Past newsletters 2002
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Plain English update 24 May 2002
It appears the middle managers of the world have realised their colleagues are starting to decipher their business jargon.
A survey of 1000 employees this week suggests the offenders are now using abbreviations of the jargon to make it even more confusing. For example, the cliché 'think outside the box' is now 'TOTB'.
Around two thirds of people questioned admitted the abbreviations left them baffled. The survey showed the media and marketing industries used such jargon most frequently, closely followed by financial firms.
Employment firm Office Angels carried out the survey. Their operations director Paul Jacobs said the abbreviations were 'the latest development in business jargon and reflect today's time-famine working culture.'
Our spokesman John Lister told reporters that this would hopefully be a passing craze. 'We expect most people will very quickly realise that anyone speaking in such abbreviations is merely trying to show off. Looking on the bright side, we presume the only thing these jargon users could do to make their communication any more obscure is to resort to grunting!'
A few weeks ago we reported that air-traffic controllers at a new control centre in Hampshire had complained about small type on their monitoring screens. A Health and Safety Executive report said the text was 'at the limits of readability'.
The latest edition of Computer Weekly magazine reports that in one recent incident, a Glasgow-bound plane was briefly directed towards Cardiff. The controller involved had mixed up the letters 'EGPF' (the location code for Glasgow) and 'EGFF' (the code for Cardiff).
The magazine also claimed there have been several incidents of controllers misreading 'FL360' (a plane flying at 36,000 feet) as 'FL300' (30,000 feet).
A spokesman for the National Air Traffic Service said 'an improved display has been developed and prototype testing is due to begin shortly.'
We're always quick to complain when British politicians waffle, but the problem appears to be even worse in China.
Sign language interpreters for the Chinese Parliament say that MPs waffle, mumble and don't get to the point. This makes it difficult for the interpreters to communicate the actual argument being made.
We have added a guide to writing a CV (the British version of a resumé or career history) to our site.
This guide adds to our range of guides, which includes an introductory guide to writing in plain English, and a series of guides with specific advice for different types of document.
From the Guardian this week:
'I know that Dear Sir/Madam is a somewhat dated form of address in legal exchanges, but I was not prepared for what I saw the other day on a legal document from a large multinational corporation. It began 'Dear Gentlepersons...''
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Plain English update 17 May 2002
Last week we told you about a sign warning of 'Statutory undertakers diversions taking place' and promised to give you an explanation this week.
The correct answer is that the undertakers are utility (gas, electricity and water) companies that have a legal duty to maintain supplies. They are carrying out this duty by digging up the road.
We were featured on the front page of the Manchester Evening News as well as in the Daily Mail and Daily Star this week. Our spokesman John Lister was commenting on an advert for education jobs written by Manchester City Council. Unfortunately the advert included:
- eight words with unnecessary capital letters;
- three sentences in a list that made no sense;
- one redundant word;
- three wrong words;
- a rogue apostrophe in the possessive form of 'it';
- a missing comma; anda missing apostrophe.
Of course, we know from experience that such a story inevitably leads to a mistake of our own coming to light. And reader Elizabeth Murphy of Australia correctly pointed out that the phrase 'free gift' on our website had a redundant word!
The problem with sending unsolicited advertising is that you can never be quite sure who will read your message.
So we suppose we should feel sorry for the company that sent us an e-mail this week that began:
'Dear Sirs,
'We are very glad to introduce our new product to you:
TELLUSWireless LAN USB Dongle.'
After Deputy Home Secretary John Denham used the phrase 'nitty-gritty' this week, the old argument about political correctness and offensive terms was reawakened. One case has it that the phrase has its roots in slavery and should not be used, while another says it is an innocent term coming from the action of curing headlice.
What did surprise us was The Sun's report on other terms that have allegedly been deemed 'politically incorrect'. Supposedly some people would have it that using the phrase 'gobbledygook' could be considered sexual harrassment.
