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The Last Gasp of Literacy?
An Illiterate World?
This past January, colleagues in the Washington Independent Writers association bemoaned a report that proofreading is a dying art (See article). WIW’s lively online banter about the topic identified some basic causes for the death-of-proofreading phenomenon (including blame for the ever-lowering literacy levels of today’s readers). The freelance and staff reporters sharing their thoughts online may also have identified the road to repairing the problem. I offer the following thoughts (first my own, then those of colleagues who agreed that I may share theirs) below:
Some Electronic Givens
The global news market is driven by advertising dollars that support networks, news bureaus and associated areas of the global economy. The race to the deadline is the race for the gold, and apparently this has much to do with the abandonment of fine tuning far-flung writing. Compounding matters, online and print journalists from varied ethnic backgrounds are competing for the attention of the lucrative and attention span-challenged English-speaking market. Their nuance- and vocabulary-limited copy sometimes baffles native English speakers, but harried editors post the Videophone and text-based babble for global consumption anyway. That’s proving not to be a good thing for lapses in the lexicon.
The ease of online communication compounds the problem. The standard writing style for websites that attract attention span-challenged visitors has long dictated bolded paragraph headers, brief and stunning copy and an egregious lack of sufficient background material. Hard-to-use keyboards present their own problems for touch-typists. Then there’s the “Cut and Oops” method of preparing or editing hastily cobbled together content. It further complicates the publishing world’s speed-is-everything conundrum. As tastes change in the event-driven cyberworld, concomitantly poor writing styles evolve. Proofreading standards are going “POOF!” in nanoseconds. CNN’s apparently definitive announcement is simply a “Man Overboard!” call to an increasingly indifferent public. E-mail is another major culprit and the subject of my next paragraph.
Many a nonprofessional writer, let alone a career communicator, has sent E-mail rife with spelling and grammar gaffes. The limited abilities of spell-checking software are headaches for the conscientious writers who use it, and moot for writers who don’t. When eagle-eyed and impolite colleagues spot the goofs on their monitors, ensuing criticisms can wither errant writers and wear out online discussions with multiple haranguing messages. Not a few professional writers try bypassing the problem by clinging to the “this is informal dialogue” defense. But it doesn’t always satisfy the self-appointed guardians of culture. Moderators of relevant listservs sometimes have to send feisty perpetrators of public humiliation tactics to temporary or permanent cybercorners for contemplative punishment as they are banned from once-friendly forums. But it doesn’t heal the human condition nor heal its propensity for mistakes.
Classic Proofreading Problems throughout History
The historically concerted effort to catch writing mistakes is rooted in the tendency towards human error. Before the information highway facilitated the running over of literacy, proof reading copy was simpler and easier to control. Professional writers had effective backup supporting their educated but fallible writing efforts. Many a literary career is owed to capable, demanding editors skilled at finding an author’s or reporter’s errors. And lest the editors also miss something, printing press operators have long served as the last bastion of literary correctness The Gestalt phenomenon has always accounted for initial proof reading fallibility. “Thin” letters such as “l,” “i,” and “j” often slip past mortal proofreading efforts (they’re hard to see), but usually not past sharp-eyed printing crews aligning the type or setting the presses.
There is ample historical and present-day evidence of classroom instruction about proofing at the elementary, secondary, college and post-college level
(I’m going to gloss over the topic of self-proclaimed victims of education’s language arts programs in the public and private sectors. I have no pity for their clamoring. Intellectually normal people who willingly declare that they’re incapable of learning the linguistic ropes of their native or host countries take themselves out of the literacy world. We know that they’re lazy or contemptuous.). Proofing techniques run the gamut from oral reviews of written text to reading text backward to sharing it with disinterested parties for their identification of mistakes and beyond.
Summary: An Amalgam of Difficulties Afflicting Society at Large
The problem is multifaceted: frequently updated news items delivered as a mind-boggling barrage drive a changing-for-the-worse level of literary competence. The components of the problem are:
1) Altering global perceptions of what should be sacrificed (accuracy and style) in the rush to broadcast the newest noteworthy elements of worldwide events
and
2) The swift, economically critical and electronic means of providing those updates
Strapped on your Dick Tracy-style communication wristband yet? Does the tiny, text-based cell phone in your hand distract you? Look out for that car you almost hit! Do you risk twisting your neck by following animated neon marquees and cable TV news? Have you worn out your visual acuity and your eye drops by staring at monitors too long? Do you need to preserve your mental and physical health by shutting it all out temporarily, frustrating the retailers paying to deliver the messages to you?
I've long suspected that the general decline in literacy scores at the educational level indicates that the fascination with game gadgets and wireless communication tools is a potent force in the rising levels of illiteracy. Neither requires much discretionary thought. That enchantment, coupled with looming deadlines (and eyestrain headaches), desensitizes readers to standards for literary competence! With increasing frequency, readers and writers are discussing “What did you mean by that?” when it comes to written (and subsequently verbal) communication.
The Prescription for Cure is in the Malady
Not every client or every market is among the unsophisticated rabble. A growing vulnerability to being misunderstood and feeling dissatisfied with faulty
literacy standards could eventually cause a pendulum-swing in the other direction for the commercial world. Babbling masses will not know what to think, what to buy or what is happening around them after too many and too-quick messages become gibberish in their overworked minds. Content providers and content consumers who want carefully considered, intellectually inclined food for thought can slow down in their exchange of textual presentations. There is something defensible and noble in a more sagacious approach to information sharing.
Someone capable of delivering well-prepared content with reasonable swiftness is poised to dominate a quality-conscious niche market. I invite content-seekers to utilize my services for well-prepared, thoughtful copy that delivers the message competently and usually before deadline.
Competently Yours,
Yocheved Golani
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