Friday, July 25, 2014

Word Crimes



 There's lots I love about this video. But.

Look, I get irritated by careless writing and wilful ignorance. Most writers do. Readers aren't telepathic. If you want to communicate, don't expect your readers to puzzle their way around your bad English; make the effort to write clearly. Especially if you expect lots of readers. Which is more reasonable: one writer making an effort, or 200 readers?

Still and all, I feel that it's careless to lump in people with cerebral palsy, dyslexia or Down's syndrome (a common cause of mouth-breathing) with people who refuse to learn and still expect everyone to listen.

Which doesn't stop me loving Weird Al's big dic-tionary.


1 comment:

Patsy said...

If it's the video I think you mean, I couldn't watch it - too fast and jumping so I couldn't take in the message.

I do agree that if we want people to read what we've written we should make an effort to write clearly and generally that means writing correctly.