Neighbourhoods: Thoughts on plain English

Friday, 21 September 2007

Thoughts on plain English

I recently received some text back from an editor with a light-hearted and well-intentioned remark about possibly needing a Plain English version.

Doubtless regular readers here, if there are any, will sympathise with his view. But it got me thinking that one day perhaps I should write a vigorous challenge to the Plain English Mafia, for their self-righteous determination to eradicate all poetry from the everyday (I mean the quotidian of course) and from Real Issues - when it’s the opposite that should be happening.

To those beyond enlightenment, language is just a tool for constructing a rational series of points. But it’s more, it’s a form of light, without which we cannot see the acceptable ambiguity of things.

21 Sep 2007 07:38:32 | Information and communication

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