lazy writing for the digital age

Memo to writers: Beginning any piece of writing with, "Webster's Dictionary defines [my subject] as ...." has long been recognized as poor form. It is just as lazy to begin with, "Typing [my subject] into Google returns [large number of] hits." Especially if your subject can be expressed in a few rather common words.

Memo to users of statistics: Any "online poll" is utterly meaningless, unless it is simply a normal poll that has happened to use a web interface.

Memo to editors: These problems? It's your job to keep them out of print.