Plain English please

Each year the Plain English Foundation highlights examples of poor communication and poorly constructed sentences.
The really bad get awarded as the worst for the year.

Here are some samples:

Conscious uncoupling – used to describe the decision of a married couple to separate.
Rapid disassembly – used by a car maker to describe the reason for the recall of 14 million vehicles with airbags that had a tendency to explode.
Potential for dangerous aquatic organisms – a Queensland coastal Council erected signs warning about the potential for dangerous aquatic organisms in a local waterway. The Council CEO later explained that the danger was from bull sharks that could physically penetrate the waterway.

and my favourite (that I will try to use a lot in 2015) …
Appropriate financial envelope – used to describe staying within tight financial/budget constraints.

Here are links to the Plain English Foundation …
https://www.plainenglishfoundation.com/home

Comments

  1. Why is that corporates and governments find it so hard to use plain speak?

    ReplyDelete

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