We're not convinced. But if necessary, we've got a lot of other terms to describe the worst examples of public documents. And some of them are a lot plainer than 'gobbledygook'!
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Plain English update 10 May 2002
Texas has joined the list of American states with laws demanding plain English. From this week, any firm lending $500 or less must either use a model plain English contract, or have the clarity of its own contract approved by the Office of the Consumer Credit Commissioner. Similar changes will be phased in for other loan contracts over the next year.
One change in the model contract sees:
'Upon any such default, and at any time thereafter, Secured Party may declare the entire balance of the indebtedness secured hereby, plus any other sums owed hereunder, immediately due and payable without demand or notice, less any refund due, and Secured Party shall have all the remedies of the Uniform Commercial Code.?
replaced with:
'If I break any of my promises in this document, you can demand that I immediately pay all that I owe?
Dallas lawyer Bryan A Garner dismissed opponents to the changes. 'They claim we are dumbing down the language. We're not. We're merely simplifying it,' he said. 'When you express an obligation more clearly, you're also expressing it more forcefully.'
The following letter appeared in the Daily Telegraph.
'On our way home from school, my nine-year-old daughter told me that her friend had been in trouble that day "because she persisted in engaging in off-task conversation". We used to call this talking in class.'
Here's a proposal that was put to shareholders of life insurers Prudential.
'Under the Corporate Share Option Element, the ROE result must exceed COE by 2.5% for awards at the mid-market level to be made with no award being made if ROE does not exceed COE...
'..If shareholders approve the Plan, awards in 2002 will be based on the 2001 ROE result. The 2001 ROE result was at a level justifying awards of two-thirds of the Mid-Market Level.'
According to the Sun newspaper, another way to express this was 'Would you like the chief executive to get an £18 million bonus?'
The proposal has now been put on hold.
There's more trouble with ambiguous road signs this week. One of our supporters noticed a police sign reading 'HELICOPTER TRAFFIC ENFORCEMENT'. It's not yet clear whether the police are cracking down on helicopters parked on double yellow lines, or whether helicopter pilots will be launching rockets at speeding cars!
There was also a question in the Notes and Queries section of the Guardian asking for an explanation of the sign 'Statutory undertakers diversions taking place'.
The newspaper gave the answer, but we'll save that till next week to give you something to puzzle over.
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Plain English update 3 May 2002
We are often asked about the 'Flesch readability score' that appears on the grammar check option on Microsoft Word.
Our advice is usually that this formula can only ever be a guideline. A poor 'Flesch test' score will usually mean a document is lacking in clarity. But a good score is no guarantee that a document is in plain English. Only practical testing can make sure the intended audience can comprehend the document.
This week we came across the following passage from the test's creator, Rudolf Flesch, which sheds some light on his intentions.
'Some readers, I am afraid, will expect a magic formula for good writing and will be disappointed with my simple yardstick. Others, with a passion for accuracy, will wallow in the little rules and computations but lose sight of the principles of plain English. What I hope for are readers who won't take the formula too seriously and won't expect from it more than a rough estimate.'
A British rail company is offering a 'business saver' ticket that does not get you a seat in business class, and does not save you money.
GNER introduced the ticket after reducing the hours during which a standard 'saver' ticket could be used.
If we have any accountants reading, we'd love to hear your guesses at a term in AOL/Time Warner's latest accounts. Richard Adams of the Guardian reports his bemusement at reading of a 'backlog securitisation facility'.
A few weeks ago we told how Lord Dixon-Smith had wondered if it was possible to provide a plain English translation of the following phrase in a draft law.
'Without prejudice to the generality of any power conferred apart from this section, the provision falling within subsection (3) that may be made by any such regulations, terms and conditions or arrangements as are mentioned in that subsection.'
We had our first suggestion from a Campaign supporter this week. James Gobbett came up with: 'This section does not affect what other sections say.'
But as James said, the real meaning may remain a mystery: 'My bet is the writer has forgotten... if he ever knew.'
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