Foreign News: The Virtues of Simplicity

Prime Minister Churchill’s long war against “officialese” and for the use of plain English got official support last week: The British War Office issued a notice to its staff:

“Nothing is more conducive to long-winded and stilted writing than the use of a formal, pedantic or polysyllabic substitute for the natural word or expression that first comes to mind. There will be occasions, relatively rare, when they will be wanted, quite legitimately, to convey a different shade of meaning. They should never be used simply because it is thought they sound more official, more formal more stylish or more impressive than their everyday equivalents.”