The Pain of Writers Now Has a Song

From Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and the endless comment sections, to the emails, store signs, and scribbled notes we scrawl every day, our language is complex and carries some really confusing rules –

I before E, except after C and then there are words that don’t follow this golden rule like neighbor.

I rest my case. I see why we’re streamlining the language; we have too many passwords to remember and can’t focus on all these rules.

Beyond everything our teachers tried to drill into our heads, another far more sinister menace gnaws at our language. Text speak or even worse, people who don’t care about words. I know, I don’t get it either but yes there are people who don’t care if it’s an adverb, adjective, noun, or even if it's a real word.

But they’re words!

Writers and especially editors cringe worse than nails on chalk board when their eyes are assaulted by incorrect grammar. We see them everywhere and now Weird Al Yankovic, master of the parody song, has given writers a gift – Word Crimes a parody of the Robin Thicke track Blurred Lines.

A quick thank you to Al for this song, not only has it brought a spot of joy to my week and an anthem for the future – but as a long time fan, I dig it!

Kudos to Al for the line in Tacky too – “My resume is printed in comic sans.”

Al must be a writer. 

Had to share.

Brad R. Cook, author, publisher at Blank Slate Press, and President of St. Louis Writers Guild. Please visit www.bradrcook.com or www.blankslatepress.com for more information. Hear more on the Write Pack Radio www.blogtalkradio.com/writepackradio. Follow me on Twitter @bradrcook https://twitter.com/bradrcook, @blankslatepress https://twitter.com/blankslatepress, @stlwritersguild https://twitter.com/stlwritersguild, or my tumblr page Thoughts from Midnight http://bradrcook.tumblr.com/