"BUSINESS ENGLISH."

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 261, 4 November 1933, Page 2 (Supplement)

"BUSINESS ENGLISH."

COMPLAINT OF PROUXITY. 1 ' '■ ■ When that rather vaguely defined person "the business man" begins to give himself airs, or when his admirers rush to surround him with bouquets, it is usually on. the ground of his assumed ability for national administration .(says the "Manchester Guardian"). "Give us," it is proclaimed, "a Govern-, ment of business men; then only shall wo have a Cabinet which gets things done, and those the right ones." The proposition may or may not be wellfounded, but it certainly throws into relief the dark side of the business man's endeavour; if it is constantly assumed that he knows how to get things done, it is announced with equal persistence that he is the last man who knows how to get them written about. A representative of the National Institute, of , Industrial Psychology, in addressing a conference at Oxford, has just been balancing the conventional bouquets with another example of the equally conventional brickbat.. "I he said, "of the business world's English"—and in support of his despair he cited the case of a letter received from "the managing director of a London store" which covered a page of typescript in one sentence with five parentheses, and wbich hid to be submitted to a committee of inquiry before its meaning could be grasped. It sounds more like a communication from a philosopher than a man of affairs; in any event it is a different complaint from the one that is usually made about "business English," which is more often rebuked for jargon and ready-made phrases than for long sentences and vaguely expressed intentions. And it generally seems to be overlooked that even jargon and ready-made phrases are readily and precisely understood by those for whom they are intended. The English of a business letter may not always be elegant English, but it must in the long run be English that can be understood by its recipient, or otherwise the business would come to a standstill. The "horrible example" cited at Oxford cannot in the nature of things be taken as a normal exhibit.