The New York Times Magazine, Sunday, August 22 - Unauthorized ...
The New York Times Magazine, Sunday, August 22 - Unauthorized ...
The New York Times Magazine, Sunday, August 22 - Unauthorized ...
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Plainspeak<br />
• Killers Among Us<br />
• Camping Lessons<br />
• It Isn't Easy Being Green<br />
• Unreal Estate<br />
THE WAY WE LIVE NOW<br />
ON LANGUAGE BY PATRICIA T. O'CONNER<br />
Taking the gobble out of gobbledygook.<br />
• <strong>The</strong> Slacker Temp<br />
• Plainspeak<br />
• What <strong>The</strong>y Were Thinking<br />
here do you go if you need help "re-engineering communications<br />
processes" or "contextualizing expertise"? What if you want "improved<br />
system efficiencies" and other "value-added communications<br />
components"? Why, you go to a plain-language consultant, of course.<br />
You'll have no trouble finding one. In recent years, the plain-language movement<br />
has spawned a small industry of consulting firms, both large and small, for<br />
showing people in business and government how to use clear, simple English. But<br />
be warned. Some of the "proactive" folks who want to "modify your long-term<br />
business-development strategy to include plain language" haven't quite mastered it<br />
themselves, if the writing on their Web sites is any indication.<br />
To be fair, simple language isn't so simple to use. "Simple English is no one's<br />
mother tongue," Jacques Barzun said. "It has to be worked for." And the defenders<br />
http://www.nytimes.com/library/magazine/home/199908<strong>22</strong>mag-onlanguage.html (1 of 4) [8/<strong>22</strong>/1999 9:14:49 PM]<br />
White Oleander<br />
by Janet Fitch<br />
<strong>The</strong> Testament<br />
by John Grisham<br />
Business @ the Speed of<br />
Thought<br />
by Bill Gates<br />
Don't Sweat the Small Stuff<br />
by Richard Carlson, Ph.D.
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