Don't feel bad about not being around. Real life always comes first. Also, I'm in no position to throw stones. I have had lots going on and I've also haven't been able to get into the mindset to write. Nothing wants to come out. So I comment on people's articles and hope that something will get sparked. :)
I had trouble with the second example a fair amount when I was younger, but I was taught the same trick. It has helped immensely. I think more people should use the trick, but they aren't taught it, and I sure as heck don't want to learn it from some random guy in the gardening section at Home Depot. ;)
I hear many people get she/her he/him confused. Sometimes I feel like people spin a wheel in their head to determine which of the words they'll use. "'Her' and I are going to do ____." What?! It's frustrating, but I've mostly given up on trying to correct people.
I do have to say there are plenty of more fulfilling and satisfying volunteer projects to engage in than being the grammar police. :)
It is sad how people just throw out pronouns willy nilly, and it's just one of many indicators, I believe, of an ongoing decay in language, in this case English. However, I'm much more concerned about things that are written than I am about the spoken word, as long as you can get the gist. There aren't a whole lot of us who speak properly, anyway. If you can get your point across with your own personality and way of saying things, great.
The written word, however, when it's going to be inscribed for eternity on a blockchain, requires a little more attention to detail. We're talking posterity here, people! The fate of the human race! Life as we know it!
Okay, I'm stepping away from the keyboard now...
Ha ha, you always do have a way with words, @glenalbrethsen. Such an eloquent way of expressing yourself. I like getting to read your opinions.
Well, I'm glad about that, since I tend to make them around you. Or where you've been. :)
It's actually an ongoing pet peeve of mine that since we no longer need to chisel out pictographs on a stone slab or wall, or even rely on ink and paper—both of which are eternally inscribed with any errors that weren't caught during editing—that we can't at least get it right when we have the power to edit every line and every word.
I'm sure all of that comes from the trauma I would experience any time an error was discovered in any part of the newspapers I used to publish. Job hazard. Came with the territory.
Even so, I'm not perfect at checking my work, so that's also part of it. My stuff always looks better to me than it will if another set of eyes gets on it. :)
See @glenalbrethsen! @themanwithnoname loves your comments also ;)
I would have suffered serious trauma as well if I discovered an error in a newspaper that I published...full on panic attack actually ;)
I find, for whatever reason, that I don't notice errors in this part where you actually type, when when I read the "Preview", they are glaringly obvious. I wonder why?
Well, I'm sure part of it has to with the change in font size, and the space you have to view it in. I know that's what happens to me, which is why I try to read it in both the window and preview before I push post. Things can look okay in the type window, but then not turn out the way you want in the preview.
Our editor was really good at copy editing, so misspelled words and grammar weren't so much an issue, thankfully. A lot of our mistakes came from misunderstanding subject matter, or not quite getting quotes right, or failing to get the other side, or finding out what we just published involved month old information that had changed in the mean time.
Those kinds of errors were the ones that really bothered me. It meant we were guaranteed to take up space next issue with some kind of retraction or explanation, and I was the one who would have to investigate it and write it. It also meant that reporters weren't as thorough as they needed to be. The editor just didn't have enough time to catch those things and follow up. Sometimes I would find it and we would hold the article, but it would have to be something fairly big because not running the article might mean leaving a hole that would somehow need to be filled.
A lot revolved around failing to get two sides of a story, even though we didn't know there were two sides and didn't know where to go find the other one. And in those cases, you have proportion to be concerned about. If five people agree on something and one does not, then the five should appear proportionally greater. Unfortunately, that's not the easiest thing to do, so the one naysayer ends up disproportionately represented, if that makes any sense.
Wow! It does make perfect sense. Thanks for the journalism lesson! I always had a general idea how things went, but not to this detail ;)
There's a lot to it. More than meets the eye, especially the way journalism is done now. Unfortunately, the larger media outlets—for sure the national ones—don't seem to care about any rules, or how they represent things or who they might be ruining in the process. Because they're largely insulated to it. They don't have to have face-to-face contact with anyone that feels they were wronged by what was written. And when people see that happening with the so called professionals, then they think the same thing is happening on the local level, too.
We didn't have the luxury of 'unnamed sources,' or basically filling an article with pure speculation. We were weekly, so we really didn't have the chance to write an article a day about the incremental progression of things, giving out information in small doses, and I think it was better that way.
I think you're right! It's difficult to actually use the word "news" in most mainstream new's media today. I'm off facebook, obviously, but I followed Dan Rather who I used to love and he still continues to be spectacular there. His posts about the current administration and the media are always perfectly old school, except he can afford to be biased now :)
I've found some pretty cool people on here, and you're a quality person, so if you're getting connected to good people because of me, then I'm glad!
I'm glad we don't have to use the old chisel anymore, but I did like writing. One advantage of the keyboard is that it's so much faster than writing. I tested myself the other day and I'm 60+ words per minute with 100% accuracy. Maybe that was just a fluke, but I thought it was decent.
I don't know that I would actually be a good editor. I like things to be write (heh) and I don't like seeing mistakes. Especially not after publishing, or shipping, or delivery to the customer. It happens though. There are mistakes, and we just have to move on. That's how life goes. We don't need to be perfect, but strive for excellence.
That's exactly what I told him last evening!! I look forward to his opinions and comments ;)
...as I do with yours!
Thanks, @lynncoyle1! You and @glenalbrethsen will be happy to know that I am closing in on finishing the next chapter of The Man With No Name. I was hoping to have it published tonight, but it's not going to happen. It still has to go through the editing process. It doesn't answer a bunch of questions, but it keeps things moving along. Look for that to be released either tomorrow or Monday. Thanks for the encouragement to get writing, Glen!
Hooray! You're back at it ;)
I'm looking forward to reading it...