Wednesday, September 16, 1998
School books and style guides
Sep 16 1998 12:00 am
[snip]
I have an other interesting question: Is there such a thing as holding copyrigths of grammar books?
There are a number of commonly used usage and style guides. They are copyrighted. They do not concur on all points. Neither do dictionaries.
School grammar books are chosen by the schools. Sometimes a state board of education sets guidelines for the curriculum. Publishers submit their packages to conform to the guidelines. The packages included student texts, workbooks, supplementary teacher materials, etc. The state board evaluates these and informs school districts that certain publishers' packages comply with their guidelines. Individual school districts then peruse, test, and otherwise evaluate the different packages. Eventually, one publisher's package is chosen for the district.
Not only are their copyrights on grammar books, there is intense competition in this lucrative market.
jane
