IS PROOFREADING A DYING ART?

[Wyandot Jim]

IS PROOFREADING A DYING ART?

Man Kills Self Before Shooting Wife and Daughter
I called the Editorial Room and asked who wrote this. It took two or three readings before the editor realized
that what he was reading was impossible! They put a correction in the next day.



Something Went Wrong in Jet Crash, Expert Says
Really?

Police Begin Campaign to Run Down Jaywalkers
Now that's taking things a bit far.







Panda Mating Fails; Veterinarian Takes Over
What a guy!


Miners Refuse to Work after Death
Those 'No-good-for-nothing' lazy so-and-so's'

Juvenile Court to Try Shooting Defendant
See if that works any better than a fair trial.

War Dims Hope for Peace

I can see where it might have that effect.

If Strike Isn't Settled Quickly, It May Last Awhile
Ya think?


Cold Wave Linked to Temperatures
Who would have thought.

Enfield ( London ) Couple Slain; Police Suspect Homicide
They may be on to something.

Red Tape Holds Up New Bridges
You mean there's something stronger than duct tape?

Man Struck By Lightning: Faces Battery Charge
He probably IS the battery charge

New Study of Obesity Looks for Larger Test Group
Weren't they fat enough?

Astronaut Takes Blame for Gas in Spacecraft
That's what he gets for eating those beans.

Kids Make Nutritious Snacks
Do they taste like chicken?

Local High School Dropouts Cut in Half
Chainsaw Massacre all over again.



Hospitals are Sued by 7 Foot Doctors
Boy, are they tall!

And the winner is....
Typhoon Rips Through Cemetery; Hundreds Dead
Did I read that right?

 

[Kevin]

Good ones...but I would have to say red tape is stronger than duct tape.

 

[H.H. Hipshot]

I just bought a nicely prepared, reasonably expensive, catalog of Ruger firearms, and I think that every article has a mistake. Sentences are clipped in the middle, photo captions are incorrect, statements inside articles are incorrect or out of date, and more.

Apparently no one did an edit or proofread of the book prior to publication.

HHH

 

[SAJohn]

The astronaut one was really about Tang and John Young's pithy comments about its gas producing properties when he did not know the mic was hot.

 

[Pat-inCO]

IS PROOFREADING A DYING ART?

NO.
It died at least fifteen years ago. :roll:

 

[tinman]

Yes, it is dead. I am constantly calling, e-mailing or just speaking with folks who have constructed and distributed a document which contains errors in some form or another. Last week it was a survey that followed a mandatory online class. It was a simple survey, just 10 questions. Four of those questions began with the word "Where"....... trouble is the correct usage was supposed to be "Were".
One question asked "Was the course understandable and presented good?"

The funny/sad part is that I stopped after 12th grade........and all of them are college graduates. :roll:

 

[vito]

Before I retired I was in charge of 10 nursing homes. I insisted that the Administrators of these facilities send me their brochures, general letters to families, any news releases, etc. in draft form before finalizing. I can recall only a handful of these documents that were letter perfect without spelling or grammatical errors and without significant usage errors which would possibly distort the message they intended to communicate. Some of these Administrators resented my proofreading, feeling it implied that I did not trust them in their use of proper English. Of course they were right. Despite the reality that most of these Administrators had Masters degrees, few could write intelligently and properly in the English language (and all of them were native English speaking individuals). The causes of their problems were primary ignorance and carelessness. It was very discouraging. The day is long gone where based upon educational attainment one can assume that an individual can write even barely acceptably well.

 

[Dan in MI]

Why wood it be ded? I no for a fact grammer chek and spel chek get used all the time.

 

[mohavesam]

A quick check pf Fox News' website shows headlines using "G" instead of "K" to reference "thousand".
This occurs very often.
Since when does some pinhead editor get to re-write mathematical symbols in-use since Roman times???

 

[gramps]

My father was a printer. For kicks he would proofread the newspaper that came every Sunday.
gramps

 

[Tallbald]

HAHAHAHAHAHA! Thanks! I needed a laugh this evening. Don.

 

[Pat-inCO]

If you don't believe it's dead, look at the number of threads that either begin
the thread title or post itself with "So,". :roll:

 

[reloader]

I have noticed in the past 45 years or so that if it doesn't push the liberal agenda it isn't taught in the schools anymore.
Like any job you do it is always best to go back over it when you think you are finished and double check everything.

Most people learn that the hard way, like "I cut it twice and it's still too short."

 

[Fox Mike]

Punctuation is also not taught it seems. There is a lot of difference in what a "," means in a sentence. As an example:
1. Let's eat, Grandma.
2. Let's eat Grandma.

