Sometimes I think isolation is a good thing and only adds to the quality of an editorial life. At other times – surrounded by words and expressions I don’t understand and yearning for a sentence in concise, plain English – I feel lonely. So imagine my delight this week when someone dangled some bad writing at the Dangling Modifier.
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I have been getting increasingly depressed about not understanding the words. What with that, and having to work through all that stuff about sewage, last week my life as an editor seemed to be at an all-time low. Then, rushing to meet my Friday deadline, I ran into a nightmare 57-word sentence. › 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
It was a couple of years ago, I think, when I was first told not to use the term ‘brainstorm’. I was freelancing at some public sector organisation. I remember the deputy managing editor of the website telling me that the word ‘brainstorm’ is offensive to epileptics and I laughed uproariously – thinking this was some very witty joke – only to realise a moment later that no one else was laughing and that this bloke was being serious. › Continue reading
If you are worried about the state of plain English, or standards of English on the whole – particularly in the English-speaking country where the language originated – you had better not listen to what England’s Schools Minister said this Tuesday on the radio.
On the other hand, if you’re the sort of editor who doesn’t expect to retire for another 20 to 30 years, you may take heart from the fact that one in five of the next generation can’t write extended sentences, use punctuation, read between the lines of a story or understand the moral or message behind it. › Continue reading
It seems that they – our rulers, the people with power – have been reading my blog. Or if not, some remarkable coincidence has occurred that could change the world of editorial work and plain English out of all recognition. You my friend, and I (especially I) could be out of a job. I have it on good authority that MPs have been looking at how Government “uses and misuses language”.
I had a conversation with some people over the weekend who asked me to explain the difference between ‘blue sky thinking’ and ‘horizon scanning’. I think they assumed – given that I’m an editor and everything – that I would understand these words. It was my own fault I suppose, for trying to turn the conversation round to editorial issues. › Continue reading
There’s no doubt about it, someone, somewhere is laughing at editorial staff. It is probably more than one person – probably a group of people working in league, a network of the well-connected, the rich and powerful. And their objective? › Continue reading
In ‘The Complete Plain Words’, Ernest Gowers says that metaphors tend to be used indiscriminately and soon get stale “but not before they have elbowed out words perhaps more commonplace but with meanings more precise”. › Continue reading
My world this week has been turned upside down by distractions at Westminster. It’s been quite difficult to think of anything else with all this wondering who’s going when and why. And then – having to choose who to represent me at the European Parliament. Such a long list of candidates! Took me ages to read all their leaflets before making my choice. › Continue reading