Internet Writing Getting More Sloppy

This will not be a post as much as an observation.

I try to do things as quickly as I can at times. When I have to get some posts done for whatever reason I work fast. The trouble is that my mind moves faster (and cleaner) than my fingers and my spell check do. As a result I make more mistakes than I should in grammar in spelling. I am not stupid. I know the difference between its and it’s, your and you’re, there and their. But in my rush to be efficient and look productive I miss things partly because I am hurrying along with relying too much on technology to pick up after me.

Well, appears as if I am not alone. The more I read anything online I am seeing some of these same mistakes in publications that are supposedly well above my writing pedigree. I am not going to name names of writers or point to specifics because that would be mean-spirited (which I can be but not today). Let’s just say that it’s not just bloggers making these mistakes ( in general, I have seen more typos and errors in the Wall Street Journal and NYT than ever before as of late).

The point is, we need to consider accuracy and simple good English when writing. When there are typos and obvious unedited pieces the author and the site look bad. Like I stated earlier, I can be a prime offender here so this is probably more of a wake up call for me than anything else.

Does this bother you like it is bothering me? Do you care if a writer or publication looks like it can write as well as it can think? When the fingers race ahead of the mind to create shortcuts does it undermine the good efforts of a blogger or journalist?

Nothing really mind blowing I know but sometimes symptoms point to much bigger issues which I suspect are out there and growing more than we would like to admit.