O' Accuracy, Where Art Thou?

Is It Just Me, or are people who should know better becoming totally careless when it comes to writing and speaking?

I'm just finishing up the ninth consecutive novel in which I've found at least one, and in some cases multiple, errors of spelling and grammar. Last week, the professionally printed menus at two restaurants my husband and I visited contained misspelled words. On last night's 6 p.m. news, we grimaced [once again] as an effervescent young weathercaster spoke, repeatedly, of improving "tempachoors."

I admit that since I'm a professional writer and editor and my husband is a former high school English teacher, we're more "tuned in" to these kinds of mistakes. That said, I'm quite sure that in years past, they didn't happen anywhere near as often.

If I recall correctly, I began paying serious attention to this phenomenon a few years back when the then-governor of Ohio launched a campaign to encourage volunteers to help children with reading. The campaign included strategically placed billboards throughout the Buckeye State. The first time I saw one, I nearly drove off the road.

Right up there for everyone to see (which, not insignificantly, included all those children who presumably needed help with reading), was this phrase: "Help a Child, Be a Mentor."

Stop the presses! Did my eyes deceive me? Surely I didn't see a sign promoting literacy that contained a run-on sentence!

Alas, I did. In fairness, I've played in the advertising game, and I'm well aware that it's permissible to take liberties with headlines that anywhere else would be considered inexcusable. But how, I wondered, could anyone possibly explain to a seven-year-old that "incorrect" might be acceptable in this instance, but not when he or she is writing a book report? Kids today have enough trouble learning the right way, for goodness sake -- the least we adults can do is not add to the confusion.

(Just in case anyone is wondering, the phrase would have been correct had they put a semicolon or dash between the words "Child" and "Be" or simply made two sentences, as in "Help a Child. Be a Mentor.")

Unfortunately, what started as a trend seems to have escalated into an epidemic -- and this time, we can't blame it on China or Japan. Just within the past year or so, for instance, I've sent e-mails to no less than four national magazines to inform them of errors in fact and spelling.

The problem is particularly troublesome on local TV news broadcasts. Certainly, I'm willing to blame some of it on the fact that two local stations recently came under ownership by the same company; the resulting staff reductions, merging of back-office operations and increased dependence on lower-paid, freshly minted college grads are virtually guaranteed to create technical glitches, lapses in oversight and outright sabotage. But no matter how hard I try, I simply cannot justify constant misspellings in backdrops and scroll bars and mispronunciation of important (and well known) places and names by news anchors.

More recently, I had the displeasure of editing an "article" for a local business newspaper that was sent by a woman who'd just written a book; she had, or so her bio proclaimed, a master's degree in English. Her topic? Bemoaning the fact that because of text messaging and other abbreviated forms of communication that are so popular these days, young people do not learn to write properly.

Ah, just what the world needs to hear, I said -- but that was before I started to read her article. Many minutes and the start of a headache later, I concluded she had a valid point. But given the astounding number of grammatical errors she made that had to be corrected before I would dare show it to anyone else, much less an entire newspaper audience, it also was clear she was totally unqualified to be making it.

For the record, of those four magazines to which I sent e-mails regarding errors, one sent a confirmation of receipt and two I never heard from. The fourth, though, made me question whether there's any hope for the future at all: In her e-mail reply, the editor informed me that my message pointing out their reporter's mistake had given the entire office a laugh for the day.

Her message, unfortunately, was clear as a bell: So what if it's wrong? Hey, folks, mistakes not only are okay, but funny. If we screw up, so what?

Well, my dear, the last laugh is mine: I no longer subscribe to your magazine. Truth be told, we rarely watch local news shows these days, either. Instead, we turn to national networks like Fox and CNN, where yes, mistakes do happen, but with far less frequency.

I understand, and fully applaud, the fact that we live in an age of instant information where the speedy bird gets the worm. But it doesn't follow, at least in my mind, that accuracy needs to be sacrificed in the process.

Or Is It Just Me?