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PENGUIN REFERENCE THE CO >LETE RDS PLAI SIR ERNEST GOWERS REVISED BY SIDNEYGREENBAUMANDJANETWHITCUT NEW EDITION 'Ifthebabydoesnotthriveonrawmilk,boilit' isformbecauseyoudojfrtMJgttpifqunuâJjMttAiK- 'SendthisformbackatonceevenifyoudonotknowyourNational Insurancenumber' yiHoUuJmMu*stlypfrloUdIuSUcUepetv'ri'UdlefnlMcleflanbilo'ufrttuyio*uir!lpc|iHrecMuWm1stUaincêWsffYico'fuFPsl^hwotu^lrd^teheTrWrrtdo^re ririiii>i|H«ijPiifiliiftfiilIiMliiji,aInWyBWdIePJpêlJnidialnitasm^w"^H»rseb.j ifniMhi.. 'Weneedtoseesomepaperstosortoutyourclaim.Theyarelisted intbeboxonyourright' Penguin ReferenceBooks The Complete Plain Words SirErnestGowers,whowasanHon. D.Litt.ofManchesterUniversity,an Hon. FellowofClareCollege,Cambridge,anHon. A.R.I.B.A.,andaPast PresidentoftheEnglishAssociation,wasbornin 1880. Hewaseducatedat RugbySchoolandClareCollege,Cambridge,wherehewasascholarand tookafirstinClassics. HeenteredtheInlandRevenueDepartmentin 1903, anditwasaschairmanofthatBoardthathelefttheCivilServicetwenty- sevenyearslateronhisappointmentaschairmanoftheCoalMines ReorganizationCommission(latertheCoalCommission). Inthemeantimehe hadservedinseveraldepartmentsandhadbeenatonetimeprincipalprivate secretarytoLloydGeorgeasChancelloroftheExchequer. Duringthe SecondWorldWarhewasLondonRegionalCommissionerforCivil Defence,andafterwardschairmanofnumerouscommitteesandcommissions onawidevarietyofsubjectsincludingtheadmissionofwomenintothe ForeignService,theconditionsofworkinshopsandoffices,thepreservation ofhistorichouses,foot-and-mouthdiseaseandcapitalpunishment. Sir ErnestGowersdiedin 1966. SidneyGreenbaumisQuainProfessorofEnglishLanguageandLiteratureat UniversityCollegeLondonandDirectoroftheSurveyofEnglishUsage. He istheauthorofmanybooksongrammarandlinguistics,includingA ComprehensiveGrammaroftheEnglishLanguage(1985). JanetWhitcutwasSeniorResearchEditoroftheLongmanDictionaryand ReferenceBookUnitandisnowafreelancewriterwithaspecialinterestin languageandlexicography. Shehasworkedonanumberofprestigious dictionaries,amongthemtheLongmanDictionaryoftheEnglishLanguage (1984)- Sir Ernest Gowers The Complete Words Plain Revised by Sidney Greenbaum and Janet Whitcut Asifplainwords,usefulandintelligibleinstructions, werenotasgoodforanesquire,oronethatisincommission fromtheKing,asforhimthatholdstheplough. JohnEachard TheGroundsandOccasionsoftheContempt oftheClergyandReligionenquiredinto,1670 Penguin Books PENGUIN BOOKS PublishedbythePenguinGroup 27WrightsLane.LondonWs5TZ.England VikingPenguin Inc..40WestZ3rdStreet. New Yoik,Ne« York 10010, USA PenguinBooksAustraliaLtd.Ringwood, Victoria, Australia PenguinBooksCanadaLtd,2801JohnStreet.Markham.Ontario.Canada L3R 1B4 PenguinBooks(NZ)Ltd.lJtt-l^(iWairauRoad.Auckland 10,New Zealand PenguinBooksLtd.RegisteredOffices Harmondswonh.Middlesex.England Plain Wordsfirstpublished )^XH TheAPCofPlain WoHkfirstpublished 1951 Firstpublishedtogetheras77k-CompletePlainlV,,r<*>bs H M StationeryOffice 1954 Publishedin Pelican Books 1962 Secondeditionpublishedb\ H M StationeryOffice Publishedin Pelican Books 1973 Reprintedwithrevision- Thirdeditionpublishedb% H M StationersOffice PublishedinPenguin Books 1987 Id u g ©Crowncopyright ! Publishedb\ thepermissionoftheControllerofHerMajesty'sStationeryOffice Allrightsreserved MadeandprintedinGreatBritainby BPCCHaaellBooksLtd MemberofBPCCLtd Aylesbury. Bucks. England ExceptintheUnitedStatesofAmerica,thisbookissoldsubject totheconditionthatitshallnot.bv wa\oftradeorotherwise,belent. re-sold,hiredout.orotherwisecirculatedwithoutthe publisher'spriorcornealinanyformofbindingorcoverotherthan thatinwhichitispublished3ndwithoutasimilarcondition includingthisconditionbeingimposedonthesubsequentpurchaser — Preface Her Majesty's Stationery Office is issuing this third edition of The Complete Plain Words as part ofits 1986 bicentenary celebration. Thefirsteditionofthebookappeared in 1954. SirErnestGowers,a distinguished civil servant, had previously written two books Plain ABC Words(1948) and The ofPlain Words(1951)—attheinvitationof the Treasury as a contribution to what they were doing tc improve official English. In The Complete Plain Words, Gowers combined the two previous books and at the same time took the opportunity to revise what he had written earlier. The Complete Plain Words was an immediate success and has been reprinted many times. It has attracted devoted followers among civil servantsandothers, bothinthiscountryandabroad. Itsreaderscome to it for guidance, but stay to enjoy its elegance and wit. Gowers' reputation as a sensible and practical authority on usage and style made him theobviouschoiceto revise thatotherclassic guide togood English, Fowler's Modern English Usage (1965). Usagesandattitudestousageschangewithtime. IfGowers'workis to remain a practical guide, it requires periodic revision to take account ofdevelopments in the language. Gowers himselfintroduced some changes each time the book was reprinted. The second edition ofthe book was published in 1973. This