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Death Sentences : How Cliches, Weasel Words and Management-Speak Are Strangling Public Language
Death Sentences How Cliches Weasel Words and ManagementSpeak Are Strangling Public Language
Author: Don Watson
A brilliant and scathing polemic about the sorry state of the English Language and what we can—and must—do about it. When was the last time you heard a politician use words that rang with truth and meaning? Do your eyes glaze over when you read a letter from your bank or insurance company addressing you as a valued custom...  more »? Does your mind shut down when your employer starts talking about making a commitment going forward or enhancing your key competencies? Are you enervated by in terms of, irritated by impactful, infuriated by downsizing, rightsizing, decruiting, and dejobbing? Does business process re-engineering and attriting fail to give you ramp-up—in terms of your personal lifestyle? Today’s corporations, news media, education departments—and, perhaps most troubling, politicians—speak to us and to each other in clichéd, impenetrable, lifeless babble. Toni Morrison has called it the "disabled and disabling" language of the powerful, "evacuated language," and "dead language." Orwell called it "anesthetic" language. In Death Sentences, Don Watson takes up the fight against it: the pestilence of bullet points, the dearth of verbs, the buzzwords, the weasel words and cant, the Newspeak of a kind Orwell could not have imagined. Published in Australia in November 2003, Death Sentences gained a massive following among the legions of bright, sensitive people who Could Not Take It Anymore. More than a year later, it remains a national bestseller.
ISBN-13: 9781592401406
ISBN-10: 1592401406
Publication Date: 5/5/2005
Pages: 208
Rating:
  • Currently 3.4/5 Stars.
 6
3.4 stars, based on 6 ratings
Publisher: Gotham
Book Type: Hardcover
Other Versions: Paperback
Members Wishing: 0
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 reviewed Death Sentences : How Cliches, Weasel Words and Management-Speak Are Strangling Public Language on + 186 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
Very academic but helpful in providing insight into the Doublespeak we are now surrounded by.
Read All 2 Book Reviews of "Death Sentences How Cliches Weasel Words and ManagementSpeak Are Strangling Public Language"

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 buzzby avatar reviewed Death Sentences : How Cliches, Weasel Words and Management-Speak Are Strangling Public Language on + 6062 more book reviews
Well, I never quite agreed with him. I find you have to use complex and precise sentences to convey the true meaning, sometimes. I think that there's a lack of ability to concentrate enough on the written word today that has forced writing to be simplified. It isn't necessarily clearer.


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