Is "to revise mistakes" okay?

Question

I know that "to correct mistakes" is very common. But can we mean the same thing by saying "to revise mistakes"?

I have consulted the Oxford English Dictionary (2nd Ed.) but fail to find any answer there to this question of mine.

Yoong Liat · Accepted Answer

UdumbaraI know that "to correct mistakes" is very common. But can we mean the same thing by saying "to revise mistakes"?

I have consulted the Oxford English Dictionary (2nd Ed.) but fail to find any answer there to this question of mine.

No, you can't; 'to rectify mistakes' is what you are looking for.

Udumbara · Answer

Thanks for your quick reply.

Actually I was writing about the new edition of The English-Chinese Dictionary, whose revision I had taken part in:

Revising on a broad scale as many mistakes, typographical and editorial, as possible of the previous edition, the updated ECD speaks for the Zeitgeist of “daily renewal.” It not only modernizes the ever-changing biographical, political and geographical information, but also rejuvenates the translations of some once-unfamiliar terms: Euro’s ??, for instance, now finds a more competent substitute, ??. The dictionary, initially compiled by quite a number of sedulous Shanghai lexicographers, makes a point of de-localizing the wording of its text: “????” and “???,” both inveterately dialectical, are replaced by “????” and “???” respectively, so that users from other parts of China, so long as they speak mandarin Han, will find this book of reference increasingly friendly.

A senior of mine gave me a piece of advice that I should change the "Revising" for "Correcting" or "Rectifying," but I have found out a usage of "to revise mistakes" in the London urbanist, Iain Sinclair's words on the Millennium Dome "the a blob of congealed correction fluid, a flick of Tipp-Ex to revise the mistakes of nineteenth-century industrialists." So it really puzzles me as for whether "to revise mistakes," the collocation itself seeming okay, makes the same sense as "to correct/rectify mistakes."

Feebs11 · Answer

In this context it is a technical term, used in publishing to indicate that alterations have been made to the text.

Udumbara · Answer

So you mean I can use the collocation "to revise mistakes" this way and everything else is okay?

Feebs11 · Answer

If you are talking about a revised edition of a book, then you can. In general usage, it is better to say "correct(ing)/amend(ing) mistakes".

Yoong Liat · Answer

Feebs11If you are talking about a revised edition of a book, then you can. In general usage, it is better to say "correct(ing)/amend(ing) mistakes".

You rectify a mistake or error when you put it right.

The error was soon rectified. (same as amend)

Is "to revise mistakes" okay?

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