major revision was successfully undertaken by Sir Bruce Fraser, another distinguished civil servant. Fraser devoted himself to the task with reverenceand admiration forGowers' work; heendeavoured toretain as much as possible of Gowers' original text and to follow in his amendments and additions the vitality and vigour ofGowers' style. In his preface Fraser explains the principles that guided his revision. Wherever he could, he substituted contemporary examples forthosethatseemeddated. Occasionally,heomittedpassagesthathe feltwerenolongernecessarybecauseofchangesinthelanguageorthe acceptance of usages that were once condemned. He reduced the number ofliterary allusions, since most ofhis contemporary readers wouldnothavehad theliteraryeducationthatGowersassumed. Some passages on style he abbreviated, because the faults they criticised were no longer committed frequently. In a few passages he disagreed vi The Complete Plain Words with Gowers; sometimes he gave Gowers' view and then his own, but sometimes he simply replaced Gowers with Fraser. Fraser also added several completely new chapters. Fraser was a worthy successor to Gowers. His edition has been reprinted frequently and he too has introduced changes in succeeding impressions. What Fraser says in his preface about the book's deep and lasting influence in the public service remains trueforhisedition: The work is recommended reading in most parts of the service, and it is widely read,orat least widely referred to, by both seniorand juniorstaff. Its influence is felt even by those who have never read it, for its precepts, and many of its illustrations, are used in many booklets for staff and in many training and refresher courses. This edition is a revision ofFraser's edition, and we have generally followed the principlesand practicesofFraser(though heisinnoway responsible for the changes we have made). We have not hesitated to make changes that reflect developmentsin the languageorinaccepted usage. Like Fraser, we have been conscious that we are revising a classic, and wc have attempted to retain the flavour of the original Gowers and as much of the Gowers text as possible. In the previous editions, several chapters contained lists of words with comments on them. For the convenience of readers, we have brought these lists together in one single alphabetical list in Chapter 17. With this third edition, it has become difficult to enumerate the precisecontributions ofGowers, Fraser, Greenbaum, andWhitcut. It would be tedious to do so, and of little interest to most users of the book. But it may be worth saying that the core ofthe book (Chapters 3-14) remains essentially Gowers, despite numerous amendments; and similarly the Epilogue (Chapter 18) is almost pure Gowers. T Gowers' frequent use of the first person pronoun presents a difficulty for revisers. Fraser decided to retain the T, and he tried to T T distinguish the of Gowers from the of Fraser by listing in his preface the parts of the book that were wholly or mainly written by each ofthe authors. In chapters attributed to Gowers, Fraser clearly indicated where he disagreed with Gowers. Unless he said otherwise, T meant either 'Gowers agreed with by Fraser' or 'Fraser, confident that Gowers would agree with him'. We have reluctantly decided that it would be too complicated to Preface vii T attempt in this way to distinguish between the of each of our predecessorsand toadd to them the 'we' ofGreenbaumandWhitcut, although we have sometimes indicated that our judgments have diverged from those expressed in the previous editions. In this third edition 'we' generally represents Greenbaum and Whitcut in agree- ment with Gowers and Fraser; butitoccasionally means that we have aligned ourselves with Gowers or with Fraser or with neither. As in previous editions, most judgments and comments appear without mentioning the first person pronoun ofthe authors. We are deeply indebted to the Cabinet Office and other Govern- ment Departments for sending us an abundance ofmaterial for this edition. We also acknowledge with thanks the helpweobtained from the Forms Information Centre at the University of Reading, which supplied us with batches of examples of official and commercial language. Someofourbestspecimensofbadwritingwereceivedfrom Mr Ivan Kingston. Wehaveconsulted manyworksofreference; they include guides to contemporary usage, dictionaries, and the recently published Comprehensive Grammarofthe English Language (ofwhich one ofus is a co-author). We have also examined the publications on writing plain English by the National Consumer Council and the Campaign forPlainEnglish. Bothofusareassociatedwith the Survey ofEnglishUsage,andwehaveoccasionallyconsultedtheSurveyfiles. Finally,weareverygrateful to MrW. J. SharpCB, Controllerand Chief Executive of Her Majesty's Stationery Office, for his many helpful comments on our work. Sidney Greenbaum Janet Whitcut Digitized by the Internet Archive 2012 in http://www.archive.org/details/completeplainworOOsire