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The Complete Plain Words
''The Complete Plain Words'', titled simply ''Plain Words'' in its 2014 revision, is a style guide written by Sir Ernest Gowers, published in 1954. It has never been out of print. It comprises expanded and revised versions of two pamphlets that he wrote at the request of HM Treasury, ''Plain Words'' (1948) and ''ABC of Plain Words'' (1951). The aim of the book is to help officials in their use of English as a tool of their trade. To keep the work relevant for readers in subsequent decades it has been revised by Sir Bruce Fraser in 1973, by Sidney Greenbaum and Janet Whitcut in 1986, and by the original author's great-granddaughter Rebecca Gowers in 2014. All the editions until that of 2014 were published by Her Majesty's Stationery Office (HMSO). The most recent is issued by an imprint of Penguin Books. Background The association of wordiness with bureaucracy has a long history. In the 14th century Geoffrey Chaucer, a prominent civil servant as well as a poet, urged the use ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sir Ernest Gowers
Sir Ernest Arthur Gowers (; 2 June 1880 – 16 April 1966) was a British civil servant and author who is best remembered for his book '' Plain Words,'' first published in 1948, and his revision of Fowler's classic '' Modern English Usage''. Before making his name as an author, he had a long career in the Civil Service, which he entered in 1903. His final full-time appointment was as Senior Regional Commissioner for Civil Defence, London Region (1940–45). After the Second World War, he was appointed chairman of numerous government inquiries, including the 1949 Royal Commission into Capital Punishment. He was also chairman of the Harlow New Town Development Corporation. Education and early life Gowers was born in London, the younger son of the neurologist Sir William Gowers and his wife, Mary, (daughter of Frederick Baines, one of the proprietors of the'' Leeds Mercury''). The family lived in Queen Anne Street, W1. Ernest followed his elder brother, William Frederick Gowers ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Royal Commission
A royal commission is a major ad-hoc formal public inquiry into a defined issue in some monarchies. They have been held in the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Norway, Malaysia, Mauritius and Saudi Arabia. In republics an equivalent entity may be termed a commission of inquiry. Such an inquiry has considerable powers, typically equivalent or greater than those of a judge but restricted to the terms of reference for which it was created. These powers may include subpoenaing witnesses, notably video evidences, taking evidence under oath and requesting documents. The commission is created by the head of state (the sovereign, or their representative in the form of a governor-general or governor) on the advice of the government and formally appointed by letters patent. In practice—unlike lesser forms of inquiry—once a commission has started the government cannot stop it. Consequently, governments are usually very careful about framing the terms of reference a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eric Partridge
Eric Honeywood Partridge (6 February 1894 – 1 June 1979) was a New Zealand–United Kingdom, British lexicography, lexicographer of the English language, particularly of its slang. His writing career was interrupted only by his service in the Royal Army Educational Corps, Army Education Corps and the Royal Air Force, RAF correspondence department during World War II. Early life Partridge was born in the Waimata River, Waimata Valley, near Gisborne, New Zealand, Gisborne, on the North Island of New Zealand to John Thomas Partridge, a Pastoral farming, grazier, and his wife Ethel Annabella Norris. In 1908 the family moved to Queensland, Australia, where he was educated at the Toowoomba Grammar School. He studied classics and then French and English at the University of Queensland. During this time Partridge also worked for three years as a schoolteacher before enrolling in the Australian Imperial Force in April 1915 and serving in the Australian infantry during the World War I, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Henry Watson Fowler
Henry Watson Fowler (10 March 1858 – 26 December 1933) was an English schoolmaster, Lexicography, lexicographer and commentator on the usage of the English language. He is notable for both ''A Dictionary of Modern English Usage'' and his work on the ''Concise Oxford Dictionary'', and was described by ''The Times'' as "a lexicographical genius". After an Oxford University, Oxford education, Fowler was a schoolmaster until his middle age and then worked in London as a freelance writer and journalist, but was not very successful. In partnership with his brother Francis George Fowler, Francis, beginning in 1906, he began publishing seminal grammar, style and lexicography books. After his brother's death in 1918, he completed the works on which they had collaborated and edited additional works. Biography Youth and studies Fowler was born on 10 March 1858 in Tonbridge, Kent. His parents, the Rev. Robert Fowler and his wife Caroline, ''née'' Watson, were originally from Devon. Ro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Henry Vallins
George Henry Vallins (29 May 1897 – 30 October 1956), who wrote as G H Vallins, was an English schoolmaster, grammarian and author. His best-known books are ''Good English'' (1951) and ''Better English'' (1953). Life and career Vallins was born in Sevenoaks, Kent. He was educated at Beckenham County School and King's College London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public university, public research university in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV ...."Mr. G. H. Vallins – Style in English", ''The Times'', 2 November 1956, p. 11 He served in the army towards the end of the First World War, after which he became a schoolmaster, first at Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Faversham, Wreights School, Faversham, and then for many years at Selhurst High School, Croydon. He published a volume of poems, and co-edited several anthologies for the use of Englis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harold Nicolson
