Table Of ContentPENGUIN REFERENCE
THE
CO
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RDS
PLAI
SIR ERNEST GOWERS
REVISED BY
SIDNEYGREENBAUMANDJANETWHITCUT
NEW
EDITION
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Penguin ReferenceBooks
The Complete Plain Words
SirErnestGowers,whowasanHon. D.Litt.ofManchesterUniversity,an
Hon. FellowofClareCollege,Cambridge,anHon. A.R.I.B.A.,andaPast
PresidentoftheEnglishAssociation,wasbornin 1880. Hewaseducatedat
RugbySchoolandClareCollege,Cambridge,wherehewasascholarand
tookafirstinClassics. HeenteredtheInlandRevenueDepartmentin 1903,
anditwasaschairmanofthatBoardthathelefttheCivilServicetwenty-
sevenyearslateronhisappointmentaschairmanoftheCoalMines
ReorganizationCommission(latertheCoalCommission). Inthemeantimehe
hadservedinseveraldepartmentsandhadbeenatonetimeprincipalprivate
secretarytoLloydGeorgeasChancelloroftheExchequer. Duringthe
SecondWorldWarhewasLondonRegionalCommissionerforCivil
Defence,andafterwardschairmanofnumerouscommitteesandcommissions
onawidevarietyofsubjectsincludingtheadmissionofwomenintothe
ForeignService,theconditionsofworkinshopsandoffices,thepreservation
ofhistorichouses,foot-and-mouthdiseaseandcapitalpunishment. Sir
ErnestGowersdiedin 1966.
SidneyGreenbaumisQuainProfessorofEnglishLanguageandLiteratureat
UniversityCollegeLondonandDirectoroftheSurveyofEnglishUsage. He
istheauthorofmanybooksongrammarandlinguistics,includingA
ComprehensiveGrammaroftheEnglishLanguage(1985).
JanetWhitcutwasSeniorResearchEditoroftheLongmanDictionaryand
ReferenceBookUnitandisnowafreelancewriterwithaspecialinterestin
languageandlexicography. Shehasworkedonanumberofprestigious
dictionaries,amongthemtheLongmanDictionaryoftheEnglishLanguage
(1984)-
Sir Ernest Gowers
The
Complete
Words
Plain
Revised by Sidney Greenbaum and Janet Whitcut
Asifplainwords,usefulandintelligibleinstructions,
werenotasgoodforanesquire,oronethatisincommission
fromtheKing,asforhimthatholdstheplough.
JohnEachard TheGroundsandOccasionsoftheContempt
oftheClergyandReligionenquiredinto,1670
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Plain Wordsfirstpublished )^XH
TheAPCofPlain WoHkfirstpublished 1951
Firstpublishedtogetheras77k-CompletePlainlV,,r<*>bs H M StationeryOffice 1954
Publishedin Pelican Books 1962
Secondeditionpublishedb\ H M StationeryOffice
Publishedin Pelican Books 1973
Reprintedwithrevision-
Thirdeditionpublishedb% H M StationersOffice
PublishedinPenguin Books 1987
Id u g
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Allrightsreserved
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ExceptintheUnitedStatesofAmerica,thisbookissoldsubject
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re-sold,hiredout.orotherwisecirculatedwithoutthe
publisher'spriorcornealinanyformofbindingorcoverotherthan
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—
Preface
Her Majesty's Stationery Office is issuing this third edition of The
Complete Plain Words as part ofits 1986 bicentenary celebration.
Thefirsteditionofthebookappeared in 1954. SirErnestGowers,a
distinguished civil servant, had previously written two books Plain
ABC
Words(1948) and The ofPlain Words(1951)—attheinvitationof
the Treasury as a contribution to what they were doing tc improve
official English. In The Complete Plain Words, Gowers combined the
two previous books and at the same time took the opportunity to
revise what he had written earlier.
The Complete Plain Words was an immediate success and has been
reprinted many times. It has attracted devoted followers among civil
servantsandothers, bothinthiscountryandabroad. Itsreaderscome
to it for guidance, but stay to enjoy its elegance and wit. Gowers'
reputation as a sensible and practical authority on usage and style
made him theobviouschoiceto revise thatotherclassic guide togood
English, Fowler's Modern English Usage (1965).
Usagesandattitudestousageschangewithtime. IfGowers'workis
to remain a practical guide, it requires periodic revision to take
account ofdevelopments in the language. Gowers himselfintroduced
some changes each time the book was reprinted.
