To Be Or Not 2 B

Today's Flog involves the truth that many who blog and/or write articles for very popular news and gossip platforms are missing out on not having a proofreader.

I include myself in this group although I do proof the work of others but don't notice my own errors in grammar and spelling, as well as missing words because, well, it's my own writing and I don't see the mistakes until at least a 4th read. Before then I have usually published the post. An hour or less later, I'll re-read what I've written and gasp at the mess I've made of a sentence.

When one writes on a daily basis and attempts to meet a deadline it's way too easy to hit "Submit" thinking all is well. Hah!

Many writers are in a "quick-write" on the Interwebs habit and, unless there is time to re-visit the work, the mistakes stand out.

I'm bringing this issue into general awareness because I've noticed a consistent omission of one particular word on not only many top-rated news websites, but also in the manuscripts I edit. The word "to" is becoming a lost word in modern writing.

Does it mean anything that "to" is overlooked? From a writers point of view - yes. To a reader? Maybe. Maybe not.

So, where is the Flog in all of this you may ask? Haste. No proofreader. The continuing deterioration of the English language in light of texting language shortcuts and a culturally approved allowance of the mangling of the English language to accommodate the character number restrictions on places like Twitter, are part of the "problem."

I love intelligent writing. Where are our Edith Wharton's and Henry James's? I can't imagine what Proust would be doing in this age and time. Or how Hemingway would view the abysmal lack of not only literary imagination, but the going-to-seed-fast of the beauty of words and visuals the great writers have given to us over the years.

The following is the classic opening sentence from A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens:  

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.

Imagine this revision in today's choppity-chop writing world for the masses:

It was really a cool time. Kind of bad 2. Some were smart and others stupid. LOL! No one cares. LMAO. Good 'n bad stuff going on. R U with me? Shit. We R going to hell.

Perhaps those of us who write every day need to do better.

2 B continued.....