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RR 2014/300 The Oxford Guide to Plain English (4th edition) Martin Cutts Oxford University Press Oxford 2013 xxii + 320 pp. ISBN 978 0 19 966917 2 £7.99 $14.95
Keywords English language, Guides and handbooks
Review DOI 10.1108/RR-07-2014-0184
The author, Martin Cutts, is a writer, editor and teacher. He founded the Plain English Campaign in 1979, and in 1994, he co-founded the Plain Language Commission. He is a leading voice in the international plain-language movement and thus speaks with authority on his subject.
Plain English is the art of writing clearly, concisely and in a way that precisely communicates your message to your intended audience. He quotes Arthur Quiller-Couch and the example which he gave to his Cambridge students. Plain English, said Quiller-Couch, was the difference between "He was conveyed to his place of residence in an intoxicated condition" and "He was carried home drunk".
Unfortunately, in the modem world of business and commerce, flowery and unnecessary verbiage seems to have become the norm. Writers of business reports and health and safety edicts seem to think that more will impress readers. They fail to realize (or perhaps they do it deliberately) that the eyes of many readers will glaze over when they have to read such stuff. That is, if they haven't fallen about laughing at the pomposity of it all.
Here is a perfect example: "Please leave sufficient space behind this vehicle to allow safe ingress and egress of mechanically propelled, seated position, ambulatory devices, by means of...