A friend posted me this link on bad writing in the development world. Its a salutary lesson as I am doing some development writing myself. So it has incentivised me to substantially reduce the number of oblique and unnecessary words I employ (apart from when designed expressly to confound non native English readers of this blog).
The bad writing I see stems from four (often inter-related) causes
Non-native English speakers who transpose their grammar rules into English (as I do into Dutch of course).
People who don't know what they want to say so hide behind all sorts of hedging strategies
People who work in jargon-ridden fields who forget how to communicate these ideas to the rest of the world (see my last blog).
People who don't read anything (from outside their own specialist field)
I'll probably think of some more on the way home
My tip - if you want to learn how to write well read the Economist. I often disagree with the content but they do state their case clearly and succinctly.
Time to sign off. I have to think of three more ways to save the world before midnight.
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2 comments:
Does the category 'non-native English speakers' include Americans ? :) I should get some credit after spending an evening at a lecture on Baroque Gardens of English Country Estates... (and I faithfully read the Economist... 'love the tongue in cheek photo captions.
No - we share 99% the same language. Some cross over words like fall /autumn, vacation /holiday are so familiar that no-one blinks an eyelid. But I did room (share a house)with an American guy here and we ended up doing double takes at each other when we used words like fender/bumper, faucet/tap closet/cupboard. We both understood each other but there were occasionally small dissonances.
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