Aspects of the English Language: Gobbledygook In William Zinsser's On Writing Well: An Informal Guide to Writing Nonfiction he says that “Clutter is the disease of American writing. We are a society strangling in unnecessary words, circular constructions, pompous frills and meaningless jargon” (pg. 7), and that may very well be true. Have you ever sat down and listened to a politician speak, only to be lost in a flood of words and phrases you don’t understand? Useless, inflated speech plagues the english language and gobbledygook can be found everywhere. Everyone from politicians, corporations, government, students, etc. can be found using gobbledygook. Gobbledygook is often used to deceive or confuse people, or many times just to make
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Many times when communicating with people, those institutions hide behind perplexing jargon and clutter. As a result, these institutions seem cold and lacking humanity. Legalese and journalese examples of different institutions developing their own style of communicating that is riddled with gobbledygook. Zinsser, in “On Writing Well”, describes journalese as “ It's a quilt of instant words patched together out of other parts of speech” (33). Often times the language is butchered in journalese like when nouns are used as verbs or adjectives are used as nouns. This misuse of words is unnecessary, as there is a plethora of words that already exist that mean those same things. Legalese is language used by lawyers that is often hard to understand. Professor Marc A. Grinker of the Chicago-Kent College of Law says “Do not use legal argot in an effort to "sound like a lawyer." There are many words and phrases one might associate with legal writing but which have a tendency to obscure the meaning of a sentence … a lawyer's language, whenever possible, must be clear and concise enough to be understood by a lay client. Do not use so-called legal terminology unless general terminology would be less precise”. Professionals in that field even feel the use of gobbledygook is unnecessary. The following sentences will be an example of legalese. The first …show more content…
This useless and confusing speech affects, and is unnecessarily a part of, everyone’s daily life. Clear, honest, and concise sentences should be used to help alleviate the confusion people face every day with our language. It is suggested that a writer should “ avoid passive voice, needless repetition, and wordy phrases and clauses” ("Exercise : Eliminating Wordiness"). “Toni Morrison has called it the “disabled and disabling” language of the powerful, “evacuated language”, and “dead language.” Orwell called it “anesthetic language” (Watson). Institutions can benefit from not hiding behind a slew of jargons and unnecessary clutter for better communication. Students could benefit with not filing their papers with pompous gobbledygook, just in an effort to sound more intelligent. Gobbledygook, although a prevalent part of the english language, is a very negative
Many times when communicating with people, those institutions hide behind perplexing jargon and clutter. As a result, these institutions seem cold and lacking humanity. Legalese and journalese examples of different institutions developing their own style of communicating that is riddled with gobbledygook. Zinsser, in “On Writing Well”, describes journalese as “ It's a quilt of instant words patched together out of other parts of speech” (33). Often times the language is butchered in journalese like when nouns are used as verbs or adjectives are used as nouns. This misuse of words is unnecessary, as there is a plethora of words that already exist that mean those same things. Legalese is language used by lawyers that is often hard to understand. Professor Marc A. Grinker of the Chicago-Kent College of Law says “Do not use legal argot in an effort to "sound like a lawyer." There are many words and phrases one might associate with legal writing but which have a tendency to obscure the meaning of a sentence … a lawyer's language, whenever possible, must be clear and concise enough to be understood by a lay client. Do not use so-called legal terminology unless general terminology would be less precise”. Professionals in that field even feel the use of gobbledygook is unnecessary. The following sentences will be an example of legalese. The first …show more content…
This useless and confusing speech affects, and is unnecessarily a part of, everyone’s daily life. Clear, honest, and concise sentences should be used to help alleviate the confusion people face every day with our language. It is suggested that a writer should “ avoid passive voice, needless repetition, and wordy phrases and clauses” ("Exercise : Eliminating Wordiness"). “Toni Morrison has called it the “disabled and disabling” language of the powerful, “evacuated language”, and “dead language.” Orwell called it “anesthetic language” (Watson). Institutions can benefit from not hiding behind a slew of jargons and unnecessary clutter for better communication. Students could benefit with not filing their papers with pompous gobbledygook, just in an effort to sound more intelligent. Gobbledygook, although a prevalent part of the english language, is a very negative