Clear Speech

Clear Speech ©

By

Michael Casey

I was having a read on the internet as is my habit, I came across a piece that made me think, what pompous writing. Why don’t people write clearly, say what they want to say so people can understand. It seems to me that there is a subculture, of so called cultured people who just cannot write plain English. I hope I’ve got their attention now, maybe they’ll read a bit more and change their ways.

Why do governments and local authorities, not to mention big corporations use rubbish language. I call it rubbish deliberately, because if people cannot easily understand it, then it should be in the trash along with soggy teabags and half eaten pizza. Language is for communication!

Why do some people think they should write “posh”, use big words they don’t really understand themselves to baffle people. Is it to prove they went to college for 4 years, and learnt nothing. To prove they own a dictionary, to justify their existent, their pay grade and their “value”. Plain English beats their abuse of language any time.

Adjectives are inserted to bolster the company view, or the council’s view, it’s not a park, it’s the “people’s” park. People are “proud” to be part of this district. People  see through it immediately, though the “bosses” think they are so special and really the people are so lucky to have them in charge.

In Dickens’ time there was a great unwashed people, clever people existed who used long words and knew what they meant. Dickens wrote about the people’s situation in life and you can say he was a force for good. What about today’s world?

Language is for communication, so that as many people as possible can understand. If the words on the page or broadcast baffle people then they are the wrong words. Other words, simpler words should be used, and if they are not, why not? Is it to keep the PR or the HR people employed?

I’ve worked in a variety of places, in one the boss was so infuriated he had signs put up saying “For God’s sake Communicate” What does this tell us? It proves there was a problem, or at least the boss thought so.

You can go to church or wherever you pray, though less that 10% do, and if the priest or minister or leader speaks and you cannot understand, what should you do? You should tell him or her, and if you still cannot understand, leave.

Business has feedback forms, or go online and tell us your thoughts, and we do because we want to win a prize. A good business reads those forms and acts on them, a bad business goes out of business.

Words are like sweets to me and I hope to you, if I as a writer make you scratch your head you’ll soon stop reading. If I tell you a story that’s easy to digest and amuses you too what will you do? I hope you’ll say Michael Casey is worth reading, you like the style, and you like the words because he’s not trying to show off. I’m not saying write for 5 year olds, I am saying write clearly and communicate.