 

[blume357]

I am terrible at spelling, grammar and punctuation.... but I have to agree, even I get miffed at some of the articles in our semi-local newspaper, The Greenville News. But the best quote I ever read was in that paper probably 30 years ago. Seems a guy got robbed early one morning in a certain part of our down town park and the reporter interviewed the police chief... who explained that the local male gay community hung out there late at night (I wrote that myself and it is pretty funny on its own). But what the article did was quote the police chief word for word: "It's gotten so bad down there that you can't have a good time with out being solicited."

 

[Bob Wright]

I still remember the classic example given to us in about the fifth grade in school. It purtortedly was an ad in the lost and Found section of a newspaper:

"Lost fountain pen, by a lady full of green ink."

Bob Wright

 

[Rick Courtright]

If you don't believe it's dead, look at the number of threads that either begin
the thread title or post itself with "So,". :roll:

Hi,

So what's wrong with that, Pat? (Sorry, just couldn't resist!)

Back on topic, sorta, I wonder how much of this is a function of the death of "drill and kill" in schools and the belief "Kids don't need to learn that cuz the computer will do it"? An interesting story to support this idea came out of Silicon Valley a couple of years ago:

One of the schools (I missed the name, but it looked like a junior high/middle school), which is filled to the gills with the kids of rich hi-tech parents, was in the middle of an experiment where they'd switched gears completely and "outlawed" the use of electronic gizmoes in the classroom. Kids had to check their phones with the teacher, no calculators, computers or other electronics were allowed, and the kids had to everything "longhand" or "in their heads." That won't be such a strange concept to some of us, but it's absolutely alien to so many of today's students.

I saw an interview on the news with some of the kids about how they liked it...

Expecting to hear a lot of complaints, I was surprised to hear every kid they talked to LOVED the idea. One young lady, probably about 13, was rather well spoken as she described the idea of how "using my head" really stimulated her desire to learn, instead of suppressing it, and went on to talk about how actually writing, by hand with a pencil and paper, made her think more about what she was saying and that she could turn out better work that way than what she'd put out on her computer before (anyone remember the three step process of "outline--rough draft in pencil--final draft in ink" some of us were taught? In college, the final draft had to be typed--or would be printed today--but the process was the same.) And not once in her short discussion do I recall her using the filler "like" in her sentences!

BTW, it was mentioned that after only a year, this school's test results were pulling ahead of other local schools which shared otherwise identical demographics where they'd all been pretty similar before. Hmmm... I wonder if they're still doing it "old school" today?

Rick C

 

[graygun]

If you don't believe it's dead, look at the number of threads that either begin
the thread title or post itself with "So,". :roll:

Hi,

So what's wrong with that, Pat? (Sorry, just couldn't resist!)

Back on topic, sorta, I wonder how much of this is a function of the death of "drill and kill" in schools and the belief "Kids don't need to learn that cuz the computer will do it"? An interesting story to support this idea came out of Silicon Valley a couple of years ago:

One of the schools (I missed the name, but it looked like a junior high/middle school), which is filled to the gills with the kids of rich hi-tech parents, was in the middle of an experiment where they'd switched gears completely and "outlawed" the use of electronic gizmoes in the classroom. Kids had to check their phones with the teacher, no calculators, computers or other electronics were allowed, and the kids had to everything "longhand" or "in their heads." That won't be such a strange concept to some of us, but it's absolutely alien to so many of today's students.

I saw an interview on the news with some of the kids about how they liked it...

Expecting to hear a lot of complaints, I was surprised to hear every kid they talked to LOVED the idea. One young lady, probably about 13, was rather well spoken as she described the idea of how "using my head" really stimulated her desire to learn, instead of suppressing it, and went on to talk about how actually writing, by hand with a pencil and paper, made her think more about what she was saying and that she could turn out better work that way than what she'd put out on her computer before (anyone remember the three step process of "outline--rough draft in pencil--final draft in ink" some of us were taught? In college, the final draft had to be typed--or would be printed today--but the process was the same.) And not once in her short discussion do I recall her using the filler "like" in her sentences!

BTW, it was mentioned that after only a year, this school's test results were pulling ahead of other local schools which shared otherwise identical demographics where they'd all been pretty similar before. Hmmm... I wonder if they're still doing it "old school" today?

