Nothing makes me happier than reading stories about the imminent demise of ‘social media networking’, even when they’re published in my least favourite newspaper. But wouldn’t you know… just as everyone else is growing out of this puerile nonsense, the World Economic Forum (who are meeting for their annual shin-dig in Davos this week) are embracing it.
Businessdictionary.com sent me the definition for ‘sustainability’. I was pleased. This is one of the words that I rarely, if ever, understand and yet it comes up so often in editorial work. I suspect the conspirators who laugh at editorial staff promote the words ‘sustainable’ and ‘sustainability’ just to cause confusion. They come up in almost every topic, apart that is, from plain English. › Continue reading
If you want an example of how not to write plain English, then it’s always worth taking a train. This week, my exciting life as a busy editor took me as far as my local station, where I very much enjoyed reading a notice from Network Rail about the temporary closure of my booking hall. › Continue reading
I have been considering my prospects in editorial work. Humanity will always need people who can make sense of business speak and political nonsense and rewrite it in plain English. But the trouble is I have so much trouble understanding the words, I can barely lay claim to being one of those valuable people any more. › Continue reading
A few weeks ago I subscribed to the daily email from Businessdictionary.com. Every day, they send me a business term. As a struggling editor, I thought this might help me understand the words. Or should I say: “enable me to be better able to further my understanding of a whole raft of business words and phrases”? › Continue reading