Editor:
I couldn’t agree more. Every word you wrote is exactly how I feel. Your points are all very well made.
Given your field, I’m sure you’ve also noticed this: totally un-proofread mainsteam media news articles. The reporters write, submit and move on. Typographical errors, subject-verb misagreement, errant word choices (they/them, in/is, an/as, it/is, ad infinitum), and dropped words are rampant. And, I’m talking about the likes of ABC News and its peers.
I contacted one writer a few years ago to very nicely and politely cover this with her after finding many such errors in an article of hers. She was nice in her response, and explained what we already know: News is a fast world, and she just writes and submits and no one else sees it. She tries hard, but does sometimes miss things. The days of the editor are greatly over.
With all this said, I, too, sometimes find (with horror) errors in my own work: the wrong there/their/they’re, though I know better.
Oh well. To say times are changing is the clear understatement.
As an aside, my sister-in-law has been an elementary school educator her whole life. To her and my horror, many schools today aren’t even teaching handwriting anymore. They claim times have changed and it’s not even used or necessary. While I can see some truth to that given the dominance of computers and smartphones, wow. It seems like a mistake.
Glenn Warren
Idyllwild
