CatFive
Member
- Joined
- May 30, 2011
- Member Type
- Interested in Language
- Native Language
- English
- Home Country
- United States
- Current Location
- United States
Hello,
I find reading a news article to be an increasingly painful task. It used to be rather difficult to find any mispellings or poor grammar within written materials. Excellent writing skills in addition to an interesting perspective were required im most publishing fields.
Now I read articles on the internet. I honestly feel ashamed, and quite disheartened, about the complete lack of concern or awareness shown for the reader.
I feel as though I am a direct witness to the decline of civilization, as if I am living the movie Idiocracy.
The most common issues I see are:
1. Run-on sentences (whether caused by too many prepositional phrases, comma splices, and/or excessive use of conjunctions.)
2. Sentences beginning with extraneous conjunctions (And and But make me wince the most.)
3. Ending sentences with a prepositional phrase. I know this isn't a "rule" however, I propose application of it be reserved only for the most advanced users of the English Language.
4. Mixing present and past tense within the same paragraph; even worse, within the same sentence.
Is it just me, or are we as a species shifting from written text to pictures and videos? Does this make anyone else feel like time and space no longer expands; but rather, has actually begun to constrict? Is this where the backslide starts and human devolution begins? :shock: I feel we have gone through the cusp. We now live in a world where fake breasts and expressionless faces are valued much higher than something so antiquated as intelligence.
I found a hair salon advertisement to be a poignant sign of the times. It read:
On Memorial Day, Remember Your Hair.
Have I just outgrown modern times, and my outrage is akin to calling Elvis' hip swivel 'of the devil'?
Your thoughts and ideas are much appreciated!
I find reading a news article to be an increasingly painful task. It used to be rather difficult to find any mispellings or poor grammar within written materials. Excellent writing skills in addition to an interesting perspective were required im most publishing fields.
Now I read articles on the internet. I honestly feel ashamed, and quite disheartened, about the complete lack of concern or awareness shown for the reader.
I feel as though I am a direct witness to the decline of civilization, as if I am living the movie Idiocracy.
The most common issues I see are:
1. Run-on sentences (whether caused by too many prepositional phrases, comma splices, and/or excessive use of conjunctions.)
2. Sentences beginning with extraneous conjunctions (And and But make me wince the most.)
3. Ending sentences with a prepositional phrase. I know this isn't a "rule" however, I propose application of it be reserved only for the most advanced users of the English Language.
4. Mixing present and past tense within the same paragraph; even worse, within the same sentence.
Is it just me, or are we as a species shifting from written text to pictures and videos? Does this make anyone else feel like time and space no longer expands; but rather, has actually begun to constrict? Is this where the backslide starts and human devolution begins? :shock: I feel we have gone through the cusp. We now live in a world where fake breasts and expressionless faces are valued much higher than something so antiquated as intelligence.
I found a hair salon advertisement to be a poignant sign of the times. It read:
On Memorial Day, Remember Your Hair.
Have I just outgrown modern times, and my outrage is akin to calling Elvis' hip swivel 'of the devil'?
Your thoughts and ideas are much appreciated!