The careful writer is an endangered species.<\/p>\n
The evidence is all about us: at America’s best newspapers the economic bottom line now\u00a0trumps journalistic values; bloggers pollute the Internet with unedited, stream-of-consciousness musings; e-mailers and text messengers practice a staccato disregard for spelling, grammar, and punctuation.<\/p>\n
No one is immune.<\/p>\n
Minneapolis Star Tribune<\/em><\/strong>, Oct.19<\/em><\/p>\n
Kersten rebuked<\/strong><\/p>\n
In her\u00a0Oct. 15 broadside against bans on sports teams with Indian names, Katherine Kersten\u00a0manages to both\u00a0violate principles of sound argument and indirectly\u00a0denigrate the deceased. As a columnist, she has every right to savage policies with which she disagrees. But in her typical ad hominid style of argument, Kersten gratuitously attacks a nationally respected young sociologist who is only tangentially connected to the story. She does so by mocking the titles of his books and articles, scholarly works that have nothing to do with her topic at hand.<\/p>\n
We are all responsible for the consequences of our actions, even unintended ones. It was thus a supreme\u00a0act of cosmic justice that her column appeared on the same day that the Star Tribune had a front-page obituary of Vernon Bellecourt, the man who initiated the nationwide campaign against Indian mascots.<\/p>\n
Given her rigid mindset, she could probably never get her head around the idea that a Christian God had struck her such an ironic blow. OK, perhaps it was Karma? I look forward to a future Kersten column in which she laments the invasion of both South Asians immigrants and their alien religions of Hinduism and Buddhism.<\/p>\n
MONTE BUTE, WOODBURY<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
At 7:30 a.m. on the day that\u00a0my “Kersten rebuked” letter appeared, I received\u00a0an e-mail from my university provost: “ad hominid?” Once the\u00a0visceral\u00a0flush of shame had passed, I rushed to check the editorial page. Sure enough, I had committed a malapropism.<\/p>\n
Given the universal impulse to save face, I first gave thought to claiming intentionality–of course, Kersten’s simple-minded arguments really are ad hominid! Upon further reflection, I decided to be forthright. I contacted the Star Tribune <\/em>editor so that he might as least correct the on-line version. I also asked why he had not caught and corrected my gaffe with “ad hominem.”<\/p>\n
\nActually, Monte, I did stop at it and was in the process of changing it when I thought, wait. Monte’s a smart guy. Maybe he knows something I don’t. So I did a quick search and found a couple of dozen uses of it. In hindsight, I should have checked further. But it’s one of those things: If it’s a writer I know and trust, I’m inclined to believe him, even if he’s using a term I’m not personally familiar with. I may not know every word that exists, but I sure as hell don’t know every word that DOESN’T exist.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Alas, you gave me more credit than I was due. Nevertheless, the error was mine, and mine alone.\u00a0Given the probability that\u00a0few read the letter, and even fewer recognized my mistake, why don’t I just let this embarrassing lapse lie? Even\u00a0a parish priest needs\u00a0confession.\u00a0As a teacher, I profess that self-editing is the key to writing well. I counsel students that every composition, even an e-mail, deserves careful proofreading and at least\u00a0a couple of drafts. I must\u00a0fess up: I\u00a0was in too much of a rush.<\/p>\n
And particularly when using newly-minted prophylactics–spelling and grammar checkers, for instance–realize that these tools are neither infallible, nor do they absolve\u00a0us of editorial culpability.\u00a0A highlighted suggestion should not provoke an automatic\u00a0click on\u00a0the “change” box. Regrettably, I did not practice what I preach; when prompted, I mindlessly changed a word that I had originally spelled right.\u00a0Too late, I\u00a0learned that my computer’s\u00a0abridged dictionary did not contain that word–and an absent word is a spell checker’s\u00a0misspelled word.<\/p>\n
How can we save this endangered species of careful writers? For my part, I will henceforth distribute this scarlet letter on the first day of every class. Perhaps then, this faux pas will be an edifying moment not just for me but\u00a0for my students as well. Author, heal thyself.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The careful writer is an endangered species. The evidence is all about us: at America’s best newspapers the economic bottom line now\u00a0trumps journalistic values; bloggers pollute the Internet with unedited, stream-of-consciousness musings; e-mailers and text messengers practice a staccato disregard for spelling, grammar, and punctuation. No one is immune. Minneapolis Star Tribune, Oct.19 Kersten rebuked […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[144,160],"class_list":["post-21","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-teaching","tag-writing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/monte\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/monte\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/monte\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/monte\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/monte\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/monte\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/monte\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/monte\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/monte\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}