tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8221442778190018842.post2668158512186382812..comments2023-10-25T08:50:40.180-07:00Comments on Read no Further: Absolutely, positively, pointlessMichael Hugginshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03526679655270747708noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8221442778190018842.post-40350838692155144802011-10-28T07:34:44.140-07:002011-10-28T07:34:44.140-07:00That reminds me of this passage from Zinsser's...That reminds me of this passage from Zinsser's classic <i>On Writing Well</i>:<br /><br />"During the late 1960s the president of a major university wrote a letter to mollify the alumni after a spell of campus unrest. 'You are probably aware,' he began, 'that we have been experiencing very considerable potentially explosive expressions of dissatisfaction on issues only partially related.' He meant that the students had been hassling them about different things. I was far more upset by the president's English than by the students' potentially explosive expressions of dissatisfaction. I would have preferred the presidential approach taken by Franklin D. Roosevelt when he tried to convert into English his own government's memos, such as this blackout order of 1942:<br /><br />'Such preparations shall be made as will completely obscure all Federal buildings and non-Federal buildings occupied by the Federal government during an air raid for any period of time from visibility by reason of internal or external illumination.'<br /><br />'Tell them,' Roosevelt said, 'that in buildings where they have to keep the work going to put something across the windows.'"Jeremyhttp://www.market-pl.com/jeremy.htmlnoreply@blogger.com