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A variant is "Please see Principal Jones or myself...". As if using a longer word must be correct, because the writer has a vague idea that "me" is too informal and is erring on the side of formality. Don't get me started on "it's".
The internet is a pretty informal place overall. I frequently use the word "gonna" and I call people "dude" now and again. Of course it depends on the context. I wouldn't do that if I was writing headlines for Fox News or CNN.
As a retired principal, it irks me when people use principal or principle incorrectly.
Is this something on the order of having not physically written before they just started keyboarding? Like they use a calculator and never had to learn math on a sheet of paper? I cannot seem to get correct change out of anyone younger than around 45 years of age. Or maybe AI is stepping in (as below)?
AI rewrite:
Is this akin to not having the experience of writing by hand before learning to type? Similar to using a calculator without ever doing math on paper? It seems challenging to receive the correct change from individuals younger than approximately 45 years old.
Even people who fancy themselves writers often cannot write without input from a fresh pair of eyes. I joined a writing group a few years ago when I moved to a new area and wanted to meet people with common interests.
The woman running the group had self-published, and I downloaded her non-fiction book. I could not get through the first two chapters because she used the term "Needless to say" on every other page. First of all, if it's needless to say, why are you saying it? Secondly, repeating the same trite phrase is in and of itself a problem. She needed an editor. This can happen. I've been in critique groups where it's been pointed out in my submission that I repeated myself or used the same word too frequently. Heck, I hate seeing my own errors in City-Data posts, but at least I have unlimited editing power!
Eventually, she did hire an editor and republished her book, and she sold about 8,000 copies. Subsequently, a small publisher picked her up for a second book.
There are no more proofreaders at news outlets, apparently, although there still must be at some of the higher-end publications like The Atlantic where I don't see egregious errors.
See my little red "s?" -- LOL
I find errors in my posts (sometimes on time) all the time. I get a little freaked out when I see I typed attracting instead of attractive or just a different word than what my more precise meaning was. I guess as they say "writing is rewriting" or is it "writing is editing?"
Not well. Back when the local newspaper still allowed comments up until around 2014, I used to occasionally write comments, not mean spirited, but to seek clarity on something within the article which was unclear. Current internet articles are not worth the effort.
My favorite was when something was reported politically in an article to request that all such articles in future would ascertain and report the political leanings of the individual (crime stories in particular). Another was anything from the former Mayor, which I liked to insert one of his quotes (pick any urban city issue). "The problem isn't that we don't know what the problems are, we've known the problems for years. The problem isn't that we don't know what the solutions are, we've known the solutions for years. The problem is we haven't done anything about it."
Since AI reporting has come out and the staff of many outlets have been reduced, it can be unbearable to try deciphering some articles. What AI did show was that common structures of reporting are fairly easy to plug in the key components (suspect, crime, jurisdiction, sentencing/ team, score, highlights, top plays) and then let the AI do its thing. https://www.wired.com/story/reuters-...-lynx-insight/
What I observe on internet articles is a rush to create something to cover a current event to get clicks but hardly any content. For broadcast news, the few times I watch, it seems that the added layer of a news story being placed on teleprompter for reading and the news reporter's ability to read said story, create awkward reports. At times you can tell the "reader" is having trouble deciphering the written information, and it gets quite humorous as they stumble over the words.
Occasionally the broadcast reporters, radio in particular, get all tongue tied as they trip over some report (I presume AI generated) or very poorly written piece of news item(s), or not easily discernible on their screens.
To Guidolamoto's point, the TV broadcast crews (especially the younger new weekend staff) can be hilarious. Between the guys wearing the suits too small that make them look like cinched up sausages around their chest and neck or the equal opportunity growing waistlines who speak more like the person on the street or like Snagglepuss from Hanna Barbara cartoon. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuFRCxBfPH0
My favorite local, for entertainment value, is a weather reporter who sounds much like Bill Murray's Carl Spackler the groundskeeper character in Caddyshack.
I have been known to contact editors of professionals whose writing or speaking was subpar. If you are going to write or speak for a living, please do it correctly. My particular pet peeve was the news anchor who could not pronounce our governor's name, Ronnie Musgrove, at that time. I would yell at the tv--"Runny is what eggs are if you don't cook them enough!" She left our market not long after that. I still sometimes chuckle when I think of Governor Runny Musgrove.
