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Gove's golden rules for writing: can you do better? Gove's golden rules for writing: can you do better?
(3 months later)
Education secretary Michael Gove is keen to set an example when it comes to clear, no-nonsense English. So keen in fact that, as the Mail on Sunday reported, he has emailed civil servants in his department urging them to drop the jargon and clean up their language.Education secretary Michael Gove is keen to set an example when it comes to clear, no-nonsense English. So keen in fact that, as the Mail on Sunday reported, he has emailed civil servants in his department urging them to drop the jargon and clean up their language.
Handily, he's provided them with 10 golden rules for writing:Handily, he's provided them with 10 golden rules for writing:
1. If in doubt, cut it out.

2. Read it out loud – if it sounds wrong, don't send it.

3. In letters, adjectives add little, adverbs even less.

4. The more the letter reads like a political speech the less good it is as a letter.

5. Would your mum understand that word, phrase or sentence? Would mine?

6. Read the great writers to improve your own prose – George Orwell and Evelyn Waugh, Jane Austen and George Eliot, Matthew Parris and Christopher Hitchens.

7. Always use concrete words and phrases in preference to abstractions.

8. Gwynne's Grammar is a brief guide to the best writing style.

9. Simon Heffer's Strictly English is a more comprehensive – and very entertaining – companion volume.

10. Our written work should be the clearest, most elegant, and most enjoyable to read of any Whitehall department's because the Department for Education has the best civil servants in Whitehall.
1. If in doubt, cut it out.

2. Read it out loud – if it sounds wrong, don't send it.

3. In letters, adjectives add little, adverbs even less.

4. The more the letter reads like a political speech the less good it is as a letter.

5. Would your mum understand that word, phrase or sentence? Would mine?

6. Read the great writers to improve your own prose – George Orwell and Evelyn Waugh, Jane Austen and George Eliot, Matthew Parris and Christopher Hitchens.

7. Always use concrete words and phrases in preference to abstractions.

8. Gwynne's Grammar is a brief guide to the best writing style.

9. Simon Heffer's Strictly English is a more comprehensive – and very entertaining – companion volume.

10. Our written work should be the clearest, most elegant, and most enjoyable to read of any Whitehall department's because the Department for Education has the best civil servants in Whitehall.
Is this a good recipe for better English? Is there anything he left out?Is this a good recipe for better English? Is there anything he left out?
Tell us your own rules of thumb for good writing. Better still – let's put it even more concisely than Gove managed – tell us your own five commandments of style.Tell us your own rules of thumb for good writing. Better still – let's put it even more concisely than Gove managed – tell us your own five commandments of style.
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