[Acrylic-bob]

I'm not really too concerned about minor spelling, grammar and punctuation errors, especially on a forum like this; in a more formal piece of writing it would, of course, be different. As long as the meaning is clear and does not invite misinterpretation I don't think we need to be slaves to the rules, do we?

As Susie123 points out, my main concern is with the mangling of the language by people who's main occupation is using the language and who act as examplars of spoken English eg: Newsreaders, Politicians etc. My other concern is with the easy resort to sloppy English usage; the pronunciation of the word 'Drawing' with two r's and the substitution of meaningless words and phrases because the speaker either cannot be bothered to think first before speaking or is lacking the breadth of vocabulary.

With reference to my use of the the word 'Typo', it is an abbreviation of the phrase 'Typographical error' and has been used for many years within the printing and publishing industries. I use it because it is useful and conveys my meaning succinctly and efficiently and it sounds a little more elegant than 'Fat Finger'. I cannot exactly recall if Pitman (they taught me how to type when manual machines were still cutting edge technology.) recommend its use to describe an error made in typing, but I feel that they do.

It is estimated by the OED that there are approximately 250,000 distinct words in the English language. The number of words in the vocabulary of the average person educated to secondary level is approximately 35,000, this rises to approximately 75,000 and upwards after University education. Given that most of the people employed by the broadcast media are University educated, there appears to be little excuse for the sloppy use of English characterised by such phrases as 'y'know', 'errrm' and 'I was like this is just so awesome'.

Another thing that really makes my pee boil is the increasing prevalence of turning a simple statement into a question by rising inflection at the end of the sentence. The Divine Oscar had it right when he described America as the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between.