Synopses & Reviews
A brilliant and scathing polemic about the sorry state of the English Language and what we canand mustdo 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 forward or 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-engineering and attriting fail to give you ramp-upin terms of your personal lifestyle?
Todays corporations, news media, education departmentsand, perhaps most troubling, politiciansspeak to us and to each other in clichéd, 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 Sentences gained 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 politicians, academics, businessmans, journalists, and bureaucrats 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 itand 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. Watsons writing is the antithesis of all he deplores: it is humane and welcoming.
James Ley, Age
Watson writes wellpassionately, 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 readand enjoyedin 50 years time.
Jim Davidson, Eureka Street
Always lucid and witty
a resource of painful delight.
John McLaren, Overla
Review
"An important read for anyone who holds language dear." Daily Telegraph
Review
"The Book of the Year...witty, erudite, and funny. Awfully funny." Australian Financial Review
Review
"Nobody writes more lyrically or cares more about words and those who murder them." Sydney Morning Herald
Review
"[O]bliterates the vernacular vandals among journalists, academics, politicians, and business people with deadly aim." Murray Waldren, Australian
Synopsis
In this Australian bestseller, Watson takes up the fight against the pestilence of bullet points, the dearth of verbs, buzzwords, weasel words, and "Newspeak" of the kind Orwell could not have imagined. His brilliant and scathing exploration of the sorry state of the English language reveals what people can and must do about it.
Synopsis
A brilliant and scathing polemic about the sorry state of the English Language andwhat 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 forward or 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-engineering and attriting fail 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 clichéd, 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 Sentences gained 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.
About the Author
Don Watson is one of Australia's best-known writers and public intellectuals. For more than twenty-five years he has written books, essays, and reviews for the stage and television. For part of his life he was a political satirist and for another part a political speechwriter, including four years with Paul Keating, the former Labor Prime Minister. His 2001 Recollections of a Bleeding Heart: A Portrait of Paul Keating PM was a #1 national bestseller and a multiple award winner. He lectures widely on writing and language.