The Decline of All That Is Pure and Good
Before I get into the body of today's topic, perhaps I should issue a disclaimer: I am not tryin' to hate.
That's all, really, but now that that's out of the way, I gotta say it is seriously disheartening to think a newspaper that has won all types of awards or whatever has such banal, insipid writing in its weekly supplement.
Here's a few samples of amateur prose taken from last week's paper, because, hey, what are the holidays about if not heckling the sincere professional efforts of others?
P. 4: "Surely this can't be good for little kids who will have nightmares about those once-beloved figures who have now turned into grinning, floating holiday monsters." Please read that aloud. That is some clunky, clumsy writing, my friends.
P. 5: "It's not a cold-hearted backlash, but rather, a safety precaution." Yes, you, too, can learn your comma rules at, Miss Rachel's School for D*ckhead Syntax, and Style.
P. 7: "The teen also had to describe to investigators any distinguishing physical characteristics of Lafave, which produced this list . . ." If you read this sentence literally, it says the distinguishing physical characteristics produced the list. OK, then.
P. 8: "But, hey, Mom said it was okay; the fourth grader said that's who told her to take the shots to school and sell them, three for a dollar. In the end it doesn't matter if they contain alcohol or not. The girl was suspended for violating rules . . . " I'm not mad at the informality, because it's a purposeful part of the paper's tone, but I do have a small problem with the misuse of sophisticated punctuation. And the tense shift? What's up with that? That is such a sixth-grader error.
This kind of shoddy writing continues for several more pages, but I think you get the gist. I know that it can be very taxing to produce flawless writing, partially because your rhythms are so different from when you speak. I get teased for how I speak all the time, but I receive a fair amount of praise for how I write. The two are just completely separate ways of commanding a language.
The point is that I'm fine with minor errors. They really don't offend me that much. I know everyone commits them occassionally, and I'm pretty reasonable about context when making these judgment calls, too. It's just that the context here allows little excuse. Don't these people get paid to produce this work? Doesn't that mean they should be really good at it? Like at least as good as your favorite local blogger?
That's all, really, but now that that's out of the way, I gotta say it is seriously disheartening to think a newspaper that has won all types of awards or whatever has such banal, insipid writing in its weekly supplement.
Here's a few samples of amateur prose taken from last week's paper, because, hey, what are the holidays about if not heckling the sincere professional efforts of others?
P. 4: "Surely this can't be good for little kids who will have nightmares about those once-beloved figures who have now turned into grinning, floating holiday monsters." Please read that aloud. That is some clunky, clumsy writing, my friends.
P. 5: "It's not a cold-hearted backlash, but rather, a safety precaution." Yes, you, too, can learn your comma rules at, Miss Rachel's School for D*ckhead Syntax, and Style.
P. 7: "The teen also had to describe to investigators any distinguishing physical characteristics of Lafave, which produced this list . . ." If you read this sentence literally, it says the distinguishing physical characteristics produced the list. OK, then.
P. 8: "But, hey, Mom said it was okay; the fourth grader said that's who told her to take the shots to school and sell them, three for a dollar. In the end it doesn't matter if they contain alcohol or not. The girl was suspended for violating rules . . . " I'm not mad at the informality, because it's a purposeful part of the paper's tone, but I do have a small problem with the misuse of sophisticated punctuation. And the tense shift? What's up with that? That is such a sixth-grader error.
This kind of shoddy writing continues for several more pages, but I think you get the gist. I know that it can be very taxing to produce flawless writing, partially because your rhythms are so different from when you speak. I get teased for how I speak all the time, but I receive a fair amount of praise for how I write. The two are just completely separate ways of commanding a language.
The point is that I'm fine with minor errors. They really don't offend me that much. I know everyone commits them occassionally, and I'm pretty reasonable about context when making these judgment calls, too. It's just that the context here allows little excuse. Don't these people get paid to produce this work? Doesn't that mean they should be really good at it? Like at least as good as your favorite local blogger?
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