Summary

Community summary are the opinions of contributing users. These summary do not represent the opinions of Strathcona County Library.
"Going well beyond the typical style guide's proscriptions against the passive voice, cliche, and so on, this polemic on writing takes the view that "the oppressive opaqueness" of much contemporary prose "is a moral issue." Contemptuous of politicians, C.E.O.s, and marketers who use "words not for communicating ideas but concealing them," Evans rewrites health-insurance policies, governmental reports on terrorism, and even Jan Austen, in order to demonstrate the virtues of concision and clarity. Human life is at stake, he claims. General Motors could have recalled vehicles with faulty ignition switches more quickly had managers not been "imprisoned" by a "lexicon of assurance," which favored convoluted euphemisms over precise statements about risks." - from "Briefly Noted", The New Yorker magazine, July 10 & 17, 2017, p. 84.