Collins Improve Your Writing Skills. Graham King

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СКАЧАТЬ [jjj] As in We have an ongoing supply problem. Use continuing/continual/persistent/constant.

      precondition [jjj] A condition is something that has to happen before something else will happen. A pre-condition is therefore nonsense, unless you wish to impose a condition on a condition! There must be no preconditions for the peace talks is questionable usage. Best to avoid and use condition.

      put on the back burner [jj] Colourful, but jargon nevertheless. Use the more precise postponed/delayed/deferred/suspended, etc.

      scenario [jj] As in worst case scenario. Originally meaning an outline of a play or film, its usage has been extended to mean outcome or prediction. Use the more specific words, or result/plan/outline, depending on context.

      spend [jj] As in their total advertising spend will exceed £7m. A sloppy shortening of expenditure or spending.

      state of the art [jj] Use latest/newest.

      take on board [jj] Use understand/comprehend/accept

      terminal [j] Use fatal/mortal

      track record [j] Except for an athlete, perhaps, track record means nothing more than record. The next time you are tempted to use proven track record, be a brave pioneer and write experience

      user-friendly [jj] Use easy to use

      venue [j] Use place/setting

      viable alternative [jj] Use alternative/choice/option

      whitewash [j] As in They’ll certainly want to whitewash the incident. Use hide, gloss over, cover up, suppress, conceal

Saying it Nicely: Euphemism

       My father did not like the word fart. The first time I heard the word was when I was about three. I was watching a cowman milking and the cow farted. I said ‘What was that?’ and he said ‘That was a fart’. It was just a word; as if I’d said ‘what’s that on the tree?’ and he’d said ‘bark’. I had a dog called Tuppy, because I bought him for tuppence. One day as I walked by him, I heard this same noise and I said ‘Tuppy farted’. My father said, ‘Where did you hear that?’ and I said ‘It came from his bottom’. However my father had a way of getting around the word. He would say, ‘Who whispered?’ and we totally accepted this euphemism until one day my granny says, ‘Come, David, and whisper in granny’s ear’.

      Dave Allen, 1990 interview.

      That’s the trouble with euphemisms – they tend to be self-defeating because they paint a thick veneer over clarity and understanding.

      Euphemisms – words and phrases people use to avoid making a statement that is direct, clear and honest – are often used out of kindness when the direct expression might give needless offence. For example a deaf person is often described as hard of hearing and a part-blind person as partially-sighted. Unfortunately, in recent times these traditional and harmless euphemisms have been extended and replaced with such terms as aurally- or visually-challenged.

      Have you ever admitted that you might have been, well, to put it bluntly – drunk? How often have you heard someone honestly admit they were drunk? No, they might admit to having been one over the eight, high spirited, squiffy, happy, a bit merry, worse for wear, tired and emotional or any one of several hundred other euphemisms for drunkenness, but drunk – never!

      Any user of the English language has to become something of an expert in understanding the true meaning of euphemisms, so much are they a part of our everyday lives. We need these seemingly innocent terms as replacements for those that are embarrassing, unpleasant, crude or offensive. We begin in the nursery with coy substitutions for organs and functions (willy, winkle, thingy, botty, potty, tinkle, whoopsie, poo-poo, wee-wee, pee-pee) and, from there, naturally graduate to adult equivalents: John Thomas, old feller, down below, the ’loo (or worse, the bathroom), naughty bits, sleep with someone, nookie, jollies, hanky panky, rumpy-pumpy and so on.

      Our euphemistic skills are honed by the media which, though much franker nowadays, still maintain some taboo areas: intimacy occurred (had sex); she was strangled and mutilated but had not been interfered with (killed but not raped); abused (today’s vague catch-all euphemism for any form of questionable physical, psychological or sexual activity). It is, as you can see, a very short journey from sex-change operation to gender reassignment.

      The language of prudery also surprisingly invades that sanctum of directness, the doctor’s surgery. Physician-speak is a growth area. How’re the waterworks? The ticker/tummy? Your stool? The back passage? The little lump? All this prepares the way for negative patient care outcome to describe someone who dies in hospital.

      The poor, in our euphemistic world, are in a lower income bracket, under-privileged or fiscal under-achievers. Slum homes are inner-city housing. When a city decides to clear away the slums the process is called urban renewal rather than slum clearance. And of course the same city calls its rat catchers rodent operatives.

      Death has no dearth of euphemisms. Shakespeare might well ask today, ‘Death, where is thy sting?’ Senior Citizens and Golden Agers no longer simply die, they pass on, pass away, depart, sleep with the angels, go to their just reward, go to a better place, take a last bow, answer the final call, pop off, go on a final journey, fade away or, more jocularly, kick the bucket.

      Euphemism is particularly effective for disguising crime – especially the crimes we might commit ourselves. Tax fiddling, meter feeding, fare dodging, joy riding and being economical with the truth all sound like commendable streetwise skills, whereas in fact they all amount to cheating and criminal activity.

      Euphemism is also useful to help to make tedious-sounding jobs seem grand. Those people we used to know as insurance salesmen are now variously financial advisers, investment consultants, fiscal analysts, savings strategists, liquidity planners, pensions counsellors and endowments executives.

      Again, the euphemistic traps are laid early in the career paths of young people. Consider these job descriptions and what, in real working life, they probably mean:

Pleasant working manner essential	Must be subservient
All the advantages of a large company	Nobody knows anyone else’s name
Perfect opportunity for school leavers	Pathetically low pay
Salary negotiable	But only downwards
Earn money at home	Be exploited under your own roof
Earn £££££s!	But only through commission
Must have a sense of humour	Must not be a complainer

      Euphemism and Political Correctness

      The fertile breeding ground for euphemism today undoubtedly lies in the quest for what is popularly known as political correctness, or PC. The self-appointed guardians of political correctness quite commendably seek to banish stigmatising and dehumanising СКАЧАТЬ