For anyone who's not come across George Orwell's essay 'Politics and The English Language', in which he railed against 'ugly and inaccurate' contemporary written English (this was in 1946, mind), it's well worth a read.
His main argument was that much political writing was used 'to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind'. So... things don't change much there!
He goes on to give examples of poor writing, drawn from law, the Press, Whitehall, politicians, academics, pamphleteers... the usual suspects.
The bit of the essay I always try (and often fail) to keep in mind, though, are his 6 rules for good, clear writing. They're still relevant today:
1. Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
2. Never use a long word where a short one will do.
3. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
4. Never use the passive where you can use the active.
5. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
6. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.
Being a grumpy old fart, I guess I'd only add:
7. Never use text-speak - even when you're texting.
You can read the whole essay here, if you want to. It's quite a laugh, despite the title.
alibob | June 13, 2012 - 13:11
I agree with all these - especially number 7. I am a sad soul who insists on putting all the punctuation in my texts, including semi-colons! I like number 3 too. I recently edited a story of mine from nearly 2000 to 1000 words for a competition, in less than an hour, and without losing anything essential. Which was a lesson to me in how many unnecessary words I use!
Stan | June 13, 2012 - 13:20
Me too, alibob!
At the end of the day, the long and short of it all is, the obfuscatory and dissimulating effects of this type of writing will lead, per se, to the terminal mortification of the language, and, inter alia, the knackerisation of all perspicacious forms of interlocution. U follow?
Testicles! Fornication! I've cremated me toast...
Florian | June 13, 2012 - 20:42
I really enjoyed that one, Stan. Hope the second slice came out just right. Rules 2 & 3 are being taken care of by sms, dnt u thk?
FTSE100 | June 14, 2012 - 09:12
My favourite abused metaphor (or simile as I use it here) is the curate's egg. "Like the curate's egg, it's good in parts," somebody will say, about something they believe actually is good in parts. The whole point of the curate's egg (it refers to an old Punch cartoon) is that a rotten egg can't be good in parts. It's bad through and through. (The curate was just being polite.)
Denzella | June 15, 2012 - 06:09
Stan was you thinking of having egg on toast? If you were I should fornicate a bit longer because if you eat the curate's egg you might make a rude testiculation to FTSE100. Oh, Moya, do shut up? This is just crapacious nonsense!
Over and out!