Writing and Editing Issues

Although this is primarily a blog for reviews, from time to time I will post items I think are relevant to the writing process. The following is one of the major issues I have with writing and editing.

I am finding glaring errors in books by established authors such as Raymond Feist, Anne Bishop, and R.A. Salvatore. I think the majority of the problem is that authors and editors rely far too much on spell check. It is fine for some things, but it doesn't catch words that are spelled right, but not correct in the context in which they are used. "Sat" "Sitting", for example, or its and it's (one of my bugaboos!) "Its" is one of the worst offenders, I think. The only time it has an apostrophe is if it is short for "it is". One of the anomalies in the English language in that even as a possessive, it does not have an apostrophe. There is also the bad habit of using apostrophes in some plurals, such as "video's (videos) or CD's (CDs). I'm not sure if this is inherent in today's teaching or whether it's because we depend too much on technology instead of our own brains.