Posted on November 5, 2021

Have you ever noticed that both parts of the term Quality Control (QC) seem to have gone downhill in the last few years? I’ve discussed this with my business and social friends and the consensus is that the problem is rampant and getting worse. Mistakes that used to be rare in the book world are now commonplace. The English language has been mugged and putting up resistance to unsuitable usage only gets one slammed on social media.

‘Proper’ English is rarely used. I’m not talking about texting that uses ‘u’ for you, etc. Shorthand in that forum is easily acceptable. But when substandard English appears in an email or pathetically, in a document (even in a legal document), it is usually a harbinger of worse things to follow. And logic? It almost doesn’t exist, as if anything someone writes is never analyzed to determine if it says what third parties will correctly interpret it to mean what the writer intended … or even if it makes sense at all.

In the literary world, I’ve seen proofread manuscripts that contained dozens of errors. I’ve seen short stories and essays with elementary school punctuation. I can’t count the number of times that scenes or events or conversations in manuscripts contradict one another (I’m not talking about intentional misdirections). I’ve noted ‘facts’ in manuscripts that were simply not true, or quotations from people who never uttered those words.

Outside of the literary world, I’ve recently cataloged invoices with the wrong ABA and Account numbers for wire transfers, links that take you to 404 error pages, announcements of events with conflicting information as to where and when they are taking place, customer relationship managers who can’t answer simple questions, supposed photos of events that depict something completely different. There are sales or expense reports that don’t add up to what is listed as the total in a column. I’ve read patent applications that appear to refute the main thesis of what the unique invention is supposed to do.

The list goes on and on.

What is happening? For starters, there is a lack of discipline, accountability (heaven forbid for someone to actually apologize when a mistake is gently pointed out), managerial oversight (does it even exist or are the managers equally guilty of the errors their subordinates make), an ‘anything is okay’ attitude, and little sense of learning (mistakes are repeated even when pointed out).

And no, this isn’t the rant of a Boomer who derides what a younger generation does, thinking that we never made those mistakes. I’ve sure made mistakes — but in drafts that I reviewed countless times and ran by third parties to get their view before a document was sent out. And trust me, my apology bank is full of deposits that are withdrawn willingly to acknowledge a mistake.

It’s a different world today where QC appears to be limited to the production factory. I’m not kidding. Think about a major auto or electronic or other high-ticket item you’ve bought, and although there may be an occasional error here and there, for the most part, such products are QC’d to death. Let’s give them the praise they’re due. Now it’s high time we bring QC back into all other aspects of our lives so our words and actions can be as well put together as this iMac I’m writing on.