Another thing that drives me nuts about having to read so much for my job each day is the increasing number of language errors I find. I can understand careless mistakes, but these don't fall into that category. These are made by people paid to write headlines and press releases, which means someone else proofread and edited their work.
This is just one example of the many ridiculous headlines I've seen in the past year:
New Study Reveals Swimming Can Cut Men's Risk of Dying in Half
So, if you are a man and you swim, you increase your chance of not dying by 50%?! And dying is a risk, not a certainty? Amazing! Man has been searching for immortality for centuries but the answer all this time was right there in water? And the immortality is only for men, apparently.
Do people not understand what that sentence means? Every time a new study comes out, there will be at least a couple of headlines like that one. Not "this will reduce your chances of dying young/early" but reduce your chances of dying altogether. Aaaarrrrgggghhh!
In Malaysia, I always understood if someone's English was poor, because that most likely meant English was their second or third language. But in America, where a large number of people speak only English, what is the excuse? Shouldn't everyone be fluent in at least one language and full understand what the words they use convey?
I understand that language is fluid and changes as people add and drop words, but shouldn't it still contain accurate meaning? This isn't language innovation - it's ignorance. For someone who loves language and all the written word can convey as much as I do, this is sad and aggravating, especially when it happens consistently, not occasionally.
There is apparently a small group of people in this country who are going around correcting errors in signs that they come across (see link below for an example). They've even done this to historical signs, because they cannot tolerate the mistakes they keep seeing. This is apparently against the law but I am completely on their side. They are my kind of people!
http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/lifestyle/chi-typo-guys-0521may21,0,6902266.story
2 comments:
*snort* I read only one part of the phrase at first so I thought it reduced there chances of dying by being cut in half.
I haven't been here for a while, probably because I've been off blogging as well. And, em, because you write too much.
ppppffffhhhhtttt!!!!
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