Sir Harold George Nicolson (21 November 1886 – 1 May 1968) was a British politician, writer, broadcaster and gardener. His wife was Vita Sackville-West. Early life and education Nicolson was born in Tehran, Persia, the youngest son of diplomat Arthur Nicolson, 1st Baron Carnock. He spent his boyhood in various places throughout Europe and the Near East and followed his father's frequent postings, including in St. Petersburg, Russia, St. Petersburg, Constantinople, Madrid, Sofia, Bulgaria, Sofia, and Tangier. He was educated at The Grange School in Folkestone, Kent, followed by Wellington College (Berkshire), Wellington College. He attended Balliol College, Oxford, graduating in 1909 with a British undergraduate degree classification, third class degree. Nicolson entered the Foreign Office that same year, after passing second in the competitive exams for the Her Majesty's Diplomatic Service, Diplomatic Service and Civil Service (United Kingdom), Civil Service. Diplomatic car ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Daily Mail
The ''Daily Mail'' is a British daily middle-market tabloid conservative newspaper founded in 1896 and published in London. , it has the highest circulation of paid newspapers in the UK. Its sister paper ''The Mail on Sunday'' was launched in 1982, a Scottish edition was launched in 1947, and an Irish edition in 2006. Content from the paper appears on the MailOnline news website, although the website is managed separately and has its own editor. The paper is owned by the Daily Mail and General Trust. Jonathan Harmsworth, 4th Viscount Rothermere, a great-grandson of one of the original co-founders, is the chairman and controlling shareholder of the Daily Mail and General Trust, while day-to-day editorial decisions for the newspaper are usually made by a team led by the editor. Ted Verity succeeded Geordie Greig as editor on 17 November 2021. A survey in 2014 found the average age of its readers was 58, and it had the lowest demographic for 15- to 44-year-olds among ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Economist
''The Economist'' is a British newspaper published weekly in printed magazine format and daily on Electronic publishing, digital platforms. It publishes stories on topics that include economics, business, geopolitics, technology and culture. Mostly written and edited in London, it has other editorial offices in the United States and in major cities in continental Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. The newspaper has a prominent focus on data journalism and interpretive analysis over News media, original reporting, to both criticism and acclaim. Founded in 1843, ''The Economist'' was first circulated by Scottish economist James Wilson (businessman), James Wilson to muster support for abolishing the British Corn Laws (1815–1846), a system of import tariffs. Over time, the newspaper's coverage expanded further into political economy and eventually began running articles on current events, finance, commerce, and British politics. Throughout the mid-to-late 20th century, it greatl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Editorial
An editorial, or leading article (UK) or leader (UK), is an article or any other written document, often unsigned, written by the senior editorial people or publisher of a newspaper or magazine, that expresses the publication's opinion about a particular topic or issue. Australian and major United States newspapers, such as ''The New York Times'' and '' The Boston Globe'', often classify editorials under the heading " opinion". Examples Illustrated editorials may appear in the form of editorial cartoons. Typically, a newspaper's editorial board evaluates which issues are important for their readership to know the newspaper's opinion on. Editorials are typically published on a dedicated page, called the editorial page, which often features letters to the editor from members of the public; the page opposite this page is called the op-ed page and frequently contains opinion pieces (hence the name think pieces) by writers not directly affiliated with the publication. However, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Times
''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (founded in 1821), are published by Times Media, since 1981 a subsidiary of News UK, in turn wholly owned by News Corp. ''The Times'' and ''The Sunday Times'' were founded independently and have had common ownership only since 1966. It is considered a newspaper of record in the UK. ''The Times'' was the first newspaper to bear that name, inspiring numerous other papers around the world. In countries where these other titles are popular, the newspaper is often referred to as or , although the newspaper is of national scope and distribution. ''The Times'' had an average daily circulation of 365,880 in March 2020; in the same period, ''The Sunday Times'' had an average weekly circulation of 647,622. The two ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Times Literary Supplement
''The Times Literary Supplement'' (''TLS'') is a weekly literary review published in London by News UK, a subsidiary of News Corp. History The ''TLS'' first appeared in 1902 as a supplement to ''The Times'' but became a separate publication in 1914. Many distinguished writers have contributed, including T. S. Eliot, Henry James and Virginia Woolf. Reviews were normally anonymous until 1974, when signed reviews were gradually introduced during the editorship of John Gross. This aroused great controversy. "Anonymity had once been appropriate when it was a general rule at other publications, but it had ceased to be so", Gross said. "In addition I personally felt that reviewers ought to take responsibility for their opinions." Martin Amis was a member of the editorial staff early in his career. Philip Larkin's poem " Aubade", his final poetic work, was first published in the Christmas-week issue of the ''TLS'' in 1977. While it has long been regarded as one of the world's pre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
