• Contents
• Explanation
• Number of Core Discrepancies in Each Rendition
• Number of Core Discrepancies of Each Type
• Provisions Lacking Found Core Discrepancies in Any Rendition
• Core Fragments Especially Frequently Discrepant

Explanation

These statistics do not include the differences between pre- and postratification texts as listed in Appendix 20.

Number of Core Discrepancies in Each Rendition

N.B.: Comparing these numbers to each other requires comparing renditions for their intended coverage, as not all render the same provisions or the same amount of text; e.g., the three renditions with the lowest numbers render only a few amendments or less. Nor does being discrepant mean that an error lies within a rendition below; an error might instead be with the National Archives.

• United States Code: 36
• United States Code Annotated, unannotated: 46
• United States Code Annotated, principal annotated: 45
• United States Code Annotated, redundant annotated: 22
• United States Code Annotated, redundant Amdt. XXVII: 5
• United States Code Service, Complete Text: 146
• United States Code Service, principal annotated: 129
• U.S. Statutes at Large, postratification: 92
• U.S. Code Congressional & Administrative News, postratification: 6
• Federal Register, postratification: 2
• U.S. Senate pamphlet: 61
• U.S. House of Representatives pamphlet: 55
• Black’s Law Dictionary: 54
• Constitution Annotated, Literal Print: 73
• Constitution Annotated, distributed rendition: 162
• Keepsake Edition: 82
• (Total core errors in all renditions: 1,016)

Number of Core Discrepancies of Each Type

(Parenthetical numbers are for the renditions in the order shown above.)

• Case: 288 (= 5 + 10 + 10 + 4 + 3 + 76 + 57 + 35 + 1 + 0 + 8 + 8 + 10 + 17 + 30 + 14)
• Punctuation: 242 (= 3 + 6 + 5 + 3 + 2 + 27 + 28 + 30 + 0 + 0 + 21 + 17 + 9 + 18 + 50 + 23)
• Word choice: 173 (= 9 + 10 + 10 + 3 + 0 + 15 + 15 + 9 + 5 + 2 + 11 + 10 + 13 + 17 + 28 + 16)
• Spacing: 149 (= 14 + 14 + 14 + 8 + 0 + 13 + 13 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 11 + 11 + 13 + 14 + 11 + 13)
• Hyphenation: 58 (= 2 + 3 + 3 + 3 + 0 + 4 + 4 + 11 + 0 + 0 + 4 + 4 + 4 + 2 + 6 + 8)
• Spelling: 48 (= 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 0 + 7 + 9 + 2 + 0 + 0 + 6 + 5 + 3 + 2 + 6 + 4)
• Absence of text: 27 (= 1 + 1 + 1 + 0 + 0 + 1 + 2 + 1 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 1 + 1 + 17 + 1)
• Italicization or not: 21 (= 1 + 1 + 1 + 0 + 0 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 1 + 1 + 13 + 0)
• Paragraphing: 5 (= 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 3 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 2)
• Numeral or not: 2 (= 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 2 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0)
• Printer’s error: 2 (= 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 1 + 0 + 1)
• Misplacement: 1 (= 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 1 + 0)
• (Total core errors of all types: 1,016)

Provisions Lacking Found Core Discrepancies in Any Rendition

Discrepancies were apparently not randomly distributed throughout the Constitution, suggesting the concentrated propagation of errors across multiple renditions even from different publishers, signposting editorial failure.

