" Rear Admirable John Kirby on: Killing English "
I follow this Conservative Blog that seeded an article written by this Adm. in the Navy that I hope you find as enjoyable as I did. He has some good ideas on bad writing and how to avoid it. Excerpt from his essay:
" All,
Youve heard me talk about good storytelling. Today, I want to spend a little time on good writing and speaking.
Adm. Jim Stavridis once said that all military officers should learn a second language. I think hes right. I think that language should be English.
Thats the way Mary Walsh, Pentagon producer for CBS News, kicked off a talk recently to students at Defense Information School. The line drew chuckles, but it also hit home with me.
If I had a nickel for every time Ive heard Adm. Greenert urge Navy leaders to say it in plain English, well, lets just say Id have a pot full of nickels. And yet Im amazed at how often we continue to ignore him.
I dont think its intentional, this butchering of our own language. Its more a crime of neglect. I think many of us have simply forgotten what it is to write well and speak well. We know good writing when we see it. We know a good speech when we hear it. But for some reason, or maybe lots of reasons, we cant measure up to the task ourselves. "
http://necessaryandpropergovt.wordpress.com/2013/10/17/rear-admiral-john-kirby-killing-english/#comments
The problem here there and everywhere is that communication is no longer a sufficient purpose. It's funding or self promotion. As our educational system has degraded and our critical thinking skills have been diminished the folks looking for our money or a promotion have decided that dazzling us with their brilliance is too much like work. They'd much prefer to spend their days baffling us with bullshit.
So true!
You remind me of "Little Red Riding Hood,"...
We're told only what they want us to hear for their "funding or self promotion". After we take it all in, then they go back to sleep.
Thanks for reading and stopping by, Susan.
I really agree with the author, though many might not. He wants to cut through all of the adjectives and adverbs, and just get to the point. Me too. But then, I'm not a fan of fiction that depends on that style of writing. I think that's why poetry/lyrics appeal to me: we can express fantasy without all of the adjectives...the point is 'not' to be clear. Regular speech 'needs' to be clear. We don't need to be impressed that someone has a huge vocabulary or knows how to use a thesaurus. Most of us just want it written or said in "plain English."
That's probably why I prefer to go looking for the original, of anything, when trying to form an opinion. I have yet to find anyone who reports the facts. I don't believe anything but the source.
How fortunate that in this age it's not hard to find.
I prefer to read the source, too.
Yes.
Enhanced, sensationalized, beautified with elegant words, obscure statements with multiple contexts ("butchering" in a way), overloaded paragraphs.... aren't going to be universally understood the same. When we truly want to communicate with others, we should keep it relatively simple and to the point, as the author explains.
I, too, chuckled when I read:Adm. Jim Stavridis once said that all military officers should learn a second language. I think hes right. I think that language should be English.
A few years ago I taught a course in Business Communication (aka Business English) to Chinese students. One of the most important guidelines is to use "plain English". In other words, don't get too fancy.
On the other site (which I happily left) someone once wrote an article using the most esoteric and obtuse language I had seen for many years. I suggested that to be understood, perhaps it would have been wiser to use plain English rather than being so verbous. Some other asshole (that's a "plain English" term) followed my comment and called me ignorant because the author had used such "grande" terminology and if I didn't understand it I shouldn't criticize it.
Hi Buzz, That's so funny! So true with the word "asshole" - there's no mistaking what someone means. Very cool that you taught Business English in China.
The other point the author made that is significant is to use more appropriate verbs. In doing so, we might be less tempted to over-explain [clarify], as well as less tempted to aggrandize with adverbs and adjectives.
This article really hit home. After years of reading verbosity on the Vine and other sites, it reached the point that I was spending more time going through their paragraphs determining which 'one' of their points was their actual point! It's so obvious when someone is wanting to show off instead of actually communicating. Eloquent speech is pretty, but not very useful when we want to be 'clear.'
Thanks for stopping by!