My Gay friends envy and cherish men who grew up having fathers showing them how to be men.
The best finish carpenters and mechanics, grew up being taught those skills by men in their families.
My male peers in Jackson Hole, absolutely WORSHIP the REAL people of the area - particularly the men, whom they view as ultimate authorities in all sorts of things. My peers have IQs north of 150, and strenuous formal educations. However, when in Wyoming, men like my husband, choose to inhabit silly piles of polyurethaned logs, decorated with lamentable art, even though real architects and real art dealers are eager to invade the market. That's what the REAL men of Wyoming know how to build, and so we seasonal interlopers worship the lacquered logs and Molesworth furniture and Western scenes. My peers are not fools, and simply savor what, to us, in our outsiders' ignorance, is the essence of Real Americans (something few of us invading oligarchs actually are). The real people became such, by living it, since infancy.
There's a moment in one of the Anastasia movies, when Ingrid Bergman ('Anastasia') utters, "...must be learned before the age of ___! Otherwise, it's impossible to learn!" She's talking about manners and regal bearing.
And I'm reminded of the person who was a running joke in the BBC production of 'Onegin': the French Instructor, who obviously is NOT a native speaker of French (and definitely not a member of Russia's Nobility). He is neither a competent teacher, nor a possessor of any social graces. I believe the author included him in the novel, as an indictment of formal education.
I remember a moment, three-decades-back, sitting in a waiting room, getting Michelins for the Volvo (four tires, three hundred bucks! Those were the days...). A mother and three sons - easily identifiable as a princely family from a northern province of a country known for its treatment of women - were getting THEIR Volvo re-shod. The boys were talking over the mother, as if she were the family dog - that is, when they weren't belittling each other. A younger one had expressed a business idea. The eldest explained to him that the idea was stupid, and that to have ever had such an idea, meant that he was hopeless, and would never be able to learn.
Despite the cruelty in all these anecdotes, you do see the point I'm seeing, don't you?
Some things are not, and can never be, matters of sitting in classes and getting grades. Some things have to be lived to be learned. And there is a point in a child's development, when whole sectors of human capability can become effectively inaccessible (if the child has previously been a stranger to these sectors).
At one point, Editors were persons of a certain class standing, and of a certain level of erudition. Managers were, too, as were Publishers. That's one reason for having higher-class people in higher positions (regardless of pay and economic status). More important than knowing how to spell words, those old Editors, Managers, and Publishers, knew the pronunciations of words (in the OP, the error originated in someone's grotesque colloquial mispronunciation of a word or term), and the MEANING of words. They GREW UP hearing words within proper syntax.
The above, is no longer the case. WHY that is, we can discuss elsewhere.
Last edited by GrandviewGloria; 05-13-2024 at 07:03 PM..
Egregious errors in publications or on TV screens happen, IMO, from a combination of reasons:
Many younger folks were never taught grammar and spelling in their K-12 years. Parsing sentences is now often considered old-school and boring, and most kids don’t have to read much quality long-form nonfiction in school (where they’d be exposed to good writing). Add to that the rise of spell-check and grammar-checks on computers means they might never learn to write well at all. Too many youngsters think there’s no real difference between texting and writing. (Hey, as long as you know what it means, who cares how it’s spelled?) And yes, copy editing positions at many media outlets are being cut for cost reasons.
I’d add that the current emphasis on STEM subjects in so many schools has meant that many youngsters have devalued writing well because they believe it won’t lead to a high-paying job — so why bother? Put it all together and you have more and more young people with little respect for the English language.
Egregious errors in publications or on TV screens happen, IMO, from a combination of reasons:
Many younger folks were never taught grammar and spelling in their K-12 years. Parsing sentences is now often considered old-school and boring, and most kids don’t have to read much quality long-form nonfiction in school (where they’d be exposed to good writing). Add to that the rise of spell-check and grammar-checks on computers means they might never learn to write well at all. Too many youngsters think there’s no real difference between texting and writing. (Hey, as long as you know what it means, who cares how it’s spelled?) And yes, copy editing positions at many media outlets are being cut for cost reasons.
