Petty Vents

[Andy M.]

I get upset about local news reports I get in my e-mail. The spelling and grammar are so bad, makes you wonder how they graduated out of college...then I remember they are updates from the TV news, they don't HAVE to know how to spell.

Without a doubt, internet blogs, etc. have increased our exposure to bad grammar, spelling and rambling sentences. Drives me crazy.

What's your excuse for misspelling words when you have spell checkers. Does no one proof read anymore?

 

[PrincessFiona60]

I'm forever editing because I see I've misspelled something. People just have no sense of right anymore, it seems.

 

[Cooking Goddess]

...What's your excuse for misspelling words when you have spell checkers. Does no one proof read anymore?

Nope. I actually emailed a reporter for our town's paper, chiding her on poor spelling, grammar, and word usage. Her excuse? She has to research, interview, compose, and edit (apparently minimally) 12-14 stories per printing cycle. This is for a number of town weeklies! Somehow I find it hard to believe that she can't do 2-3 stories a day, unless she is paid by the piece and not hourly. In that case I can see how someone with a high tolerance of errors could hurry through.

What really bothers me is when I find errors in books! Especially context errors. Did not one of the proofreaders or the editor actually read for content? *shaking my head*

 

[Somebunny]

PF, I thought I was the queen of "editing". Good to know I'm not alone.
Most of my edits are related to thumb typing on my phone.

CG, I recently read an e-book, that I accessed through a Facebook post. There were several grammatical errors and some continuity errors. Since the book had a Facebook page, I wrote a post saying that I enjoyed the book, but that those errors detracted from what might otherwise have been a good book. The author actually wrote a post back saying there were no errors! WTH!
Bad form all the way around, I say! I won't be purchasing any of her books. Constructive criticism should help us
grow. The same for your newspaper reporter, (it's her job) making excuses is unacceptable, just take the information and learn from it.

And.......yes I did have to edit this post!
? twice!

 

[Dawgluver]

Most of my Kindle books contain errors of some sort. Nature of the beast?

I have a friend who lives in another country, we see each other as often as we can. She cannot spell, and never proofreads anything! She's on several boards that I'm on, and I just cringe every time I see one of her posts with misspellings. She once posted in answering as to where to get cheap shirts, that she gets her sh*ts at ..... I thought it was hilarious, and pointed it out, telling her to proofread her post, as several others did as well. Much merriment ensued, she didn't get it, then she took down her whole post. She didn't speak to me for a week! Then I caught her making fun of someone else's typo, and just shook my head.

 

[Addie]

The title of a book, article or other piece should have every word begin with a capital letter. Or so I was taught in school. Our large city (and national) newspaper decided years ago that this was a silly rule. So they just dropped it. When you children see such blatant misuse of our language, why should they strive to be correct? After all, if it is good enough for a nationally acclaimed publication like The Boston Globe, it should be good enough for my teacher and the rest of the world. I have seen the paper make such horrible errors like "Billy bulger gets life." Even proper names no longer have to have the rule applied?

My daughter has always been terrible with her spelling. And so are a lot of her colleagues. But at least she recognizes her shortcomings. She was forever calling me from work asking me to spell a word for her. It got so bad that when her friends at work needed a correct spelling she was calling for them if she didn't know. She finally gave them my number to call. Then they got windows with Spellcheck. At last, peace for me.

I have found that over the years, the cheaper the cost of the printed work, the more errors you will find. Very rarely do I find an error in a hardbound book. They have a very large staff of editors and proofreaders. But that is no excuse for the rest of the printing world. Not in today's world of "Spellcheck".

 

[Zhizara]

I'm thinking that bad spellers just don't care. Usually their message gets across anyway so why care? If they care, it just reminds them that they are bad spellers. People don't want to be reminded of their shortcomings.

 

[taxlady]

A friend of mine is, among other things, a copy editor. She was copy editing a book. Unfortunately, when the spell checker flagged a word, the author just added the word to the dictionary for that document. This was back in the early '90s. It made my friend's job much more work.

 

[cave76]

#@IC spling tk'd abt. Def bad! Pls retweet. BFN

 

[Addie]

#@IC spling tk'd abt. Def bad! Pls retweet. BFN

I have a clue what any of that means.

 

[GotGarlic]

I'm thinking that bad spellers just don't care. Usually their message gets across anyway so why care? If they care, it just reminds them that they are bad spellers. People don't want to be reminded of their shortcomings.

That's probably part of it, but bad writing, spelling and grammar have become so common that many people probably don't even realize something is wrong.

 

[cave76]

Should we blame the Twittersphere?

 

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

Should we blame the Twittersphere?

and texting, and TV, and popularization of urban slang, showing as "cool" for the youth.

Oh oh; I'm about to get on a soapbox about all of the ills of society, and what cause them. Somebody, quick, remove the soapbox from my reach. The health of DC, the nation, the very world may depend on it.

Seeeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North

 

[Cooking Goddess]

I don't even have to be reading something to get annoyed by composition errors. Personally I would like to see every sports person and politician get dinged with a $$$ fine for using the words or phrases "um", "like", "you know", and all the other fillers people use while trying to figure out how to get an idea across. Thanks to Miss Liguzinski, my 5th grade teacher, for drumming good speaking patterns into our heads. Each day one of the students was put in charge of The Notebook, which recorded when a student used any of those fillers. I think the fine was something like 5 cents per infraction. When the kitty got pretty full, we'd have a classroom party with pizza or a movie and popcorn. By the end of 5th grade every one of us in the class was competent and fluent. To this day I can go off with an extemporaneous speech on any subject that interests me - much to the amusement or annoyance of Himself, depending on his mood!

Now the popular thing among young professionals and "the educated" seems to be starting out sentences with something like "And" or "So" even if all you're doing is replying to a question. It's not like you're using the word to string two sentences together! "Uptalk" too, that's another complaint of mine. Don't know what that is? Ending every danged sentence with a question mark? If you're making a declarative sentence then you don't end it in a question? GAH! As far as I can tell, it seems like you aren't sure about what you're stating and you need affirmation. To me it's a sign of weakness. OK, end of rant.

 

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

I don't even have to be reading something to get annoyed by composition errors. Personally I would like to see every sports person and politician get dinged with a $$$ fine for using the words or phrases "um", "like", "you know", and all the other fillers people use while trying to figure out how to get an idea across. Thanks to Miss Liguzinski, my 5th grade teacher, for drumming good speaking patterns into our heads. Each day one of the students was put in charge of The Notebook, which recorded when a student used any of those fillers. I think the fine was something like 5 cents per infraction. When the kitty got pretty full, we'd have a classroom party with pizza or a movie and popcorn. By the end of 5th grade every one of us in the class was competent and fluent. To this day I can go off with an extemporaneous speech on any subject that interests me - much to the amusement or annoyance of Himself, depending on his mood!

Now the popular thing among young professionals and "the educated" seems to be starting out sentences with something like "And" or "So" even if all you're doing is replying to a question. It's not like you're using the word to string two sentences together! "Uptalk" too, that's another complaint of mine. Don't know what that is? Ending every danged sentence with a question mark? If you're making a declarative sentence then you don't end it in a question? GAH! As far as I can tell, it seems like you aren't sure about what you're stating and you need affirmation. To me it's a sign of weakness. OK, end of rant.

As a prospective author, I spend a good deal of time writing and proofreading. And yet, as careful as I try to be, every time I proofread my work, even if it's for the tenth time, I still find ways to improve a sentence, or find a dangling participle, or find "there" when I meant to write "their". I'm also always finding ways to make sentences less wordy, and more clear at the same time.

Technical report writing was much easier than creative writing. The rules are more clear. I don't have to worry about transitions between character dialogue, especially when writing in first person.

I have been searching for a friend, or partner,who could help with my novels, with whom I would share sale profits with, literally for years. I've been told by multiple agents that my work is almost ready for publishing, and that the stories are very good. And yet, I just can't seem to be satisfied enough to pull the trigger. I want to e-publish, but want my novels to be high quality work that's worth reading.

My gripe, creative fiction is darned, hard work, sometimes taking several years to get the work right.

Seeeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North

 

[cave76]

Although I'm sloppy with emails when I need to be better I've always found The Elements of Style. William Strunk, Jr. to be my Go To reference.

 

[CatPat]

I made the bad mistake of wearing one of my favorite t-shirts to the store today. It has an American flag upon it, with "God Bless America" in words across the flag.

I didn't know of Cinco de Mayo today, and so the store manager told me to leave the store immediately. He said my shirt was offensive to Mexicans and I could come back if I wore a different shirt.

I didn't know of this! I've never, ever been told to leave a store! I don't understand this. But I was respectful and polite, and I changed my shirt and went back, although I did feel so ashamed. I did not know we aren't allowed to wear shirts with American flags on them on Cinco de Mayo.

Is this a law? I always try to obey all the laws here.

With love,
~Cat

 

[Somebunny]

Cat it certainly is not a law! You live in America where you have the right to wear anything you like! I'm really not sure why anyone would ask you to leave a store for wearing a patriotic shirt! Shame on them! Cinco de Mayo is not an American holiday it is a Mexican holiday. Even if it were an American holiday, you are still entitled to wear whatever you want, and to believe what whatever you like.

 

[CatPat]

Cat it certainly is not a law! You live in America where you have the right to wear anything you like! I'm really not sure why anyone would ask you to leave a store for wearing a patriotic shirt! Shame on them! Cinco de Mayo is not an American holiday it is a Mexican holiday. Even if it were an American holiday, you are still entitled to wear whatever you want, and to believe what whatever you like.

I thought so as well, Somebunny, but he said my shirt was offensive to Mexicans and it wasn't allowed on May 5. He also said I needed to be more sensitive to Hispanic immigrants.

With love,
~Cat

 

[Cooking Goddess]

Cat, I would be offended by a store owner in the United States telling me I could not wear something that supported the United States. It would be different if he were a Hispanic merchant in Mexico and you were a visitor. If he had done that to me, I would have told him I would no longer support his business.