The Penguin Guide to Plain English

in this book. Tidily explaining to readers how the English language

should be used by a neat progression through the parts of speech, and
the construction of clauses and sentences, can be illuminating. But it is
not quite the same process as checking up at the coalface on the English
that is actually used and uncovering w here it goes wrong. I have taken
heed o f a wise popular saying, If it aint broke, d o n t m end it. That
advice has always seemed to me to be peculiarly applicable to the business
of w riting books w ith an instructive purpose. And that is w hy I have
believed that the most practically helpful starting-point for giving advice
about how to write good English is from the mass o f bad English w ith
w hich we are surrounded.
I now have a collection of some 7,000 bad sentences, accumulated
over the years from the press, the radio, commercial publicity and junk
mail. Bringing this material to light enables us to discern w here people
go w rong in their use of English, not just occasionally but time after
time. W here a bad practice turns up day after day in the newspaper, on
the air and in the m orning mail it ought to get proportionate attention
and space in a book w hich specifically concentrates on the English we
actually read, actually hear, actually use.
That is why this book abounds in examples. It does not take up a
dogmatic position in relation to traditional grammar or to the revisionist
grammars of the last few decades. It does not lay into the latest slang or
get over-excited about split infinitives. It explores the English now in use
w ith determ ined emphasis on the guide-lines we must follow if w hat we
say and w hat we w rite is to be exactly w hat we mean.
For we are about a m uch m ore positive task than that o f mere detection
and correction o f error. That in itself is not an inspiring activity. N or
does it w in friends. Filthy famished correctioner Shakespeares Doll
Tearsheet screams at the interfering Beadle. But correction can be salutary.
W hom the Lord loveth He correcteth, the Book of Proverbs tells us.
And the positive aim here is to reveal how gratifying, indeed how
stimulating it is to achieve that sustained level o f correctness w hich marks
plain English. There is great satisfaction for all those w ho do not have
to w orry that w hat they write, or w hat they say w hen they speak in
public, may not stand up to scrutiny on some point of style or usage.
For most people it is not a matter o f mastering a lot o f grammatical
rules. It is rather a matter o f learning to keep a clear head. Having read
Glancing to the right, the church spire is visible above the rooftops, the
grammarian will talk about the hanging participle, while the clear