Thoughts about typos/errors in curricula

[Just Robyn]

I have been seeing a lot of posts mentioning typos and other similar errors in curricula. Off the top of my head, I have noticed complaints about McRuffy, MCT, MBtP, and SL. I'm wondering if there are so many errors in curricula commonly used by and marketed to public schools? If not, what is the difference? Is it that hs curriculum companies make less money and so cannot afford to spend as much time editing? Is it that there is less competition among hs companies? Of course there are a lot of companies to choose from, but it does seem like many companies are one of a kind in some aspect or another, so one might be willing to put up with errors in a curriculum because there isn't another option quite like it but without the errors.

 

FWIW, I buy products from all of the companies I listed.

ETA: Ok, MCT is not a company, but you know what I mean.

ETA: AND MCT is used in public schools, so now I really don't know what I'm saying.

Edited March 27, 2011 by crstarlette

[NanceXToo]

Beats me. I've also noticed typos with Oak Meadow (my older version) and with Teaching Textbooks 5. Truthfully, I haven't read/studied any public school text or workbooks (as an adult) enough to know whether they have those same errors. Maybe they do. If they don't, maybe it does have something to do with bigger companies over smaller companies or companies making more money over companies making less money. I don't know. I don't love when it happens but I also understand that things happen and if I like a curriculum enough for other reasons, I'm going to continue liking/using it (as is the case with the two I just mentioned). I don't think typo equals they-might-not-know-what-they're-talking-about when it comes to their subject. I'm sort of glad to see that my more off the beaten path (so to speak) choices aren't the only ones though and that you listed others that have the same issue lol.

[Just Robyn]

Beats me. I've also noticed typos with Oak Meadow (my older version) and with Teaching Textbooks 5. Truthfully, I haven't read/studied any public school text or workbooks (as an adult) enough to know whether they have those same errors. Maybe they do. If they don't, maybe it does have something to do with bigger companies over smaller companies or companies making more money over companies making less money. I don't know. I don't love when it happens but I also understand that things happen and if I like a curriculum enough for other reasons, I'm going to continue liking/using it (as is the case with the two I just mentioned). I don't think typo equals they-might-not-know-what-they're-talking-about when it comes to their subject. I'm sort of glad to see that my more off the beaten path (so to speak) choices aren't the only ones though and that you listed others that have the same issue lol.

 

:iagree: I'm not changing what curricula we use over typos. As the list grows to now include OM and TT, I'm beginning to wonder if a typo-free curriculum exists anyway.

[lmrich]

Yes - they are typos and mistakes in public school textbooks. All the time!

[Kalmia]

I worked for a curriculum development company, a major publisher, and am a writer myself. I have seen plenty of typos and errors in mass-market books--upside down photos, dropped letters, etc., etc. etc.

 

I think it happens for two reasons: either too many people have their hands on the documents increasing the potential for the introduction of error (especially when cutting and pasting) or too few people look at it (especially if it is just the author) resulting in missed errors. The author almost automatically sees "correct" word, the one they meant to write, in their mind's eye when they try and proofread--so they miss what is actually on the page. This is why proofreading books have suggestions like proofreading documents backwards, setting them aside for weeks or reading them aloud.

 

But major publishers do have access to some of the best professional proofreaders in the country. A small press may have a smaller pool of proofreaders to draw upon.

 

My husband works for a major textbook publisher. Here is his answer to the typo question:

 

1. The sheer volume of content that is produced is staggering. A few errors are bound to get through.

2. It is much harder to make the content clean than people think.

3. Because of the Internet, there is a constant demand for new material so the shelf life of good content is surprisingly short. Every time you change content there is the potential to introduce errors.

4. All those errors seem dumb but when you try to create content yourself you become much more understanding. My husband said that he laughed much harder at these things before he tried to do it himself.

 

P.S. I must have made 20 typos just trying writing this post quickly. I wonder how many of them are still there...

[AngieW in Texas]

Typos are everywhere. I actually requested the contact information to call about some errors in the solution manual for Giancoli's physics. There were several problems where the solution used entirely different numbers than were presented in the problem. I know what happened there. They must have changed the problem in the textbook, but not changed it in the solutions. I've also seen answers given with a negative exponent when it was supposed to be a positive exponent. The solution manual (and the answer key in the back of the text) at times has used constants with more significant digits than provided in the textbook and that has affected the significant digits in the final answer.

 

Giancoli's isn't swimming in errors. There are a LOT of problems in that book and I've worked through nearly all of them for the sections we've covered. I've probably found 10 errors so far out of many thousands of problems.

 

I've found a caption error (negative exponent where there should have been a positive exponent) in my edition of the student book, but it was corrected in my dd's text. I've found answer key errors in the student book that were correct in the solution manual. I've found solution manual errors that were correct in the student book answer key.

 

Giancoli's is still the best algebra-based physics book I've looked at.

[DawnM]

I haven't made a huge stink over an error or two, even though I think they should be caught.

 

However, there is one homeschool curriculum that has so many that I just can't use it anymore. The errors are not only typos, they are grammatical. This tells ME that the authors don't understand or grasp the very things they are trying to teach.

 

Now, on a forum I expect errors, I make them all the time. I don't have time to recheck my posts, nor do I care enough to double check. And honestly, it is easy to tell if someone is making a typo vs. one who has very poor grammar.

 

Dawn

[regentrude]

I'd like to make a distinction between typos and actual mistakes. Typos can happen - should not, but that's life. And yes, public school textbooks have typos all the time, too.

Mistakes in content are another thing. They should not happen. When my kids were still in ps, I was appalled by the many factual mistakes in their science books - there was just plain wrong stuff in there. The teachers' supplements were not any better; both kids had tests (provided by the publisher) that were completely nonsensical.

Solution manuals to textbooks such as physics: I suspect those are written by underpaid graduate students. Errors are abundant. (I don't count more significant figures and a resulting slight deviation of a numerical result as an actual error - the student should be able to deal with that.) But some solution have actual physics mistakes in them. I have not come across a single textbook where they had no errors in the solution manuals.

Textbooks themselves are usually proofed more carefully. However, the weirdest things can happen: in ONE student's copy of a book, in the chapter summary the equations for two different situations had been swapped. Only one student out of the whole class had a book with this very grave mistake. Beats me how that can happen.

[2cents]

When I was in college, we got extra points for finding textbook errors in a statistics class I was in. Found out later the instructor got $$ for turning in the mistakes. I found 4 or 5 in the textbook and scored some extra class points. :001_smile: I found some errors in a SAT review workbook I recently did with the girls too. The level of disappointment varies with the amount of errors I find and their magnitude.