Wednesday, March 26, 2008
At last, the perfect irony!
Long time readers will recall some of the vigorous debates and disputes we've had in this space and elsewhere about the nature and meaning of irony.
The concept of irony is famous for starting fights amongst those who care about language. Mrs. Mentok and I are both language professionals, so our children know that it's best to leave the room and hide all sharp objects when the topic of irony comes up at the kitchen table.
Now, at last, my work has given me a perfect example of classical irony as I see it. I'm working on a plain-language rendering of a big pile of bureaucratic documents. Here is an actual excerpt of the kind of thing with which I have to contend:
"Companies that apply best practices in process management give top priority to cross-functional value creation. The process driven enterprise has managers who communicate process information in a standardized set of terms understandable to all employees."
Oedipus could not have said it better himself!
posted by Mentok @ 6:14 p.m.,
2 Comments:
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At 1:40 p.m.,
Rachel said...
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HAHAH LOL!!!! I found this quite amusing!
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At 2:25 a.m.,
Unknown said...
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You probably know this site....but check it out and have some fun...
http://dack.com/web/bullshit.html
