#466889 - Mon Apr 20 2009 02:32 PM
Re: Quiz corrections etiquette
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Mainstay
Registered: Thu Sep 15 2005
Posts: 989
Loc: Upstate NY, USA former LIer
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Quote:
What is the point in sending a correction notice? I have sent out quite a few in my time here, and do you all know how many have responded, let alone fixed it? One. Two if you count the time I had an insult towards Americans taken out of someone's quiz. However, that was an editor that changed that. Not the author itself.
Not sure if this applies, but if one plays mostly the bonus-point types of quizzes (Global challenge, hourlies, etc.) realize that the question pool for them is generated once and used for a LONG time going forward (months, maybe longer?) so any questions that are later fixed will still show up incorrectly until the database is updated. You'd have to go to the actual quiz to see the change any sooner. Along these lines, several times, based on what I saw in some Global Challenge quizzes, I've been tempted to send corrections, but being aware of the above issue, I opted to open up the actual quiz, and I saw the mistake had been fixed!
Personally, I've sent out dozens of corrections, mostly for spelling, etc. and have gotten back only a couple of responses. Only one was downright rude but the other few thanked me.
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#466891 - Mon Apr 20 2009 11:02 PM
Re: Quiz corrections etiquette
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Multiloquent
Registered: Tue Feb 20 2007
Posts: 2069
Loc: Sydney, Australia
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Quote:
If someone has sent me a polite correction notice I always reply and I either thank them and let them know I've changed it or I explain why I haven't.
If it's not polite I will deal with it as needed but I don't reply to the sender.
I follow this too. There are very few notes that I haven't replied to though.
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#466893 - Wed Apr 22 2009 04:43 PM
Re: Quiz corrections etiquette
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Mainstay
Registered: Sat Nov 03 2007
Posts: 506
Loc: Tyrone
Northern Ireland UK
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I was very tempted to send in a correction note because I reckoned that a quiz setter had got a past tense wrong 10 times in as many questions.
Then I realised English may not be his/her first language so I let it go.
These things infuriate me: such as when I hear television journalists say that "the Titanic sunk on her maiden voyage.."
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There are just two types of people in this world, those who hear the music and those who don't.
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#466899 - Thu Apr 23 2009 08:53 AM
Re: Quiz corrections etiquette
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Moderator
Registered: Sun Apr 29 2001
Posts: 4095
Loc: Norwich England�UK���ï...
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In most quizzes that I edit submitted by Americans I find that forms used are: drink - drunk - drunk sing - sung - sung sink - sunk - sunk - and so on. Obviously, the vowel of the simple past is at odds with British English and traditional grammar. However, I have found the u-vowel so frequently, and from articulate, well educated quiz authors that I wonder if this is in fact becoming (or has already become) the accepted norm in American English, except perhaps in very formal usage. As a quiz editor, I change 'sunk' (past) to 'sank', but perhaps I should just accept it as American English. I'd welcome comments, please.  FT Editor, History and People
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#466902 - Thu Apr 23 2009 09:55 AM
Re: Quiz corrections etiquette
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Multiloquent
Registered: Tue Jul 04 2006
Posts: 3613
Loc: Lawrenceville Georgia�USA�...
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I am a native-speaker of American English, and though there are people who don't use the simple past for some irregular verbs in speech, it is an error, and would not be considered acceptable in any formal setting (business, academia, newspaper articles, etc.). These are mistakes that should be corrected.
Edited by shuehorn (Fri Apr 24 2009 04:41 PM)
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#466903 - Thu Apr 23 2009 10:44 AM
Re: Quiz corrections etiquette
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Champion Poster
Registered: Sun Oct 05 2003
Posts: 24575
Loc: near Stafford, Virginia USA
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Quote:
As a quiz editor, I change 'sunk' (past) to 'sank', but perhaps I should just accept it as American English.
bloomsby, what you change is also the correct way here in the USA. Don't accept it, as it is incorrect. People invariably will use the wrong tense, and it bugs me also.
As I stated above, the way I remember my verb tenses works for me, and it may be different than some people are accustomed to, but "sung"/"drunk" as a past tense only is incorrect.
Edit to add: here is a list of irregular verbs (ones you don't add -ed to the end of the verb to make past) with both past tense and past participles. This page has some irregular verbs also.
Here are most (maybe not all) of the regular verbs that just add -ed, and from the same site the most common irregular verbs.
Edited by dg_dave (Thu Apr 23 2009 11:03 AM)
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#466904 - Thu Apr 23 2009 03:42 PM
Re: Quiz corrections etiquette
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Mainstay
Registered: Sat Nov 03 2007
Posts: 506
Loc: Tyrone
Northern Ireland UK
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A new one on me is "dove"; not the bird but as in "He dove off the port side of the Titanic". (Presumably just before the ship "sunk" in the North Atlantic.)
I also winced the other day when I heard a BBC radio sports journalist say that one soccer side had "a more smoother" passage into the cup final than another.
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There are just two types of people in this world, those who hear the music and those who don't.
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#466905 - Thu Apr 23 2009 03:52 PM
Re: Quiz corrections etiquette
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Prolific
Registered: Mon Mar 12 2007
Posts: 1408
Loc: Hartlepool Durham England UK
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Oh ewww darksplash, that one made my inner nerd cringe! I particularly hate "most favourite" - am grimacing as I type it now lol
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#466907 - Thu Apr 23 2009 04:19 PM
Re: Quiz corrections etiquette
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Enthusiast
Registered: Tue May 16 2006
Posts: 316
Loc: Napa Valley
California USA
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I saw an interview of a baseball player from Stanford University who said, "...well, I just swang at the first good pitch." 
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#466908 - Thu Apr 23 2009 04:20 PM
Re: Quiz corrections etiquette
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Mainstay
Registered: Sat Jul 17 2004
Posts: 727
Loc: Essex UK
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Staying with Midget off topic here, but "brutal murder" always seems a bit strange - as opposed to a gentle one?
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#466909 - Thu Apr 23 2009 06:20 PM
Re: Quiz corrections etiquette
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Mainstay
Registered: Sat Nov 03 2007
Posts: 506
Loc: Tyrone
Northern Ireland UK
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The overuse of the word "separate" on radio and TV news bulletins annoys me - as in "last night there were two separate plane crashes in the USA and Canada."
The USA and Canada are different countries, of course these are separate crashes...the word "two" even denotes that.
One of the guilty is a friend of mine who is a TV reporter. Debating this subject, I once asked him how many children he had " Two boys" he said. "Is that two seperate boys then..."?
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There are just two types of people in this world, those who hear the music and those who don't.
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