[HPforGrownups] editors' Flints (was Dobby's pillowcase)

[Doreen]

No: HPFGUIDX 13104


  However, the following sentence will drive me crazy whenever I read 
  it, and I hope it's been corrected in the printing I buy:

  "Time is short, and unless the few of us who know the truth do not 
  stand united, there is no hope for any of us." (GoF, 712 US ed)
  That is one that I didn't catch ... I wonder if anyone else did and if it has been discussed? I am not an English teacher and it took me a couple readings to realize what was wrong with it, doing a mental sentence diagram (thanking the teacher who taught me to do that).

  The wand order was an easy one, for everyone, I think, because we started expecting a certain order, once we realized what was happening. Also, the order of their deaths has been discussed so many times. (I agree that this mistake should have been admitted to ... not just glossed over and changed) 

  As for the descendant/ancestor error, JKR describes it as a "deliberate error" but never further explains what she meant by that or why she did it. I think it was a bold-faced cop-out, like she meant to do that but never mentioned it until it was pointed out to her. Yeah, right.

  Maybe, instead of proof readers, she should hire some English teachers to edit her books for her... or the HP4GU group. Someone want to suggest that to her? We could get to read it before anyone else. hee hee

  Doreen dangling participles and ending her sentences with 


  That is the kind of sentence that I read and reread, trying to make 
  sense of it even though I know it's just a mistake.  Same with 
  misplaced modifiers, which Jo writes now and then and which her 
  editors don't catch.



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