Doublespeak Defined: Cut Through the Bull**** and Get the Point! - Softcover

Lutz, William D.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0062734121 ISBN 13: 9780062734129

Publisher: Harper Paperbacks, 1999

Synopsis

In an increasingly Orwellian world, everyone should be armed with this hilarious, slyly subversive deconstruction of the slippery locutions of spinmeisters from all walks of public life. Doublespeak guru William Lutz (Doublespeak, The New Doublespeak) is uniquely qualified to bring you this supremely funny expos‚ of the juiciest ways THEY are trying to bamboozle you!

A sampling of Doublespeak Defined:

Bald n./ :hair disadvantaged
Men in Japan aren't bald; they're "hair disadvantaged," according to The Japan Economic Journal.

Diet n./ :1.nutrional avoidance therapy 2. caloric reduction program

Frozen adj./ :1 deep chilled 2. fresh 3. hard chilled 4. previously frozen

The USDA considers processed chickens "fresh," not frozen, if they have been chilled to 28 degrees Fahrenheit. Chickens so processed have not been frozen but "deep chilled."

Light Switch n./ :ideogram illumination intensity adjustment potentiometer

Waste paper basket n./ :user-friendly, space-effective, flexible desk side sortation unit

Government officials in Toronto, Canada, paid $123.80 (Canadian) each for these items.

About this title

About the Author:

William Lutz was the head of the Committee on Public Doublespeak for 15 years, and editor of the Quarterly Review of Doublespeak for 14 years. He is professor of English at Rutgers University in Camden, New Jersey, and a member of the Pennsylvania Bar.

His previous books include Doublespeak: From Revenue Enhancement to Terminal Living and The Cambridge Thesaurus of American English. Lutz has appeared on numerous television and radio programs to publicize the dangers of doublespeak, including Today, Larry King Live, The CBS Evening News, The MacNeil Lehrer NewsHour, and National Public Radio's Morning Edition.

He lives in Haddonfield, New Jersey, with his wife, the novelist Denise Gess.

From Booklist:

For years Lutz has waged a battle against "doublespeak," the use of convoluted, evasive, deceptive, misleading, and deliberately ambiguous language. However, any look at the front page of a newspaper or, better yet, at the Federal Register will suggest that Lutz's cause might be a lost one. He is already the author of two books on the topic, and he edited the National Council of Teachers of English Quarterly Review of Doublespeak for 14 years. This year he was contracted by the Securities and Exchange Commission to write instructions on writing stock prospectuses in "plain" English. The resulting booklet is 58 pages. Doublespeak Defined, though, is essentially a thesaurus. Under 14 categories, such as education, the workplace, job titles, and sex and sexes, Lutz lists terms and their doublespeak counterparts. Included are sidebar press reports documenting doublespeak's pervasive reach, and cartoons lampooning its effects. Some examples are amusing and some are silly. Many, though, raise real concerns about the potential dangers of irresponsible and misleading language. David Rouse

About this edition

• Publisher: Harper Paperbacks
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0062734121
• ISBN 13: 9780062734129
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 208