From 6108b5e53dcc9ad31ecd3059a2c00223b79efa17 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Alex Cabal <alex@alexcabal.com>
Date: Mon, 3 Mar 2025 14:47:16 -0600
Subject: [PATCH] Tweak step by step guide spelling modernization tip

---
 .../producing-an-ebook-step-by-step.php        | 18 +++++++++---------
 1 file changed, 9 insertions(+), 9 deletions(-)

diff --git a/www/contribute/producing-an-ebook-step-by-step.php b/www/contribute/producing-an-ebook-step-by-step.php
index 79d2a51a..ebfbb77c 100644
--- a/www/contribute/producing-an-ebook-step-by-step.php
+++ b/www/contribute/producing-an-ebook-step-by-step.php
@@ -504,26 +504,26 @@ proceed to seal up my confession, I bring the life of that unhappy Henry Jekyll
 				</aside>
 				<code class="terminal"><span><b>git</b> commit -am <i>"[Editorial] Modernize hyphenation and spelling"</i></span></code>
 				<h3>Manual spelling changes</h3>
-				<p>Other spelling changes can be made to a work, with the following caveats:</p>
+				<p>You can and should update spelling of other words that you come across during proofreading, with the following caveats:</p>
 				<ul>
 					<li>
-						<p>We do not generally bother with changing or removing dashes or spaces from compound words, other than what <code class="terminal">modernize-spelling</code> already handles. For example, our corpus has <code class="html">dining-room</code>, <code class="html">witch-doctor</code>, and hundreds of other words where a space might be more modern, just as we have compounds with spaces where no space might be more modern. Usage changes over time in both directions, and it is simply too large a task to tackle.</p>
+						<p>We modernize <strong>sound-alike spelling</strong>, not grammar or word usage. Thus, updating <code class="html">mak</code> to <code class="html">make</code> is OK, but changing <code class="html">maketh</code> to <code class="html">makes</code> is not.</p>
 					</li>
 					<li>
-						<p>We only want to modernize <strong>spelling</strong>, not grammar or word-usage, so only “sound-alike” changes should be made. Thus, updating <code class="html">mak</code> to <code class="html">make</code> is OK, but changing <code class="html">maketh</code> to <code class="html">makes</code> is not.</p>
+						<p>We usually don’t bother with adding or removing dashes or spaces from compound words, other than what <code class="bash"><b>se</b> modernize-spelling</code> does. For example <code class="html">dining-room</code> might read more modern with a space, but dashes and spaces are inconsistent over a large number of words and it’s too much work to keep a master list.</p>
 					</li>
 					<li>
-						<p>We do not change spelling from U.S. to British or vice-versa, even to align with a book’s “language.” Having mixed spelling in a book, i.e. some British, some U.S., was quite common and not something we try to standardize. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_and_British_English_spelling_differences">This article</a> provides a good overview of the differences in spelling between British and U.S. English.</p>
+						<p>Don’t change spelling from en-US to en-GB or vice-versa, even to align with a book’s “language.” Having mixed spelling in a book was common and not something we standardize. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_and_British_English_spelling_differences">This article</a> provides a good overview of the differences between British and U.S. English.</p>
 					</li>
 					<li>
-						<p>If, after having run <code class="terminal"><b>se</b> modernize-spelling</code>, you find a hyphenated compound word that appears in Merriam-Webster's basic online search results without a hyphen, then you can make an Editorial change to update it. It would also be helpful if you would let us know so we can add the word to the internal word list that <code class="terminal">modernize-spelling</code> uses.</p>
+						<p>If, after having run <code class="bash"><b>se</b> modernize-spelling</code>, you find a hyphenated compound word that appears in Merriam-Webster's basic online search results without a hyphen, then you can make an Editorial change to update it. Please also let us know so that we can update <code class="bash"><b>se</b> modernize-spelling</code>.</p>
 					</li>
 					<li>
-						<p>If you find an archaic word that you believe might qualify to be modernized, a good way to check is with a Google Ngram search, at <code class="terminal">https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?year_start=1800&year_end=2022&corpus=en-fiction&smoothing=3</code>.</p>
+						<p>If you find an archaic word that you think should be modernized, a good way to check is with a <a href="https://books.google.com/ngrams/">Google Ngram search</a>. Remember to select either American English or British English!</p>
 					</li>
-					</ul>
-				<p>For the reasons specified above, any manual spelling changes made should be in an <code class="html">[Editorial]</code> commit, e.g.</p>
-				<code class="html"><b>git</b> commit -m <i>"[Editorial] Modernize spelling, mak -> make"</i></code>.
+				</ul>
+				<p>Any manual spelling changes made must be in an <code class="html">[Editorial]</code> commit, e.g.</p>
+				<code class="terminal"><b>git</b> commit -m <i>"[Editorial] mak -> make"</i></code>
 			</li>
 			<li>
 				<h2 id="diacritics">Check for consistent diacritics</h2>