Public Doublespeak: A Modest Proposal -- On Teaching Sisyphus the Use of the Pulley
Abstract
THERE HAVE BEEN CAMPAIGNS against public doublespeak as long as there has been language, and clearly they have not been successful. Responding, in part, to the language of Watergate and the general pollution of language in the mass media, our profession has assumed a strong sense of responsibility in this latest, politically oriented attempt to oppose dishonest and inhumane uses of language. It's a Sisyphean task; history and the nature of our profession are against us. In opposing public doublespeak, the question has always been what to advocate in its place. Most commonly, the alternative has been Truth, but it has been difficult to advocate truth in language without simply creating a new form of doublespeak to protect the new Truth. Less ambitious reformers, most of them in our profession, have let alone the content of public speech and advocated simpler, purified forms of expression as
- Journal
- College English
- Published
- 1975-11-01
- DOI
- 10.2307/375667
- CompPile
- Open Access
- Closed
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