The second edition ofthe book was published in 1973. This major
revision was successfully undertaken by Sir Bruce Fraser, another
distinguished civil servant. Fraser devoted himself to the task with
reverenceand admiration forGowers' work; heendeavoured toretain
as much as possible of Gowers' original text and to follow in his
amendments and additions the vitality and vigour ofGowers' style.
In his preface Fraser explains the principles that guided his
revision. Wherever he could, he substituted contemporary examples
forthosethatseemeddated. Occasionally,heomittedpassagesthathe
feltwerenolongernecessarybecauseofchangesinthelanguageorthe
acceptance of usages that were once condemned. He reduced the
number ofliterary allusions, since most ofhis contemporary readers
wouldnothavehad theliteraryeducationthatGowersassumed. Some
passages on style he abbreviated, because the faults they criticised
were no longer committed frequently. In a few passages he disagreed
vi The Complete Plain Words
with Gowers; sometimes he gave Gowers' view and then his own, but
sometimes he simply replaced Gowers with Fraser. Fraser also added
several completely new chapters.
Fraser was a worthy successor to Gowers. His edition has been
reprinted frequently and he too has introduced changes in succeeding
impressions. What Fraser says in his preface about the book's deep
and lasting influence in the public service remains trueforhisedition:
The work is recommended reading in most parts of the service, and it is
widely read,orat least widely referred to, by both seniorand juniorstaff. Its
influence is felt even by those who have never read it, for its precepts, and
many of its illustrations, are used in many booklets for staff and in many
training and refresher courses.
This edition is a revision ofFraser's edition, and we have generally
followed the principlesand practicesofFraser(though heisinnoway
responsible for the changes we have made). We have not hesitated to
make changes that reflect developmentsin the languageorinaccepted
usage. Like Fraser, we have been conscious that we are revising a
classic, and wc have attempted to retain the flavour of the original
Gowers and as much of the Gowers text as possible.
In the previous editions, several chapters contained lists of words
with comments on them. For the convenience of readers, we have
brought these lists together in one single alphabetical list in Chapter
17.
With this third edition, it has become difficult to enumerate the
precisecontributions ofGowers, Fraser, Greenbaum, andWhitcut. It
would be tedious to do so, and of little interest to most users of the
book. But it may be worth saying that the core ofthe book (Chapters
3-14) remains essentially Gowers, despite numerous amendments;
and similarly the Epilogue (Chapter 18) is almost pure Gowers.
T
Gowers' frequent use of the first person pronoun presents a
difficulty for revisers. Fraser decided to retain the T, and he tried to
T T
distinguish the of Gowers from the of Fraser by listing in his
preface the parts of the book that were wholly or mainly written by
each ofthe authors. In chapters attributed to Gowers, Fraser clearly
indicated where he disagreed with Gowers. Unless he said otherwise,
T
meant either 'Gowers agreed with by Fraser' or 'Fraser, confident
that Gowers would agree with him'.
We have reluctantly decided that it would be too complicated to
Preface vii
T
attempt in this way to distinguish between the of each of our
predecessorsand toadd to them the 'we' ofGreenbaumandWhitcut,
although we have sometimes indicated that our judgments have
diverged from those expressed in the previous editions. In this third
edition 'we' generally represents Greenbaum and Whitcut in agree-
ment with Gowers and Fraser; butitoccasionally means that we have
aligned ourselves with Gowers or with Fraser or with neither. As in
previous editions, most judgments and comments appear without
mentioning the first person pronoun ofthe authors.
We are deeply indebted to the Cabinet Office and other Govern-
ment Departments for sending us an abundance ofmaterial for this
edition. We also acknowledge with thanks the helpweobtained from
the Forms Information Centre at the University of Reading, which
supplied us with batches of examples of official and commercial
language. Someofourbestspecimensofbadwritingwereceivedfrom
Mr Ivan Kingston. Wehaveconsulted manyworksofreference; they
include guides to contemporary usage, dictionaries, and the recently
published Comprehensive Grammarofthe English Language (ofwhich
one ofus is a co-author). We have also examined the publications on
writing plain English by the National Consumer Council and the
Campaign forPlainEnglish. Bothofusareassociatedwith the Survey
ofEnglishUsage,andwehaveoccasionallyconsultedtheSurveyfiles.
Finally,weareverygrateful to MrW. J. SharpCB, Controllerand
Chief Executive of Her Majesty's Stationery Office, for his many
helpful comments on our work.
Sidney Greenbaum
Janet Whitcut
Digitized by the Internet Archive
2012
in
http://www.archive.org/details/completeplainworOOsire
