William D. Lutz (; born December 12, 1940) is an American linguist who specializes in the use of plain language and the avoidance of

doublespeak Doublespeak is language that deliberately obscures, disguises, distorts, or reverses the meaning of words. Doublespeak may take the form of euphemisms (e.g., "downsizing" for layoffs and "servicing the target" for bombing), in which case it is ...

(deceptive language). He wrote a famous essay ''The World of Doublespeak'' on this subject as well as the book ''Doublespeak''Lutz, William D. (1989) ''Doublespeak: From "Revenue Enhancement" to "Terminal Living": How Government, Business, Advertisers, and Others Use Language to Deceive You''

Harper & Row Harper is an American publishing house, the flagship imprint of global publisher HarperCollins based in New York City. History J. & J. Harper (1817–1833) James Harper and his brother John, printers by training, started their book publishin ...

, New York, His original essay and the book described the four different types of doublespeak (euphemism, jargon, gobbledygook, and inflated language) and the social dangers of doublespeak.

Biography

In 1962, Lutz received his

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to si ...

from the

Dominican College of Racine Dominican College of Racine was a college in Racine, Wisconsin founded in 1864 as St. Catherine's Female Academy and later known as St. Albertus Junior College (1935–1946), Dominican College (1946–1957), Dominican College of Racine (1957–197 ...

(which closed its doors in 1974). He received his

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

in English from

Marquette University Marquette University () is a private Jesuit research university in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Established by the Society of Jesus as Marquette College on August 28, 1881, it was founded by John Martin Henni, the first Bishop of the diocese of ...

in 1963 and his

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''l ...

in 1971 from the

University of Nevada, Reno The University of Nevada, Reno (Nevada, the University of Nevada, or UNR) is a public land-grant research university in Reno, Nevada. It is the state's flagship public university and primary land grant institution. It was founded on October 12 ...

. Lutz began teaching English at

Rutgers University-Camden Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College, and was ...

in 1971, and was made a full professor in 1991. He retired from teaching in 2006. From 1980 to 1994, Lutz edited the now defunct ''Quarterly Review of Doublespeak''. He worked as a consultant with a number of corporations and the United States government to promote the use of 'plain language'. For example, he was a significant contributor to the ''SEC's Plain English Handbook''.

Selected publications

* (1974) ''The Age of Communication'' * (1989) ''Doublespeak: From "Revenue Enhancement" to "Terminal Living"' '' * (1994) ''The Cambridge Thesaurus of American English''Lutz, William D. (1994) ''The Cambridge Thesaurus of American English'' Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, * (1996) ''The New Doublespeak: Why No One Knows What Anyone's Saying Anymore'' * (1999) ''Doublespeak Defined: Cut Through the Bull**** and Get the Point''

References

External links

Business Doublespeak
A short essay on Doublespeak by Willian Lutz. *
"SEC seeks to "blow up" forms-based system" ''IR Web Report'' 25 June 2008
has photograph of William D. Lutz, as "Bill Lutz", accessed 22 December 2008 {{DEFAULTSORT:Lutz, William D. Rutgers University faculty Academics from Wisconsin Writers from Racine, Wisconsin Dominican College of Racine alumni University of Nevada alumni Marquette University alumni 1940 births Living people

Biography

Selected publications

References

Further reading

External links