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The problem with jargon… and why we need more plain English.
The NHS is under attack… Not from budget cuts, waiting times or staff shortages. This time it’s from the Plain English Campaign for the language it uses. It seems the NHS is suffering from a bad dose...
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The term ‘Hung Parliament’ sounds quaint but isn’t ‘No Overall Control’ better?
Well, well, well…few people expected that election result. It’s a Hung Parliament with no one political party commanding an overall majority in the House of Commons. We’ve been there before in 2010....
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What we learn from Dylan Thomas…
While on holiday on the Gower Peninsula, we dipped into Swansea to visit the Dylan Thomas Centre, a museum and arts centre dedicated to Swansea’s most famous son. Love the Words is the title of the...
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Hi, Dear, Hiya, Howdy…which salutation should you use?
Years ago it was easy. There was no email. No texts. No social media…just old-fashioned letters that came through the post And all letters began with Dear… The only tricky bit was remembering whether...
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Brand, tone of voice and editorial guidelines…what’s the difference?
In our business we get to see a lot of tone of voice guidance, editorial style sheets and brand guidelines. We’ve written and contributed to a fair few as well. The problem is, though, that there’s a...
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Is PowerPoint a presentational zimmerframe we all cling on to?
I only recently came across Powerpointless, a thought-provoking BBC Radio 4 programme by Ian Sansom about the history and rise of PowerPoint. The programme outlines why and how it has transformed...
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Expressions that sum up these strange times
“We are where we are.” “It is what it is.” You hear these expressions a lot. They crop up all the time. In fact, I bet you’ve used them yourselves once or twice during the last few days. I know...
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Creating the right climate…the language of climate change
Writers hate them. Editors love them. And as we provide both services, I often sit in the middle and sort out the arguments. Many of the organisations we work for have...
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Happy Birthday Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading
Something quite big happened on 1 March in the world of editing and proofreading. No…it wasn’t a St David’s Day knees-up. It was the fact that the Society for Editors and Proofreaders (SfEP) became...
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Americanisms…have they got (or gotten) out of hand?
I’ve heard it on BBC News. I’ve heard it used by Radio 5 Live presenters, and it’s frequently used by fellow Linkediners… It’s the word gotten, an Americanism that I always thought exemplifies how...
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