Some People!

Some people really know how to get under your skin dont they. Do you ever stop sometimes and wonder at the ingenuity of those people who seem to go out of their way just to annoy us. They are the sort of people to whom we would like to say 'go get a life.' But you can never catch and cage one of these creatures.

I have a particular fondness for those beurocratic document writers, in whatever form of written communication happens to be relevant at the time. I am unfortunate to be old enough to remember the campaign for plain language about three decades ago. Much of that message seems to have been lost on the present generation. (Now there I go doing something I said i would never do, pontificating, talking down, and yearing for for a golden age that never existed.) Hardly a week goes by without some indeciferable official letter droping into my postbox, or I find that I am required to read some rules, regulations or laws just to cope with daily life.

This would not be a problem, we have to accept rules inorder to play by the game, tiresome though they may be. Life is a game, and its rules that shape and structure the game. Thats how we know cricket, rounders and baseball are different games. Sometimes I read text that is just not accissible. I do realise that inorder to be succinct one has to tylor ones language to the likely audience, but I still see text that can only be described as ego-tripping by its author. The person has set out to write as obsqurely as possible so as to demonstrate their intellegence.

This was far from the point of the plain language campaign. I really think we should reinstate that campaign. Life would be less stressful if documents were easier to digest.