Canoerebel
Posts: 21100
Joined: 12/14/2002 From: Northwestern Georgia, USA Status: offline
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Major newspapers across the USA had to slash budgets and staff over the past three years. As a result, the major daylies have shrunk in size and there are fewer editors reviewing the stories. Where once it was rare to find a mistake in grammar, it's become a common occurrence. (The same thing may be true of magazines, but I only read one and I'm responsible for the editing there.) I'm not sure about the book publishing industry. Perhaps it too is feeling the pinch (this seems likely since related industries, like major book retailers, are having a hard time of it). Thus, publishers may be laying off editors so that "less eyes" reviewing means more mistakes; or maybe there's greater pressure to produce in volume, which always leads to mistakes. Could it have anything to do with education? With all the vast sums spent on education, and all the vast years students spend in schools and colleges, you'd think we'd be much more literate, knowledgeable and eloquent than were our ancestors. So why is it that a bunch of men who were taught at home or tutored by teachers who knew far less than we do about many subjects....ended up writing things like the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Gettysburg Address. Those guys knew how to express lofty ideals beautifuly, while the best students today can only manage to Twitter, text, and exclaim "WTF?"
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