Spelling and Grammar Errors on Mindat

Please DO use this thread to post all errors related to SPELLING and GRAMMAR.

Please DO NOT use this thread to post errors related to TECHNICAL or NUMERICAL DATA (e.g. crystallography etc.)

I will do my best to fix anything that is mentioned here as soon as possible.

Vik

Vik,

I am not sure if you have authority to correct mineral names, but remondite-(Ce) and -(La) should be changed to rémondite-(Ce) and -(La).

László

Locality designation: Gösleswand (Goslerwand), Prägraten, Virgen valley, East Tyrol, Tyrol, Austria (mindat.org/loc-19131)–the word “valley” should be capitalized.


Locality designation: Amerbach valley, Felben valley, Hohe Tauern, Salzburg, Austria
(mindat.org/loc-53385)–both occurrences of “valley” should be capitalized.


Ulexite page:

In Crystallography of Ulexite, Morphology: The second sentence contains the misspelled word “randoly” that should be “randomly.”


Clinozoisite page:

The word “volume” is misspelled in this Reference: “Holland, T.J.B., Redfern, S.A.T., and Pawley, A.R. (1996), Vlume behavior of hydrous minerals at high pressure and temperature: II. Compressibilities of lawsonite, zoisite, clinozoisite and epidote. American Mineralogist: 81: 341-348.”


Paranatrolite page:

Note this Reference: “Khomyakov, A.P., G.Y. Cherepivskaya, and M.G. Mikheeva (1986): First paranatrolite ¯nds in the USSR. Doklady Acad. Nauk SSSR, 288, 214-217 (in Russian).”

“¯nds” is a typo, but I don’t know what it is supposed to be.


Rutile page:

(This is in the crystallography section, but it simply relates to a word choice.) In Crystallography of Rutile, Twinning: “On {011} common. Often genticulated; also contact twins of very varied habit.”

The unfortunate choice of words here is “genticulated” for bent. It should be “geniculated,” which unequivocally means "bent." Genticulated has come to mean that one talks to himself or herself, although it may still be used as an alternative form for geniculate in anatomy. I'd change it!

Norman,

Paranatrolite: the partially missing word should be finds

I symphathize with the folks who have nothing better to do.

You could continue this into the individual posts. You would find people who can't even consistently spell their own name.

Dennis



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 01/27/2012 07:42PM by Dennis Tryon.

Dennis, it is important on the mineral pages that everything is correct, a scientific website with many grammar and spelling errors is not on and I think that is all the above posters are checking for and fixing, everyone makes mistakes from time to time so there is a need to check.

I for one assume if there is poor spelling and sloppy sentences in a document (not talking Mindat here by the way, just general) that the author is lazy and therefore tend to disregard it, spelling is important, more so in science!

Dennis, without volunteers this site would not be what it is today, it would be full of rubbish, spelling errors & just photo's, would you consider it such an invaluable on-line resource then ? We need more people like Vik, Laszlo & Norman to step up & help correct/point out errors, it's not a job most managers can dedicate time to.

There is no need for disparaging comments for those who give up time to help correct the database.

Vik has just started up a 'good cause' here & needs encouragement & thanks goes out to anyone prepared to help.

Lol three edits there Dennis, any spelling mistakes ? or just typo's

Regards,
Criag
Cirag
Craig....got it

Vik,

I presume you saw the information about the paranatrolite reference provided by Laszlo (Thanks, Laszlo!).

New stuff:

Galena page:

This sentence appears in the introductory comments: “Galena is the primary ore mineral of lead. Worked for its lead content as early as 3000 BC, it is found in ore veins with sphalerite, pyrite, chalcopyrite, fahlore etc., skarns, and in sedimentary rocks as beds or impregnations.

OK, first, there should be a comma after “fahlore.” Second, I must confess that I had never heard of “fahlore” until I read this page. Why not say “tennantite-tetrahedrite,” a term (synonym of fahlore) that 99% of us would know? Next, there is no such thing as a “bed” of galena. “Beds” refer only to material deposited as a result of sedimentary processes. A solid mass of galena may replace limestone, however, but that is a hydrothermal event, not a sedimentary event. Finally, “impregnation” is meaningless as a geological term.

