Re: Is everyone here acquainted with the Plain English Campaign?

[Anthony Davey <ant -at- ant-davey -dot- com>]

Guy,

Would that be the same plain english campaign that recently (IMO) shot 
itself in the foot with its annual award for gobbledygook?  If you're 
not in the UK you may not have heard that the PEC gave their award for 
messing with the English language to one D. Rumsfeld (sp?), for his 
explanation of the three levels of knowledge.

In his explanation he used simple, concise language and explained the 
concept as clearly as is possible in the ten seconds available.  The 
Plain English Campaign obviously couldn't get their heads around the 
concept and rubbished him for it.

For those not familiar with the three levels of knowledge they are:
Stuff you know
Stuff you don't know (which you know you don't know, e.g quantum 
physics, we know it's there but most of us don't know about it)
Stuff you don't know you don't know (because we haven't got to the level 
of understanding of its existence yet; e.g. quantum physics four hundred 
years ago)

Regards,
Ant

Guy K. Haas wrote: