The Importance of Plain English
I've just finished reading George Orwell's "Why I Write and other Essays", and he made a good point about the importance of plain English. I found this site about plain language, and it has a list of example newspaper headlines that are ambiguous, and therefore funny. I've seen them before in an email someone sent me, but I thought it would be worth reproducing them here:
- Crack Found on Governor's Daughter
- Something Went Wrong in Jet Crash, Expert Says
- Police Begin Campaign to Run Down Jaywalkers
- Iraqi Head Seeks Arms
- Is There a Ring of Debris around Uranus?
- Prostitutes Appeal to Pope
- Panda Mating Fails; Veterinarian Takes Over
- Teacher Strikes Idle Kids
- Miners Refuse to Work after Death
- Juvenile Court to Try Shooting Defendant
- War Dims Hope for Peace
- If Strike Isn't Settled Quickly, It May Last Awhile
- Cold Wave Linked to Temperatures
- Enfield (London) Couple Slain; Police Suspect Homicide
- Red Tape Holds Up New Bridges
- Man Struck By Lightning Faces Battery Charge
- New Study of Obesity Looks for Larger Test Group
- Astronaut Takes Blame for Gas in Spacecraft
- Kids Make Nutritious Snacks
- Chef Throws His Heart into Helping Feed Needy
- Local High School Dropouts Cut in Half
- Hospitals are Sued by 7 Foot Doctors
- Typhoon Rips Through Cemetery; Hundreds Dead
posted by KJ at
5:21 PM
4 Comments:
Corduroy pillows: they're making headlines!
By
Loz, at 5:51 PM
You have to read this book!
By
Scarlet Hip, at 11:48 PM
Thanks for that, Brooke. As soon as I saw the title of the book, I knew that I wanted it.
My constitutional law professor back in Australia was a stickler for punctuation and formatting. His first class for every subject was a 3 hour lecture on the correct use of the apostrophe. It was annoying at the time, but I'm glad I was forced to sit through it.
By
KJ, at 1:29 AM
Love that book.
By
Anonymous, at 7:05 PM
Post a Comment
<< Home