth reporting.
I request you to please share your experience on reporting errors.
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Post by maggi3 »

You can list them as uncounted errors if you are unsure. You could also share the errors here, so we could help you decide whether they are subjective or not. I accidentally listed some of the errors in a previous review as objective when they were not, and the editor just commented that most of the errors were subjective and that I should make sure they were objective next time; they didn’t mark my review as not adhering to guidelines.
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Post by Kaitlyn Canedy »

Hi there,

When I have had to report errors, I always look up grammatical rules on Google if I am not sure. Bear in mind that you want to use credible sites for grammatical rules (not sites like Reddit, social media opinions, etc.). There are times when the author uses words in a stylistic manner, making it difficult to know for sure if it is an error or not. If you are unsure, make a separate list with a title stating "Uncounted Errors" and list the error with the page/location number, the sentence the error is in, and a description of the error in question. It would also help to include a description of why you think it is an error, but you are not sure.
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Anna Bookowski
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Post by Anna Bookowski »

This also makes me confused sometimes. Outside the obvious spelling errors or typos, the most common are punctuation errors. Sometimes I don't know if I should list them as counted or uncounted errors - usually one can find at least a few missing commas in any given book - but I'm never sure if these should be treated seriously or just minor errors that should not count. I wonder how other reviewers are dealing with this issue?
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Post by MrsCatInTheHat »

Anna Bookowski wrote: 07 Aug 2021, 08:14 This also makes me confused sometimes. Outside the obvious spelling errors or typos, the most common are punctuation errors. Sometimes I don't know if I should list them as counted or uncounted errors - usually one can find at least a few missing commas in any given book - but I'm never sure if these should be treated seriously or just minor errors that should not count. I wonder how other reviewers are dealing with this issue?
Some comma errors are objective errors and need to be counted. Others are stylistic and should not be counted. It's very important to remember that both American English and British English are acceptable. This is why we don't count off for not using an Oxford comma, among other things. You can see previous topics for more information on this.
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Post by peter-turo »

What about when you encounter paragraph formatting errors such such line spacing?
How do you report this?
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Priya Mathew
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Post by Priya Mathew »

Hi, Looks like this post has been closed for some time now, without any real answers. I'm going to add in one more.

While navigating through the chapters of the current book I'm reading, I observed that all the subheadings are marked in bold, which aids in easy navigation and comprehension. However, in some chapter in between, I couldn't find a subheading marked in bold as is consistent throughout the rest of the book. It might be a minor detail, but I believe it could enhance the reader's experience by maintaining uniform formatting. Do I mark this as a error? But it's not a typo error.
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Post by Shirley Ann Riddern Labzentis »

I mark everything down at the end of my submission. Paragraphs that are improperly spaced, line spacing, going from single space to double space, improper hyphenation of a word, etc. I have found that it is better to report something than not to. If you say that you found no errors and other reviewers did, they automatically "flag" your review. That means that the editors are aware of this before they even begin to go over your review.
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