• 55 words: Art. I, § 10, cl. 3
• 49 words: Art. IV, § 3, cl. 2
• 44 words: Amdt. XVIII, § 1
• 44 words: Amdt. XXI, § 3
• 43 words: Art. IV, § 4
• 43 words: Amdt. XIII, with 2 sections
• 42 words: Art. I, § 2, cl. 1
• 39 words: Amdt. XIX, with 2 clauses
• 35 words: Amdt. XX, § 6
• 34 words: Amdt. XXV, § 2
• 32 words: Art. II, § 2, cl. 3
• 32 words: Amdt. XX, § 2
• 30 words: Amdt. XVI
• 28 words: Art. VI, cl. 1
• 25 words: Art. I, § 1
• 17 words: Amdt. XVIII, § 2
• 16 words: Amdt. VIII
• 15 words: Amdt. XXI, § 1
• 13 words: Art. I, § 9, cl. 5
• 12 words: Art. I, § 9, cl. 3
• 12 words: Amdt. XV, § 2
• 12 words: Amdt. XXIII, § 2
• 12 words: Amdt. XXIV, § 2
• 12 words: Amdt. XXVI, § 2

Core Fragments Especially Frequently Discrepant

Especially frequent is defined, somewhat arbitrarily, as being discrepant in 6 or more renditions. Thus defined, there are 37 such core fragments. The total of core fragments, each associated with at least one error, is 456. N.B.: Not all fragments need appear in all renditions.

• 13 renditions: Amdt. V, fr. 2
• 13 renditions: Amdt. XIV, § 5, fr. 1
• 13 renditions: Amdt. XV, § 1, fr. 1
• 13 renditions: Amdt. XXII, § 1, fr. 3
• 13 renditions: Amdt. XXIV, § 1, fr. 2
• 12 renditions: Art. I, § 7, cl. 3, fr. 1
• 12 renditions: Art. I, § 8, cl. 17, fr. 12
• 12 renditions: Art. II, § 1, cl. 8, fr. 1
• 12 renditions: Art. III, § 2, cl. 1, fr. 2
• 12 renditions: Art. III, § 2, cl. 1, fr. 5
• 12 renditions: Art. III, § 2, cl. 1, fr. 6
• 12 renditions: Art. III, § 2, cl. 1, fr. 7
• 12 renditions: Amdt. V, fr. 9
• 12 renditions: Amdt. VI, fr. 4
• 12 renditions: Amdt. XII, fr. 15
• 12 renditions: Amdt. XII, fr. 40
• 12 renditions: Amdt. XXII, § 1, fr. 7
• 12 renditions: Amdt. XXIII, § 1, cl. 1, fr. 3
• 11 renditions: Amdt. X, fr. 2
• 11 renditions: Amdt. XII, fr. 16
• 11 renditions: Amdt. XII, fr. 19
• 11 renditions: Amdt. XII, fr. 21
• 11 renditions: Amdt. XII, fr. 42
• 11 renditions: Amdt. XXI, § 2, fr. 1
• 10 renditions: Art. III, § 2, cl. 1, fr. 9
• 10 renditions: Art. III, § 2, cl. 1, fr. 12
• 10 renditions: before Amdt. I, statement of desire, fr. 1
• 10 renditions: Amdt. XIV, § 2, fr. 1
• 10 renditions: Amdt. XX, § 1, fr. 1
•   9 renditions: Amdt. XII, fr. 17
•   9 renditions: Amdt. XIV, § 3, fr. 3
•   8 renditions: Art. V, fr. 5
•   8 renditions: Amdt. XII, fr. 3
•   8 renditions: Amdt. XII, fr. 45
•   7 renditions: Art. II, § 1, cl. 1, fr. 2
•   7 renditions: Amdt. XVII, cl. 2, fr. 3
•   6 renditions: Art. II, § 2, cl. 1, fr. 5

(Other counts: discrepant in only 5 renditions each, 5 fragments; in only 4 renditions each, 15 frr.; in only 3 renditions each, 27 frr.; in only 2 renditions each, 86 frr.; and in only 1 rendition each, 286 frr. Different fragments may be discrepant in different renditions.)

URL: http://www.GeoCities.com/Nick_Levinson/law/const_proofrdg/Appx_19.htm
Article URL: http://www.GeoCities.com/Nick_Levinson/law/const_proofrdg/article.htm
Appendix first publicly posted to the World Wide Web July 24, 2004; revised (to add links) and posted August 17, 2004.
Minor revisions: Copyright © 2004 Nick Levinson
Balance: Copyright © 2003 Nick Levinson
All rights reserved.