The Complete Plain Words
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Worn/faded, no tears
Pages: Tanning and foxing
In an age when bureaucratic prose had grown dense, convoluted, and opaque, Sir Ernest Gowers delivered a masterwork of linguistic clarity: a definitive guide to writing plain, precise, and effective English, aimed squarely at civil servants and anyone else who communicates through the written word. The Complete Plain Words synthesises Gowers' two earlier works — Plain Words and The ABC of Plain Words — into a single, authoritative volume, revised and updated by Sir Bruce Fraser to ensure its enduring relevance. With characteristic wit and incisive intelligence, Gowers dissects the habits of muddled writing — from woolly abstractions and unnecessary jargon to clumsy syntax and redundant phrases — offering readers a rigorous yet accessible framework for self-improvement. Each chapter instructs with brisk clarity, illustrating the pitfalls of poor expression through well-chosen examples drawn from official correspondence and public life. Beyond its practical utility, The Complete Plain Words stands as a landmark text in the tradition of English prose style, sitting proudly alongside Orwell's famous essay Politics and the English Language as a moral argument for honesty and precision in communication. Gowers writes not merely as a grammarian but as a humanist, arguing that clear writing is an act of respect toward the reader — a discipline that demands both thought and conscience. Decades after its first publication, the book retains a startling contemporary relevance, its lessons as urgent now as ever. For anyone who has ever wrestled with a sentence that refuses to say what it means, this volume remains an indispensable companion.
Author: Sir Ernest Gowers
Format: Hardback
Published: 1973, HMSO
Genre: Reference & language
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Worn/faded, no tears
Pages: Tanning and foxing
In an age when bureaucratic prose had grown dense, convoluted, and opaque, Sir Ernest Gowers delivered a masterwork of linguistic clarity: a definitive guide to writing plain, precise, and effective English, aimed squarely at civil servants and anyone else who communicates through the written word. The Complete Plain Words synthesises Gowers' two earlier works — Plain Words and The ABC of Plain Words — into a single, authoritative volume, revised and updated by Sir Bruce Fraser to ensure its enduring relevance. With characteristic wit and incisive intelligence, Gowers dissects the habits of muddled writing — from woolly abstractions and unnecessary jargon to clumsy syntax and redundant phrases — offering readers a rigorous yet accessible framework for self-improvement. Each chapter instructs with brisk clarity, illustrating the pitfalls of poor expression through well-chosen examples drawn from official correspondence and public life. Beyond its practical utility, The Complete Plain Words stands as a landmark text in the tradition of English prose style, sitting proudly alongside Orwell's famous essay Politics and the English Language as a moral argument for honesty and precision in communication. Gowers writes not merely as a grammarian but as a humanist, arguing that clear writing is an act of respect toward the reader — a discipline that demands both thought and conscience. Decades after its first publication, the book retains a startling contemporary relevance, its lessons as urgent now as ever. For anyone who has ever wrestled with a sentence that refuses to say what it means, this volume remains an indispensable companion.