I suggest rewording the pertinent sentence thus: “Worked for its lead content as early as 3000 BC, it is found in ore veins with sphalerite, pyrite, chalcopyrite, and tennantite-tetrahedrite, etc., and in skarns, as well as in sedimentary rocks where it may replace carbonate beds or be deposited in pore spaces.


Cuprite page:

This appears in Physical Properties of Cuprite, Colour: “Dark red to conchineal red, . . . " Replace “conchineal” with “cochineal.”


Ferrohornblende page:

This reference is cited: “Barnes, V.E. (1930) hanges in hornblende at about 800°. American Mineralogist: 15: 393-417.” The first word of the title should be “Changes.”


Schorl page:

This reference is cited: “Aurisicchio, C., Ottolini, L., and Pezzotta, F. (1999): Electron- and on-microprobe analyses, and genetic interferences of tourmalines of the foitite-schorl solid solution, Elba Island (Italy). Eurpean Journal of Mineralogy: 11, 217-225.” The title should be “Electron- and ion-microprobe analyses . . . .“


Antigorite page:

This appears in the introduction: “The type material was collected from outcrops of the Geisspfad serpentinite, at the border between Switzerland and Italy. It is not clear, in which country the material was sampled.” In the second sentence, delete the comma after “clear.” I suggest rewording those sentences thus: “The type material was collected near the border between Switzerland and Italy from outcrops of the Geisspfad serpentinite. It is not clear in which country the material was obtained.”

fixed everything so far (including the 'finds' in the Paranatrolite entry)

Vik

Hi all,

Just to tell the POTD have a misspelling, it's the Col des BagEnelles and not BagAnelles.

I hope this helps.

Take care and best regards.

Paul.

Irgizite, I think should be Irghizite. At least every website I look up about it has it named Irghizite.

"Irgizite" - Where on mindat is it used?

David,

Jason was referring to this: [www.mindat.org]

Before i fixed it, it was spelled Irgizite (without the H).

I also added the latitude & longitude for the crater.

Vik

I noticed Irghiszite has been corrected but its still spelled Irgizite in the description of Tektites, sorry for being picky!

Irghizite is also spelled without the "h" in the mindat Index of Minerals.

OK, I'm going to rant for a moment -- sorry.

There is a rampant misuse of the term "comprise", which (on the whole) is treated better in MinDat than most places.

Good example : "The granite from Monkeyfart Knob comprises quartz, muscovite, and potassium feldspar."
Bad example: "The granite from Monkeyfart Knob is comprised of quartz, muscovite, and potassium feldspar."

The general usage I have always hewed to is as follows:
Rock A comprises minerals X, Y, and Z.
Rock A consists of minerals X, Y, and Z.
Rock A is composed of minerals X, Y, and Z.

To keep the sedimentologists happy, "Formation A comprises units X, Y, and Z."

There is at least one mineral dealer I rather (otherwise) like to whom I have pointed this out but consistently uses this in their descriptions. Argh.

One could argue that "OK, but this has become common usage in English." Bullpuckey. That's lazy -- sort of like saying that everyone screws it up, so we might as well give up and call it good. As in "The data is in favor of this proposition". No, the data are in favor. (I continue to wage guerrilla warfare against this usage by changing it and accepting my own changes in documents I send to others when I think it will make a difference.)

Yes, I probably have better things to do with my life, but every cause needs a champion.

Cheers,
D.

Where is Monkeyfart Knob?

Some of us (we) sedimentologists are also irked every time we see "rock A is comprised of X, Y, and Z." Doesn't everyone besides Don and me (I) know that is incorrect? Unfortunately, it occurs in many texts which (that) I did not edit, people know what the author meant, and I do indeed have better things to do than try to correct every sloppy or downright incorrect grammatical construction I see. There are just too many. But I'm glad people are trying to keep we (us) sedimetologists happy.

And thank you for "data are" and "datum is." That one is even more (just as) hopeless.

* * * *

EDIT (and I bet someone out there already caught this one):

"Just as hopeless" is wrong. You are either hopeless or you have hope, so I should have written: "That one is even more (also) hopeless." It's like either being either alive or dead. There's no such thing as "slightly dead." Isn't language fun?



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/17/2012 09:20PM by Norman King.

Probably time for sleep Norman . My head hurts after that (It's like either being either alive or dead) that makes me feel half dead, too many eithers. Actually I'm hoping or hopeful that there is no hopefulness and only hope, hopefully.