jerryc41 and myweb2001 New Yawk pretty country folks. I'm with you both on the illiterate writing done these days by so-called professional writers -- at least they get paid, and what they turn out is pretty poor. As one of you said, apparently website and printed publications no longer use proofreaders. I guess it's our fault for still reading their slop.
I an a technical writer, a soccer officiating instructor for USSF in Illinois, and a degreed engineer, and it drives me, as the Canadians say it, "Right round the bend". I note grievous and multiple errors in spelling, punctuation, verbiage, syntax, definitions, etc. in news rags such as the Chicago Tribune, Wall Street Journal, and local newspapers, as well as prestigious magazines. It's rather like Chicago major sports teams -- they get by with unsatisfactory performance simply because the public literally buys their "on the cheap" product anyway. I often send an e-mail pointing out an error and ask for more professionalism and the employment of a PROOFREADER, but nothing seems to change. Example : the "Trib" continues to call socker goalkeepers "goalies". Nowhere in the FIFA Laws of the Game or in any US literature is the man who wears the "keeper" jersey defined as anything but a Goalkeeper, or Keeper for short. A "goalie" wears skates, very heavy padding, a motorcycle helmet, a hard plastic face mask, stiff gloves, and at times beats his opponent heavily with a large stick. Absolutely NONE of this good hockey attire or action is allowed on a world-football (okay, soccer) field. The untied Nations (yes, I'm politically prejudiced) had, I believe, at last count, 163 member "nations", dictators, socialists, communists and all. The FIFA (Federation International Football Association) has 204 National associations (one per country) contesting in the Men's World cup over each 4 year period. But our local yokel sports writers cannot be bothered to look in the annually published FIFA Laws of the Game printed and distributed here by the United States Soccer Federation (US Soccer) to discover the proper definitions to describe a match. They are satisfied to use 'Muricun" descriptions, even when incorrect terminology is politely pointed out to them, and even to the Sportswriter Editors. And proofreading ? They apparently won't lower themselves to hire another inept "writer".

And this ineptitude is typical of the sloppiness that undermines the learning of "proper English" by our young illiterates. And parents wonder why their children cannot turn in a passing paper IF they are able to matriculate into college. Too many cannot even get by remedial English unless it is conducted in rhyme put to chant music. And the public is shattered when corporations import people with "English" skills from countries such as India and Japan. If youth is our future, we haven't much. Decent English is the absolutely necessary tool for lifetime communications; math is the necessary tool for all technical skills. English and Math will let you achieve your goals, if one has any. Maybe that is the problem.
Sorry for the tangent, but unnecessary illiteracy drives me up the wall,
especially on the so-called professional level.
.........Michael O'