About Hal’s Quotes & Notes: Accuracy (of the Quotes)

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Q&N introduction:
general
index pages
topical chains
sources
accessibility
selections
language/content
accuracy
typography
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Hal

Index pages:
authors
titles
categories
topics
translators

Redesigning for accessibility required a detailed rewrite of the whole collection. Because this raised the risk of errors, I also began a systematic review of quotes. The good news is I corrected errors on almost every page. The bad news is I found errors on almost every page.

It’s good news because a lot of errors have been corrected, and my methods of checking have improved. I intend to continue checking in the same finicky manner from here on.

It’s bad news because it’s obvious I cannot guarantee accuracy. Some errors will sneak in, no matter what I do.

There are also a few cases where I deliberately diverge from the source, without comment, to correct what I consider obvious typographical errors. Examples include:

I hope these are acceptably trivial.

Fidelity to the sources turns out to be a function of continually-evolving transcription styles. (E.g., eventually I encountered ellipses as part of quotes, and my own ellipses – indicating portions I had omitted in a quote – suddenly became ambiguous.) Therefore, where a recheck of the source text can be documented, I link to notes on the transcription practices I used in that particular case. (See the typography page for details.)


Background graphic copyright © 2005 by Hal Keen