But it’s true; but he said …

You know, I admit, off the cuff, I’m just a mediocre writer. If I don’t edit my writing several times, the original text is ripe with flaws like misplaced phrases and redundancies—similar to the news articles that are now shoved down our throats every day.

Once upon a time in a fairytale world journalists were writers of note, highly regarded for not only their style, but their writing acumen—realizing of course, most were edited prior to publication.

My morning routine is to grab a cuppa joe and check out today’s Yahoo! news. And every day I shake my head over the mediocre writing—sometimes to the point of overshadowing my interest in whatever report or rumor I’m trying to read.

Today’s pet peeve? When hurried, a writer resorts to familiar words … over, and over, and over again.

Redundancy is a writer’s pest. Often unnoticed, it sneaks in to infest our prose. Common culprits are “but,” “like,” “I,” “that” and “was.” While we certainly can’t rid ourselves of them altogether, good writing should limit their usage, and when nothing else will do, spread them apart as much as possible.

I’ve always maintained that readers are more intelligent than most give them credit for—we’re told the general reading aptitude in the US is now at the eighth or ninth grade level. However, like my dad (RIP) who had to leave school early to help on the family farm (yes, this was long before the Internet), many whose reading skills are left unpolished for whatever reason, use the newspaper and magazines to continue their education.

Readers may not be able to write, but they know good writing when they see it. If my dad didn’t know a word or hadn’t been introduced to a country, he looked it up—and learned something new every day.

Political writers especially, are generally held to a higher standard. My attention was caught in this article when two consecutive paragraphs began with the exact same phrasing:

But Romney isn't pausing to …

But Romney will mark his nomination …

And I couldn’t get past the first paragraph in this article: “The mysterious fall of the largest of the world's earliest urban civilizations nearly 4,000 years ago in what is now India, Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh now appears to have a key culprit — ancient climate change, researchers say.”

Even the venerable news outlets are guilty—from yesterday’s New York Times, the lead sentences in the first two paragraphs of a national correspondent:

Call a reporter at the CBS television station here, and it might be an anchor for the NBC station who calls back. …

And … The stations here compete for viewers, but they cooperate in gathering the news …

We’ve already read the dateline and know where “here” is. (San Antonio, Texas—and actually, as a writer, the report itself is a tad disturbing.)

All articles could have been saved by an intelligent edit. Sometimes it’s simply a matter of not enough time. When the repetition of words occurs several times in an article, though, it’s definitely the writer’s lack of skill.

What happened to our writing?! How did we (writers) get this way? The Internet. It has caused our world to make demands of instant news and information that prohibit proper editing. Not enough time or money (story of my life).

But I appeal to authors and journalists—take pride in your work—consider that news on the Internet NEVER goes away. And authors—this malady attacks your books, as well. Is this how you want to be remembered? Aren’t we doing the public a terrible injustice by allowing our writing to be dumbed down?

Hmmmmm … a prominent issue could be no one seems to care. Are readers no longer demanding excellence? In their craving for immediate information, are they settling for mediocre writing? I would seriously like to know. We’re in election mode, let’s vote.

And if that’s the case, hey, New York Times! I’m at least as good as your best writers! Hire me!

Yes, I was in a hurry to post this, so I have not profoundly edited this piece—however, I tried not to bore you with redundancy. Feel free to comment here or email!