Use of English at the DfT

[whole diary]

[TerminalJunkie]

You are forgiven

[Chris from Nailsea]

Where were you taught to put a comma between an adjective and its object noun? Sidmouth College?

Aw, leave poor r******9 alone!  

[JayMac]

I'm wary that I may mistype something and draw a further pedantic critique from TJ.

I won't point out the absence of a capital letter at the start of one of your sentences, then. 

Gosh darn your good. well spoted. 





Don't even think about it......

[eightf48544]

Eats leaves and shoots

[macbrains]

This website is full of jargon...

[Brucey]

Sadly, some universities are allowing degrees of  less academic rigour, which in turn is providing society with graduates who are less than conversant with the rules of grammar, proficient use of punctuation and a total disregard for spelling.  There was once a general understanding within society that a 'graduate' held an underlying grasp of language and its use... sadly this has diminished in many quarters.

University actually made my general spelling worse.  Whilst learning how to spell words like immunohistocompatibility, you forget how to spell simple everyday words!

[bigdaz]

immunohistocompatibility,

...but then you could begin playing with words such as "enginecouplability"   

[grahame]

The new Minister for Transport is a former English teacher.   Is it right for her to invest the department's resources into clearer and better use of English, or should she use those resources more directly to address transport issues?

Clearly a question of great interest, judging by the fact that we've got a FPH rate of 0.75 on this topic. And - let's face it, we're quick to point out (and chuckle at) poor use of English here - some of us more than others.

Communications should be clear, accurate, not too long, and in language that the target audience can easily understand.  Not sure it should take five pages to say that. And not sure if the cost of the exercise would have been better spent on something else; it's very hard to even guess if this will result in a communication improvement that makes the ministry significantly more efficient, or if it won't make any difference.


P.S. - I'm being naughty - "FPH" - Followups Per Hour".  I just coined the term