Proofreading

dreadnut · Oct 22, 2020

From my news feed today:

"Hurricane expected to blow pass Bermuda today..." (should be "past")

"Philosopher and sceptic dies..." (should be "skeptic")

Evidently, nobody proofreads this crap any more. And of course, both these words sailed right through someone's spell checker because they are legitimate words.

fronobulax · Oct 22, 2020

There is software that will autocorrect what I type instead of flagging a spelling error. I disable it everywhere I can but I have found that on touch devices my fat fingers end up accepting a proposed correction rather than letting me correct it. Sometimes I am able to proofread but sometimes I can't. I'm resigned to accepting this as a fact of life these days and content with striving not to be guilty myself.

We cannot control other people's behavior. All we can control is our reaction to it and my reaction is to shake my head sadly and move on.

And as an example whatever I typed showed up as "snack" and I only corrected it to "shake" while proofreading. I wonder if I need to fix my browser or LTG?

GAD · Oct 22, 2020

I don’t believe web news is proofread the way newspapers were. The drive to lower costs and be the first to report trumps all.

jp · Oct 22, 2020

One thing I see most often in ads and forums is people using "breaks" instead of "brakes." It drives me nuts!

Try this. Go to craigslist, and in the general search craigslist box on the upper left, type in "breaks" and enter. It's shocking how many times you'll find it misused in the auto, MC, trailers, and bike listings. Arrrggh!

dreadnut · Oct 22, 2020

"The drive to lower costs and be the first to report trumps all."

True, that. And if a story has inaccuracies, they can just yank the piece and replace it, and it's like the original never existed. Drives me nuckin' futs.

Unlike when they committed ink to paper! By the way, this is the photo that got me banned over at TDPRI; it was considered "too political."

walrus · Oct 22, 2020

GAD said:
I don’t believe web news is proofread the way newspapers were. The drive to lower costs and be the first to report trumps all.

This is true. Students majoring in Journalism are dwindling. You don't need a degree to work at many of the web news sites. Somewhere along the line a "blog" has become "news".

And as college professor of 35 years, I can tell you that writing skills have dwindled. Students are very dependent on spell check, etc. which are flawed. A classic I see all the time is "I defiantly" agree", vs, "definitely" - that's spell check. But don't be too quick to blame the software. As I tell ask my students - "Did you read what you wrote? You still need to proofread/edit your work!"

Lastly, another cause of this is the lack of reading. It is difficult to be a good writer without reading first. Playing games on your phone won't do it. I fear the day libraries will be obsololete.

walrus

fronobulax · Oct 22, 2020

I will also note the rise, and acceptance, of text messaging. The medium rewards terseness and if the message is understood that matters more than whether it meets standards associated with grammar, spelling or proofreading.

U prlly cn figur this out.

walrus · Oct 22, 2020

Excellent point! Why learn to spell? It's a casual world!

A classic from my archives. A student writing a paper about warehouse inventory systems. He had "whorehouse" instead of "warehouse" throughout the paper. Gave it a whole different meaning.

walrus

dreadnut · Oct 22, 2020

My wife's Aunt's recent obituary and funeral program claimed that "Virginia assed away..."

davismanLV · Oct 22, 2020

It's always best to have someone else proofread your stuff for you. You know what you wanted to say and that's usually what you'll see. A different set of eyes is best, if it's even important. I've had typos here that I think I can just blow off and who cares? But a day or two later I break down and edit the post before I go crazier than I already am.

bobouz · Oct 22, 2020

If only I had a dime for every time someone incorrectly uses:

there - their
your - you’re
too - to

Nuuska · Oct 22, 2020

dreadnut said:
..."Virginia assed away..."

Now THAT's a remarkable achievment - whatever it might be . . .

beecee · Oct 22, 2020

The drive to lower costs and be the first to report trumps all.

uh....That would be Trump's all.

NOT POLITICAL...just bad humor

Westerly Wood · Oct 22, 2020

i too see this all the time in google news stories, the worst is the sports writers like si.com, espn.com etc, they just cannot spell. and no one seems to care

dreadnut · Oct 22, 2020

beecee said:
The drive to lower costs and be the first to report trumps all.

uh....That would be Trump's all.

NOT POLITICAL...just bad humor

Well, I thought of that too, but decided not to go there...

walrus · Oct 22, 2020

davismanLV said:
It's always best to have someone else proofread your stuff for you. You know what you wanted to say and that's usually what you'll see. A different set of eyes is best, if it's even important. I've had typos here that I think I can just blow off and who cares? But a day or two later I break down and edit the post before I go crazier than I already am.

I agree with this. I can't type an email - certainly not for work - or post here without having it be well-written. Is it a generational thing? Or just our OCD?

walrus

davismanLV · Oct 22, 2020

walrus said:
Is it a generational thing? Or just our OCD?

walrus

I think it's probably a little of both. Our words represent us, and I want them to be right.

dreadnut · Oct 22, 2020

davismanLV said:
I think it's probably a little of both. Our words represent us, and I want them to be right.

Absolutely Tom, well said.

Brucebubs · Oct 22, 2020

It's funny seeing threads by Americans about spelling.

5thumbs · Oct 22, 2020

walrus said:
Students are very dependent on spell check, etc. which are flawed. But don't be too quick to blame the software. As I tell ask my students - "Did you read what you wrote? You still need to proofread/edit your work!"

I agree. It is a fact that we have to proofread. Software does not understand proper grammar or what the message meant to say. To blindly trust spellcheck is a crutch with a slippery leg.

Proofreading

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