Aims
The movement focuses attention on the information needs and the reading abilities of the reader and opposes writer-based prose, which is the tendency to use long sentences, jargon, and a formal style as a way to acquire authority, power, and credibility.
William Lutz, an American linguist specialising in doublespeak and the use of plain language, asserts that
"language is power, period. The lesson of Nineteen Eighty-Four is that those who rule the language, rule... The language of the lawyers, of the politicians, of the intelligentsia, is supposed to make feel inferior."
The Plain Language Association International gives the following example :
| “ | Before:
If you fail to comply with your duty of disclosure and we would not have entered into the contract on any terms if the failure had not occurred, we may void the contract within three years of entering into it. If your non- disclosure is fraudulent, we may void the contract at any time. Where we are entitled to void a contract of life insurance we may, within three years of entering into it, elect not to void it but to reduce the sum that you have been insured for in accordance with a formula that takes into account the premium that would have been payable if you had disclosed all relevant matters to us. After: If you fail to disclose any relevant matter and we would not offer you insurance if this matter were known, we may within three years (1) void the contract or (2) reduce the sum for which you have been insured. If your nondisclosure is fraudulent, we may void the contract at any time. |
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Read more about this topic: Plain Language Movement
Famous quotes containing the word aims:
“Since he aims at great souls, he cannot miss. But if someone should slander me in this way, no one would believe him. For envy goes against the powerful. Yet slight men, apart from the great, are but a weak bulwark.”
—Sophocles (497–406/5 B.C.)
“A lie is real; it aims at success. A liar is a realist.”
—Christina Stead (1902–1983)
“Ideally, advertising aims at the goal of a programmed harmony among all human impulses and aspirations and endeavors. Using handicraft methods, it stretches out toward the ultimate electronic goal of a collective consciousness.”
—Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980)