“Clear and Concise Writing”

[ndrosen]

Last week, I attended (remotely) a training session on Clear and Concise Writing; the Patent Office wants its employees to write clearly and well. What we were told mostly made good sense, although I could not help reflecting that Orwell had said it better in that classic, “Politics and the English Language.” Advice about avoiding excessive use of the passive voice, for example, is sound enough, but, though I do not dispute that words should not be strung together at excessive length or without a good organizing principle, I question whether short sentences are always to be preferred. Patent attorneys, after all, are not six year olds.

I posted a comment in the chat, asking what application of the precepts we were given would have done to the literary works of Edward Gibbon, Edmund Burke, and Samuel Johnson. The instructor did have a response, but I’ve forgotten just what it was.