Chacham's Journal: Rant: Slashdot: poor writing

And Slashdot gets worse. In the story Cross-Platform Video Capture Cards And TV Tuners?, the writer states, "This Christmas reminded me of the times when you were a child and your parents bought that new toy that says on the packaging "Batteries Not Included". Post-Christmas rituals always turn into spending sprees to get other things that will be compatible and complementary to the gifts we recieved."

The writer is English-challenged. This comment says it best.

"reminded *me*", "when *you*", "the gifts *we*". Is this guy stupid? Seriously? Do people think they should write as they speak?

Writing is an art. Something sorely lacking on solidus full-stop. What do you do when an email requires reading the subject line? Unless it's from the boss, i torment the guy. (Yes, i once received an email from the top, where the *entire* message was in the subject. Asking a question or something.) Yet on the homepage, it happens not too unoften. I realize this, for in the summary emails, i always skip the titles and read the meat of the article. There simply are times when i *have* to read the title to know what the writer is talking about.

Which is why i try to write the titles of journals and email *after* the body.

Now, there's this mix of pronouns. That changes the focus of the sentence. This guy does it twice. Besides the sentence not making sense.

Is it just me, or does anyone else care?

Is it getting worse?

[GreyWolf3000]

Is it getting worse, or is this just a function of story articles being written by "average" users?

Do the editors edit? I don't think they have degrees in journalism or anything, and probably prefer a more "laid back" tone in the articles to complement the overall feel of the site.

What we should really jump on are the book reviews and exclusive articles.

Re:Is it getting worse?

[Chacham]

I don't think they have degrees in journalism or anything, and probably prefer a more "laid back" tone in the articles to complement the overall feel of the site.

That could be. But that takes to forms. One, the personal side, that is no editting, spilling mistakes and all. Usually reserved for moderated mailling lists. That way, the moderator takes a "back seat". Only active when needed.

The other form is free form. That is, let it be reported however the reporter reports. But, it is heavily editted to ma

Slashdot is really sucking...

[Dr Reducto]

Im thinking of becoming a troll ("The Debian Troll" style trolls, not crapfloods). Slashdot has been pretty sucky in the past few months, with all of te dupes, things that aren't news, and articles that are realy well-written trolls. I think it would be more fun to just start trouble.

It's not an essay,

[jrockway]

Please remember that slashdot is not an essay, it's an online forum. Not all of us have time to perfect our verbiage before hitting submit. We just want to get our ideas out there and see what other people think.

I'm with you

[Call Me Black Cloud]

I don't think you're too picky. Sure, it's an online forum but is it that much harder to write correctly?

My pet peeve - the use of "they" with a singular subject, usually found when the writer is unsure of the gender. "The burglar tried to rob the gun store; I bet they won't try that again!" That usually takes some rewording to get around since there is nothing to take the place of "they", except maybe "it" :)

Close behind is this (I don't know how to describe it...subect doesn't match, what? objec

Re:I'm with you

[Chacham]

Heh. Defnitely seen that. :)