Fourteen Years of Doublespeak

Abstract

to alert the profession generally to the forces that in the committee's judgment are misusing the language: government and its military personnel, industry and its advertisers, educators, and all those who engage in public discourse, especially those who influence public policy. In order to carry out this function, the committee established the Doublespeak Award, which it has been giving since 1974. The committee established also the Orwell Award, which it has been giving since 1975. And in 1974 the committee began publishing a newsletter which later became the Quarterly Review of Doublespeak. Other activities of the committee have included sponsoring the publication of books and other materials, providing speakers through its speakers' bureau, and organizing panels of speakers at various professional meetings. Since the committee first began tracking doublespeak in public discourse, the use of doublespeak seems to have increased. Each year the Quarterly Review of Doublespeak carries more and more examples of doublespeak from business, education, government at all levels, the military, the world of medicine, and other areas. The April 1987 issue of QRD alone listed 103 examples of current doublespeak. Nor is the growth of doublespeak confined only to the United States. Recently, the Canadian Council of Teachers of