On Tue, 5 Nov 1996, Neil Reynolds wrote:

  Occasionally I've noticed that, while most fics are spell-checked, spelling
errors still creep in where one word is mistyped, and becomes (either through
misfortune, or misapplication of an overzealous program) a different
(correctly spelled) word.

  When offering criticism, should these be referred to as spelling errors?

I don't generally count it towards my critiques, but sometimes I do point 
it out. 

  Does anyone have any advice on the best way to prevent this from happening
in my own stories?

Spellcheck by hand, several times. I gave up on spellcheckers a long time 
ago.  Use them to catch words you honestly don't know how to spell, and 
check by hand to make sure you've got the *right* word in each spot.
 

  What is a convenient method for reporting these back to the author?

When I have time to do real C+C including spelling, I usually underline the
word like this   ^^  and type in the correct spelling next to the underlined
section; if there are too many missspelled words for me to do this 
efficiently, I may just make a general comment.  Pretty often these 
spelling mistakes are typos, so I don't consider them "criticisms," just 
proofreading.  So far nobody's complained to me about it...

mata ne,
bengman