Death Sentences: How Cliches, Weasel Words and Management-Speak Are Strangling Public Language

By Don Watson

Book Overview

A brilliant and scathing polemic about the sorry state of the English Language and what we can?and must?do about it.When was the last time you heard a politician use words that rang with truth and meaning? Do your eyes glaze over when you read a letter from your bank or insurance company addressing you as a valued customer? Does your mind shut down when your employer starts talking about making a commitment going forwardor enhancing your key competencies? Are you enervated by in terms of, irritated by impactful, infuriated by downsizing, rightsizing, decruiting, and dejobbing? Does business process re-engineeringand attritingfail to give you ramp-up?in terms of your personal lifestyle?Today?s corporations, news media, education departments?and, perhaps most troubling, politicians?speak to us and to each other in clich?d, impenetrable, lifeless babble. Toni Morrison has called it the disabled and disabling? language of the powerful, evacuated language,? and dead language.? Orwell called it anesthetic? language. In Death Sentences, Don Watson takes up the fight against it: the pestilence of bullet points, the dearth of verbs, the buzzwords, the weasel words and cant, the Newspeak of a kind Orwell could not have imagined.Published in Australia in November 2003, Death Sentencesgained a massive following among the legions of bright, sensitive people who Could Not Take It Anymore. More than a year later, it remains a national bestseller. Praise: An important read for anyone who holds language dear.? ?Lucy Clark, Daily Telegraph The Book of the Year? witty, erudite, and funny. Awfully funny.? ?The Australian Financial Review Nobody writes more lyrically or cares more about words and those who murder them.? ?Sydney Morning Herald Witty, excoriating, and horrifying, [DEATH SENTENCE] should be every politician?s, academic?s, businessman?s, journalist?s, and bureaucrat?s choice for book of the year? and, alas, the era.? ?Robert Drewe, Books of the Year,? The Age ?should leave us afraid, very afraid? Anyone involved in writing for public consumption should read it?and sooner rather than later.? ?Frances Wilkins, Lawyers Weekly ?obliterates the vernacular vandals among journalists, academics, politicians, and business people with deadly aim.? ?Murray Waldren, Australian Brilliant? tempered by sorrow.? ?Peter Price, Bulletin ?an amusing and stimulating book. Watson?s writing is the antithesis of all he deplores: it is humane and welcoming.? ?James Ley, Age Watson writes well?passionately, fiercely, with generous sprinkles of wit and vitriol? Expect an entertaining ride.? ?Ruth Wajnryb, Sydney Morning Herald ?scathingly funny and deadly serious.? ?Jose Borghino, Marie Claire A book of unusual significance, a meditation on our times as much as a work on language? [it] will still be read?and enjoyed?in 50 years? time.? ?Jim Davidson, Eureka Street Always lucid and witty? a resource of painful delight.? ?John McLaren, Overla

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1592401406
• ISBN13: 9781592401406
• Release Date: May 2005
• Publisher: Gotham Books
• Length: 173 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.5" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Takes the Tux off the bull

Clear writing takes the Tux off the bull and reveals it for what it is. No one can say that often enough.

Death Sentences

Anyone whose job requires that they write clearly and compellingly should read this book.

A lively, intriguing collection of ads, ironic language, and assessments of modern language misuse a

The English language is in a sorry state, with clichés, bad wording, and doublespeak phrases abounding. From businesses to politicians and the news media, there are numerous popular sources of such clichés, and consumers are daily bombarded with buzzwords and newspeak. Death Sentences received rave reviews in Australia where it first appeared in 2003: American readers will find it a lively, intriguing collection of ads, ironic language, and assessments of modern language misuse and corruption.

Fighting Spinspeak

Don Watson's book makes a significant contribution to fighting one of the great intellectual plagues of our time: the corruption of language by spinspeak and the resultant undermining of rational thought. A major antidote to the mnemonic poison manufactured daily by the spindocs throughout our society is sunlight. Watson helps spread that with dozens of outrageous examples.

Speaking Without Communicating

It's too bad that this book didn't come out a few months ago when we were in the midst of the political silly season. Rarely have I heard so many words spoken that had so little meaning. All of those guys were truly expert in answering questions with a bunch of words that said nothing that could possibly offend. It is unlikely that this book will change the way they talk. Politicians, corporations, news media and the rest have learned how to talk without communicating. After all, if you say anything, it cna't help but offend someone. Taken out of the context in which they were intend, it is certainly funny to see the words that the author uses to illustrate his points. One point that he doesn't mention is the growth of paper written by non-English speakers. You see this often in instructions on products made in the far East. How can anyone plan to sell a product in the English speaking world and not convert the writing from Chinglish or Japlish. Perhaps that can be his next book.