Reformed Standards of Unity and Typos

J.L. Allen

Puritan Board Junior
I purchased a copy of the Reformed Standards of Unity for my wife last summer, and she greatly enjoys using it along with her Bible reading for devotions. That said, I don't think I've ever seen a finished product with so many typographical errors. My wife proofreads for living, but still most of the errors were low-hanging fruit and should have been caught. Does anyone know if there is an additional printing that has corrected the errors?
 
You (or she) should email the publisher. An advantage of dealing with a small publisher is that you'll probably get a personal answer from someone who is truly in the know. Contact info is on the copyright page.
 
Quality seems to be on the decline across the board. 10 years ago I don't every recall seeing a typo in a book.
When I read the Battles edition of Calvin's Institute's, I did find some mistakes and typos. They were few and far between, but they were there. That said, I agree that it seems to be more common these days.
 
My primary reading Bible, a Thompson Chain Reference KJV, has an error in the left margin on page 1249, next to Philippians 4:7. "Keeper" appears as "keerper". I believe I have come across at least one or two other typos in this Bible. If you have this Bible, I'd be very interested to know if yours has the same typo in the same place. This is the 10th printing, from March 1997.

I generally mark typos when I find them in books, but the usefulness of that habit is hampered by the fact that I don't then go and keep a list of the found typos anywhere. So all I can do is report anecdotally that I have found typos in books from all eras, but it does seem to be more common now.
 
I purchased a copy of the Reformed Standards of Unity for my wife last summer, and she greatly enjoys using it along with her Bible reading for devotions. That said, I don't think I've ever seen a finished product with so many typographical errors. My wife proofreads for living, but still most of the errors were low-hanging fruit and should have been caught. Does anyone know if there is an additional printing that has corrected the errors?
Sorry, Johnathan....that was me....I proofread that under the influence of Bishop Spong.............
 
I purchased a copy of the Reformed Standards of Unity for my wife last summer, and she greatly enjoys using it along with her Bible reading for devotions. That said, I don't think I've ever seen a finished product with so many typographical errors. My wife proofreads for living, but still most of the errors were low-hanging fruit and should have been caught. Does anyone know if there is an additional printing that has corrected the errors?

Sounds to me like you need to contact the author, the former president of Westminster Seminary, and offer your wife's services as a proofreader for books published through the seminary.

Given the nature of this book -- good grief, it's the doctrinal standards of the seminary to which the professors subscribe! -- I wonder if the underlying issue is that someone copied-and-pasted from another source, and that "other source" was relying on a scanned-in copy of a printed book. Perhaps not the explanation in this case, but it has been in other cases of which I am aware.

When I read the Battles edition of Calvin's Institute's, I did find some mistakes and typos. They were few and far between, but they were there. That said, I agree that it seems to be more common these days.

Seminary professors and academic journals are not perfect. Last month, I emailed an author whose article was published in the journal of a well-known institution (not Westminster) and the name "Calvin" had been misspelled in the article. Things happen and I make plenty of my own errors, including two in the last post I made on this website, and I had to go back and edit the post. I want to be as patient with other writers as I would want them to be with me when, not if, I make errors.

The mass layoffs of copy editors in journalism led to a great increase in the number of errors that make it into print or online in the news media, and while I know less about the world of book publishing, I think the same applies. Editors are retiring or resigning and not being replaced by publishing companies that wrongly believe automated spellcheckers are an adequate replacement for editors.
 
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