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:
“I see advertisements for active young men, as if activity were the whole of a young man’s capital. Yet I have been surprised when one has with confidence proposed to me, a grown man, to embark in some enterprise of his, as if I had absolutely nothing to do, my life having been a complete failure hitherto. What a doubtful compliment this to pay me!”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
““One ought not to be thrown into confusion
By a plain statement of relationship....””
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)