Writing headlines is a specialty - there are outstanding writers who will tell you they couldn't write a headline to save their lives.
I often think about the class differences involved in "jobs" vs. "careers."
I'm not one of those "omg texting kids rite bad" alarmists. I just think there's an interesting nexus where the Internet itself hastened language change when it comes to Internet terms.
Writers' bedtimes vary, but few have been spared the shock of a copy editor's early wake-up call.
Machines aren't replacing proofreaders at all. Copy editors, who proofread and much, much more, use spellcheck as a tool but read every word that appears in the paper
The dash helps to indicate that the two thoughts are intimately related, and it's less stodgy than a semicolon, which would have performed the same function (and who talks in semicolons?).
I have a sense of humor. I usually come off as very serious, but I definitely have a dry sense of humor.
The proper use of commas is often more art than science.
90 percent of the time the terms are misused or unnecessary. Not every image obtained from a computer is a screen shot.
On occasion I omit commas. On occasion, I use them. (The more you know about English, the less you're likely to think there are unbreakable "rules" for a lot of these things.)
My theory is that, just like with omitting a final comma in a list when not essential for meaning, publishers are trying to save paper and ink or pixels on-screen.
I caution against beginning or ending a quotation with ellipses
