Sir Ernest Gowers (1880–1966)

This book is a brilliant plea for people to write in plain English.

But what I feel needs to be emphasised is that the book is also very funny. In fact, I found parts of it absolutely hilarious. And I’m using those words despite the fact that Gowers would no doubt have said that my “absolutely” is an unnecessary adverb.

Gowers wonders, for example, why “evacuated to alternative accommodation” cannot be expressed simply as “taken to another house”, and why “ablution show more facilities” can’t just be called “wash basins”.

The main targets of Gowers’ humorous mocking are the writings of government bureaucrats. But today an even bigger pain is the “management-speak” used in big organisations of both the public and private sectors of the economy.

How about this example quoted in a recent article in the Guardian newspaper:

“During this two-day workshop, you will gain the knowledge and skills necessary to facilitate fit-for-purpose agility and co-create essential conversations to accelerate benefits to profit, people, and planet.”

And this sort of jargon is being used 30 years after it was well-and-truly ridiculed in the British TV comedy “Drop the Dead Donkey”. This programme had a character who said things like:

“I see myself as a sort of hands-off, overview executive, who sits at the sharp end and interacts within the office matrix.”

Don’t these managers realise that everybody is laughing at them or cringing? show less

The Complete Plain Words is the essential guide for anyone who needs to express themselves clearly, fluently and accurately in writing. Whether you are working on a paper or on a computer, this invaluable reference work will lead you through the intricacies, problems and pleasures of the English language with wit, common sense and authority.

One of the great reference books of all time; no reader or author should be without it

Un classico. Vale ancora la pena di leggere questo libro, la prima versione della quale è stata commissionata dal Ministero del Tesoro britannico alla fine degli anni ’40 in un tentativo di eliminare gli eccessi del burocratese. Questo libro e il suo seguito hanno avuto un certo successo e, a differenza dell’Italia, mi sembra, in alcuni uffici nel Regno pare ci sia davvero una volontà di scrivere qualcosa di comprensibile – se faccio il confronto fra quello che mi scrive la mia banca show more inglese e quello che mi scrive quella italiana, penso che non solo i due Fowler ma anche il Gowers hanno fatto un buon lavoro. Se segui le indicazioni di questo libro per le tue traduzioni in inglese, fatti pagare in base alla lunghezza del testo sorgente (italiano), non della tua traduzione!
Segnalato da Simon Turner show less