Rick C

It wouldn't be fair. :roll:

 

[graygun]

Yes

 

[Tom W]

My wife works on Base at an Elementary School. DODEA has sent a mandate that the teachers are no longer allowed to retain children. ( We called it "fail" when we were in school. ) The kids can't be failed on a test or anything that they do. There are kids in the 2nd and 3rd grade reading and doing math at kindergarten levels, and that's just fine. We're raising a bunch of people that have the mentality of street hoods, who can't read, write, or speak properly, wear their pants around their azzhole and will never amount to anything except a name and picture on a police record, or be on the news by time they are 25. We're quickly becoming a 3rd World country. By time these kids graduate, and I use that word cautiously, the majority of our population will be dolts. But they will be able to play video games.

 

[mohavesam]

... We're raising a bunch of people that have the mentality of street hoods, who can't read, write, or speak properly...

You have that part correct sir. It is our generation responsible for the poor education of the following generations of Americans. The teachers "going along" with their unions and administrations, the parents not demanding higher performance from their government schools, and the lackadaisical attitudes of school boards and administrators. The problems don't begin with the students, their video games, or the way they wear their clothes.

The problems begin and remain with teachers, school officials, and local communities that are enabling methods of teaching differing from the methods used to educate themselves! Adults with values more-strongly held than desire for tenure would bring change, sadly there are not many who still act to support their values.

Apologies for thread drift. My Dad was a printer also, and could find grammatical & spelling errors faster than microsoft, and could read both sides of newsprint held up to the light. Unfortunately editors are paid to headline articles with eye-catching abbreviation and "man bites dog" phrasing - and it has always worked!

 

[Rick Courtright]

The problems begin and remain with teachers, school officials, and local communities that are enabling methods of teaching differing from the methods used to educate themselves! Adults with values more-strongly held than desire for tenure would bring change, sadly there are not many who still act to support their values.

Hi,

Dunno about the rest of the country and how fast they've slid into the abyss, Sam, but what you've said there is OLD news here in CA. My mother insisted I go to private school, starting with kindergarten, because she felt CA's public school system was deficient compared to the PS system she'd grown up with in KS.

The first school I attended, thru 7th grade, had really GOOD teachers. All of them were retired public school teachers, too! Word was they'd all suffered thru the nonsense of the public schools long enough for the pension, then went to work ACTUALLY teaching (remember that private schools have never been the best place for teachers to get rich.) Teaching they loved; the "education business" not so much.

Oh, yeah, this little adventure in my life began in 1955! SIXTY years ago... so I'd offer we're at least three generations into this mess here by now. If one of my favorite poli sci profs was right that it takes four generations to completely transform a society, we're getting mighty close...

Rick C

 

[Colonialgirl]

Fortunately, I started school BEFORE all this stupidity took root; Spent MOST of my grade school years on one Navy base or another where the teachers were pretty much ALL Navy/Marine wives and didn't have a liberal left winger moronic school board running them. My Mom had made sure I could read via the PHONICS method long before I ever hit Kindergarten and THAT put me several years ahead of the rest of my class and "Dick and Jane see Spot" books.
Started Middle School in Bartlesville, OK where they had a sensible INTELLIGENT Superintendent of schools and yes;
If you misbehaved in class, you COULD and WOULD get your rear end swatted with a paddle. Spent one year in a Portland, OR high school before the liberals destroyed the system; and it was a NEW school staffed with teachers determined that YOU WOULD LEARN English, Am History, Math, Chemistry, French and music in Band.
I'm glad I graduated before "new math", "common core", Islamism in the history books and all the pornographic literature they use in schools now. My Dad taught me how to do math in my head without using my fingers and my speed in reading (+1000 wpm) held me in good stead in my other classes.

 

[Tom W]

Sorry Sam, but it rises and falls with leadership, starting at the home. If the parents don't give a rip, the kids surely won't. How many times have you been in Wal-Mart and seen ( or heard ) a screaming child that wanted something and daddy wouldn't give it to her? The more they holler the worse they get. So mommy or daddy get them whatever they want to shut them up. It gets worse with age, believe me.

There is a sign in the cafeteria that tells the students that while the music is playing it is time to eat. An army Captain came in one day at lunch to eat with his daughter, and he and his daughter both were talking when they weren't supposed to be. One of the Lunch room workers came over and asked the Captain if he would please move himself and his daughter to the visitors table where they would be able to have a conversation without disrupting the other students. The Captain got loud and indignant and said he'd sit where ever he pleased.
I wonder how well he could control his troops, when He wouldn't obey simple rules, and what kind if influence did he have on the other children that day.

If the parents don't take responsibility, don't expect the teachers to be baby sitters....

 

[Galaxiedan]

Spacing is important also