Whatever Happened to Checking Your Work?

I always find it perplexing how so much literature goes to print without being properly edited and proofread.   In these days of spell checks and grammar checks, one wonders how it happens as often as it does.  I’m not saying that I’m perfect and have never sent out an article or letter with absolutely no mistakes but I am usually my own proofreader and, therefore, am liable to miss something. 

What I am mainly talking about are the national newspaper and publishing companies that employ hundreds of people just to produce narratives in our own written language.  I would assume that at least some of these people are occupied with reading the material to make sure it is legible and correct. 

How then, do so many mistakes slip through the cracks?  I believe it is because of the lack of Basic English skills in our society.  I am by no means an expert in the English language, but I have been observant enough over the years to usually realize what good grammar is and isn’t.  

What is more, some authors and editors just don’t seem to care or have the discipline to proofread their work.  This just means that the author won’t be taken seriously or thought of as intelligent.  The way a story, article, or even menu is written should never distract the reader from comprehending what the writer is trying to convey.  At my last place of employment, we received a menu over the fax machine from a local café.  There were so many typos on the page that the menu was marked up and pinned to the company bulletin board as an example of how not to display a company’s abilities to the outside world. Needless to say, no one ever ordered any food from that particular café.

With the growing need for instant gratification and shortened sentences, I don’t see things changing in the future.  We all better brush up on the current acronyms and abbreviations or soon we won’t be able to read what we thought was our own language.