I’d add that the current emphasis on STEM subjects in so many schools has meant that many youngsters have devalued writing well because they believe it won’t lead to a high-paying job — so why bother? Put it all together and you have more and more young people with little respect for the English language.
Yes, I think you are right on target.
The good old basics aren't very dramatic or exciting...but they are foundational. STEM is important; no question about that. But science, MATH, ENGLISH, and social studies were called CORE for a reason.
Egregious errors in publications or on TV screens happen, IMO, from a combination of reasons:
Many younger folks were never taught grammar and spelling in their K-12 years. Parsing sentences is now often considered old-school and boring, and most kids don’t have to read much quality long-form nonfiction in school (where they’d be exposed to good writing). Add to that the rise of spell-check and grammar-checks on computers means they might never learn to write well at all. Too many youngsters think there’s no real difference between texting and writing. (Hey, as long as you know what it means, who cares how it’s spelled?) And yes, copy editing positions at many media outlets are being cut for cost reasons.
I’d add that the current emphasis on STEM subjects in so many schools has meant that many youngsters have devalued writing well because they believe it won’t lead to a high-paying job — so why bother? Put it all together and you have more and more young people with little respect for the English language.
I don't buy that even a little. When we import ~25/27% of our medical doctors and even higher percentages of our medical researchers and who knows what percentage of IT types and others in STEM areas there is no over emphasis on STEM. In fact all from business leaders to The DOD and academics tell us we fall far short in tech/STEM ready high school and college graduates.
We need net new people well able to rebuild downed bridges, secure our networks, treat cancer, brain bleeds and dislocated hips more than we need net new people able to quote Chaucer, spell with ease/alacrity, deconstruct Francis Bacon or out grammar others.
Over the last couple of decades when I've needed or wanted great letters, and that's been fairly often........I got that done one of three ways.
A. I paid my admin's daughter $15 (was $10 and then $12 years ago) per page to decipher my recorded words* into letters.
B. When it mattered more I payed my lawyer's admin. $250-$750 per letter.
C. Very important business letters were written by my lawyers. With outline level input by me.
I don't buy that even a little. When we import ~25/27% of our medical doctors and even higher percentages of our medical researchers and who knows what percentage of IT types and others in STEM areas there is no over emphasis on STEM. In fact all from business leaders to The DOD and academics tell us we fall far short in tech/STEM ready high school and college graduates.
There has been a massive propaganda campaign since the early 90s that the US needs to import STEM workers because there aren't enough Americans to do the work.
Meanwhile, 54% of the people getting a bachelor's degree in a STEM field cannot find work in the first year out of college, and sten yeras later, 45% are still not working in their field.
Adjunct professors, many of whom have masters, a quarter of whom have Ph.Ds get no benefits, and low pay, but make up about half the instructors int he California Community colleges.
I don't want to get too heavy on the details, - if you care, it's a fun rabbit-hole to follow some evening with your favorite search engine (I'm posting this at 2 in the morning!).
As a retired techie, I've been involved with many groups over the past 40 years, and have been following the discussions.
There are several reasons companies like to hire foreign guestworkers instead of Americans, and that is why you see so many foreign workers. Most of them come in on an H1-b visa. Later they often get their green cards. The number in the recent years is much lower than in the past, but it's still millions of workers. The h1-b visa belongs to the company, not the worker, so the company doesn't have to worry about getting their worker poached That's very important.
Plus, of course, the imported workers are cheaper.
Another reason that isn't reported on, but I've seen first=hand, is that biased hiring is very strong in the companies that bring in foreign guest workers. In foreign countries, it is considered patriotic to be prejudiced in favor of your fellow-country people. When a company based overseas gets a foothold in a US company, they will always favor the imported worker over the American workers.
I remember waiting with an Indian worker at a big computer company where we needed to get in a secured building in which we were attending a meeting and could not get the attention of the meeting co-ordinator. We were stuck outside. No worry - we'll just wait for someone to let us in. As a group of employees approached us, he said, "No, they're Chinese, they won't let us in." After a few minutes, some Indians went in to the building and didn't think twice about letting us in.
That patriotic comraderie of foreign guest workers is very powerful, affects American workers negatively, and no one speaks about it.
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