Here in Wisconsin we have some awesome shit going down. Our governor is nuts, our state government is basically at a standstill, and our journalists are really terrible! Okay, I shouldn't be so hard on journalists. It's really only NBC that sucks, and likely this is more because of the lack of an editor than anything else. But that's not going to stop me from tearing apart horribly written articles!
Governor Walker's budget proposal means big cuts for public schools. Under his proposal, state aid for schools would by cut by almost 9%; that's nearly $900 million. The news has left many school districts around the state reeling.
Do you see that semicolon in there? Someone's getting fancy! So fancy, in fact, that they forgot to proofread the words before the semicolon.
“I think the mood is somber, I think people are depressed,”
I'm definitely depressed. It's depressing that our journalists' keyboards don't have the ability to type a period, so they must always rely on commas to join two complete sentences or even end sentences altogether.
Janesville school district superintendent Karen Schulte finally got the news she was dreading, but also expecting.
Comma-happy bastards! Also, School District Superintendent. It's a title. Like if you said President Obama.
“What was confirmed for me today is that there will be a reduction in state aid for schools. People are going to be losing their jobs,”
No, seriously. Why are we ending sentences with commas? I can't comprehend how stupid this is.
Governor Scott Walker says the cuts are needed to avoid layoffs. But Schulte says Janesville is already planning on laying off between 40 to 75 employees. She believes that that number could double if governor Walker's proposal passes.
This is journalism, not stylistic writing. Do not start a sentence with "but." If you want to do it on your own time, fine. Whatever. Just not in print. Also, when you use the word "between," it generally means something is in the middle of two other things. You wouldn't say, "Wisconsin is between Michigan to Minnesota." Why is it different with numbers? Answer: it's not. It should be "between 40 and 75 employees." And one more thing. We capitalize titles. "Governor" is a title. Therefore, by some mathematical property, you should understand to capitalize "governor."
“The governor mentioned that if the 14 democratic senators don't come back , there will be massive layoffs. In Janesville, we will have layoffs regardless of democratic senators being here or not,”
We like to capitalize things like Democratic and Senators. It's just the common convention. I also will be ending all quotes with commas from now on, as this is clearly correct English.
But republicans say once the budget repair bill is passed, schools districts like Janesville will be OK, because the reduction in aid is less than the savings on employee salaries.
Again we feel the need to start a sentence with "but," Don't do it, okay? Or at least not in print. When you're making fun of other people's writing, then it's perfectly acceptable. Please also see the note above on how we capitalize things like "Democratic," This also applies to other political parties, like Republicans. Also, there is never a comma before "because," Oh, and spell out the word "okay," It's the way to go. Trust me.
Schulte is skeptical.
Did you know in British English they would spell this "sceptical"? Isn't that weird?
“I have grave concerns. I've been an educator for over 30 years, I don't see the positive effect but I have a 'wait and see' attitude,”
You can't join two complete sentences with a comma. You can't. You also can't join two complete sentences with only a conjunction (like "but"). You need both. Apparently this is a very difficult concept to grasp. I'm also a little confused why their word processing program changed the double quotes to smart quotes but left the single quotes as straight quotes. Doesn't that seem a little off? I guess that's really a minor thing to complain about,
Schulte is also worried that if teachers give up their collective bargaining rights, it'll be the students who suffer.
You may want to keep the tenses consistent and say "the students who will suffer," I could also argue that in journalism you may want to spell out "it will" instead of saying "it'll,"
“If you look at the states that do not have collective bargaining any more, their ACT scores are some of the worst in the nation,”
Sometimes "anymore" is one word, like so: "I do not have any more cookies. We do not have cookies anymore," See the difference? So in the case of this sentence, it would be "anymore,"
But bottom line, layoffs are on the way.
This guy really likes starting sentences with "but," One might turn this into a grammatically correct sentence by saying, "The bottom line is that layoffs are on the way," Is it more stylistic the way it's written here? I don't know. Perhaps it is. To most people, though, it just sounds stupid.
“But the reality in Janesville, people are going to be losing their jobs,”
There are no misspelled words in this "sentence," Let's consider that an accomplishment.
At the March 8th school board meeting, Schulte will lay out a list of budget reduction recommendations as well as a staffing plan for next year.
And this is the end of the article. Huh. Another brilliant attempt at reporting, local NBC affiliate!
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