On another note, I grabbed the campus newspaper today and started browsing through it, and immediately noticed lots of glaring rasserfrassing argleblargle format issues. In one article, none of the information was presented in a logical manner, and I felt slightly less informed after reading it. Was written by the "Editorial Editor", whatever that means. I assume she's employed with the Department of Redundancy Department.
Another, an article about a variant to the standard Breast Cancer Awareness deal in October had a nasty typesetting issue and the second column looked something like this:
"We don't need more
'awareness' of breast cancer—
w e ' r e
v e r y
a w a r e,
t h a n k
you very
m u c h,"
E h r e n-
r e i c h
said in
San Fran-
sisco at a
B r e a s t
C a n c e r
A c t i o n
c o n f e r-
e n c e .
" W e
n e e d
t r e a t-
m e n t s
t h a t
w o r k ,
a n d
above all, we need to know
the cause of this killer, so we
can stop it before it attacks
another generation."
And the interrupting image?
Totally unrelated. (Something about a race starting at our basketball center on the seventeenth of this month. Nothing about an awareness-raising race in the entire article. =/)
Opened up to the inside, and the Editorial/Opinion article (written by the Assistant Editorial Editor o_O) was a terrible mishmash of idioms ("Unfortunately, this is about as pie in the sky as they come."; btw, indefinite this), glaring syntax fails ("...it's been estimated that students would have to pay either a per use fee or parking pass prices would quadruple."; 'to pay either this or that' means 'to pay this or to pay that', not 'to pay this, or that will happen'), wacky Stream-of-Consciousness-like phrasings ("The only repairs [to a bike] required a screwdriver and I bought a lock and chain for it."; either separate the two clearly independent clauses or switch to "The only maintenance required was simple screwdriver-work and the purchase of a lock and chain."), and statements that were just plain dumb ("I believe there is enough parking, though I'll admit, there is barely enough."; ruin your point yourself, why don't'cha?).
Oh, yes. And our ever-present, ever-friendly tense switcheroos.
"So, I saved money compared to buying a commuter pass and have a healthier means to get to school and between classes."
(Incidentally, the end of that sentence was a painfully-obvious effort to avoid saying "healthier means of transportation", and just ended up being long and clunky.)
Aside from that, the entire letter (which for all intents and purposes it was) generally felt as if the writer was talking down to his naive and innocent audience, and came across as rather distasteful. By contrast, the letter from the Managing Editor was much more calm and patient while making much of the same points, doing so more concisely while also remaining better-constructed.
So yeah.
There are only nine issues of this thing per semester. We're in week seven of school, and we have at least eight more to go, so that's what, two weeks to get the thing finished and set and printed?
Dude, I'm only a hobbyist writer, and when I do something I have any intention of showing to other people (outside of RPs) it takes me several days just to draft. Surely more effort could be expended on this endeavor.
I mean, we use the word "endeavor" for a reason. Implies one is endeavoring.
=/
