Lousy writing is
intentional, insists George Orwell (1903-1950). Shoddy writers may not be aware
of their bad intentions. But our writing “becomes ugly and inaccurate because
our thoughts are foolish,” he continues. And “the slovenliness of our language
makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts.”
I was a
teacher at a community college for nearly 33 years. I tried to help students be
better writers by presenting Orwell’s virtues and vices of writing. I would
then ask students to correct phrases and sentences contained in memos from
administrators. I did not save those memos for a subsequent semester. Plenty of
new ones regularly arrived in my faculty mailbox.
Here are
some tips. Keep in mind that we write poorly because at some level we don’t
want to communicate. Though also keep in mind that acquiring a discipline for
clear writing improves our virtues and decreases our vices.
Be
concise. It comes from self-confidence and its regular use will increase
confidence. Conversely, verbosity is related to insecurity. One discipline for
conciseness is to chop off all false limbs like to the effect that or in
order that or to serve the purpose of.
Eliminate
jargon. In a medical setting, for example,
get rid of all the buzz words and most of the acronyms. Jargon is pretentious.
Simple nouns and verbs are related to humility and the desire to connect.
Avoid clichés. The virtue here is originality or creativity. The
vice is laziness.
There is a sports program on cable TV during which the hosts
replay an interview with an athlete beside their “cliché counter.” The other
evening a baseball player used 11 clichés within 65 seconds.
A terrific example comes from the 1980’s movie Bull Durham. “It's time to work on your
interviews,” says veteran player Crash Davis to the younger Nuke LaLoosh. “You're
gonna have to learn your clichés. You're gonna have to study them, you're gonna
have to know them. They're your friends. Write this down: We gotta play it one day at a time."
“Got to play... it's
pretty boring,” says Nuke. “Course it's boring, that's the point. Write it
down,” commands Davis.
One more tip for now: Use the active voice. This is the virtue of
responsibility. The passive voice betrays a writer’s cowardice. For example, a
workplace memo says: “It has been decided…” In other words, the memo writer
wants to hide responsibility for the decision.
What pertains to writing is also true of speaking. Jeff Haden,
author of The Motivation Myth (Penguin,
2018), keeps a list of executive nonsense phrases. For example, his boss
constantly used the phrase “You need to square the circle.” Haden did not alter
his behavior because he didn’t “know what this is supposed to mean.” The boss,
we can assume, didn’t either. Thus both the employee and the boss stuck to behavior
as usual.
Also on Haden’s list: “We’re in the middle of a paradigm shift.”
To Haden this means: We “have no idea what the hell is going on.” I recently
participated in a church meeting where the chairperson said: “It is of
paramount importance that a significant step in contextualized hermeneutic be
taken.” I got up for more coffee.
“We need to focus on adding value,” is another on Haden’s list.
This too means nothing. If anything at the company is not adding value, a deep
question arises: Why the hell are we doing it?
One more example of nonsense: “It is what it is.” To Haden this
means “I’m too lazy to make it different.”
The point here is not simply to bash administrators or the boss.
All of us can improve writing and speaking. We thereby improve our character
and—believe it or not—make our company, our college, our hospital, our
community group and even our sports team more efficient. Responsible workers
grow in an environment of clear writing and clear speaking. Good use of
language reinforces clear thinking which informs efficient behavior.
(
Droel edits
INITIATIVES (PO Box 291102, Chicago, IL 60629), a newsletter on faith and work.
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