I recently received a new subscription deal on The Spectator, and while I am not and have never been a regular reader of the newspaper, I thought I might as well give it a try. In my last post I was critical of the lack of meaningful content on the front page. This time however, I would like to express my disappointment in the general authorship of the paper. Look at the caption above. Does anything stand out to you?
I'm not sure when "pretty well OK" came into use, but I'm pretty well OK sure that I have never seen such a ridiculous string of adverbs committed to paper before. What is it even supposed to mean? Why couldn't he have just finished well, or strongly, or with an impressive lead?
My next complaint is regarding today's article about math scores and instruction time. While I plan to write an entire post about the flaws in how the article is reported, for now just read the section I have highlighted below. We're abusing our adverbs again. How did this slip past the editors of both The Spec and Toronto Star? All I can say is that while I had planned to cancel even my introductory offer after the front page feature of broken umbrellas last week, I will now hold on a little longer just to pick it apart. Too, we all make mistakes, but please proofread your work pretty well OK.
My next complaint is regarding today's article about math scores and instruction time. While I plan to write an entire post about the flaws in how the article is reported, for now just read the section I have highlighted below. We're abusing our adverbs again. How did this slip past the editors of both The Spec and Toronto Star? All I can say is that while I had planned to cancel even my introductory offer after the front page feature of broken umbrellas last week, I will now hold on a little longer just to pick it apart. Too, we all make mistakes, but please proofread your work pretty well OK.
