The Complete Plain Words is a style guide for English written by Sir Ernest Gowers and published in 1954. It has never been out of print. It comprises expanded and revised versions of two pamphlets that he wrote at the request of Sir Edward Bridges (then head of the Civil Service); Plain Words, published in 1948 as a two-shilling pamphlet aimed at civil servants and An ABC of Plain Words which was published in 1951.
The Complete Plain Words was revised by Sir Bruce Fraser in 1973, and by Sidney Greenbaum and Janet Whitcut in 1986 (ISBN 0-11-701121-5).
Famous quotes containing the words complete and/or plain:
“No man, said Birkin, cuts another man’s throat unless he wants to cut it, and unless the other man wants it cutting. This is a complete truth. It takes two people to make a murder: a murderer and a murderee.... And a man who is murderable is a man who has in a profound if hidden lust desires to be murdered.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)
“Mystery is in the morning, and mystery in the night, and the beauty of mystery is everywhere; but still the plain truth remains, that mouth and purse must be filled.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)