Don't you just love Government speak? Couldn't they for once speak plain English?
A great question, of course. But it's not just the government -- it's any organization, including English departments. Maybe especially English departments. When writing this stuff, I get sucked into many of these phrases too.
I'm not real sure why tortured syntax and impenetrable prose take over so easily. If you're half way serious about it, you know you're writing something to explain to the public what it is you're doing, why, and what the effects of that action are. The conscious writer knows that the Anglo Saxon words are, with few exceptions, always going to be the best choice. For the entire genre (what's the Anglo Saxon equivalent??) I think it's a combination of laziness -- just copying and pasting from other documents that have been approved; wanting to sound educated (the priesthood/man behind the curtain effect); and really not knowing any better -- not having an ear for what sounds good and makes your point effectively yet simply. Of course, you can poke some fun at the style to see if anyone's paying attention (fenestration), but sometimes it confirms your worst fears.
One time, I put this into a draft:
This alternative calls for the complete removal
of a monarch giant sequoia in the Big Stump
Grove. As part of the larger sequoia grove
ecosystem, the loss of one tree has a negligible
adverse impact on sequoia groves in the Sierra or
Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. The
removal of one of the few ancient survivors from
the Big Stump Grove logging of the late 1800s
would have a minor adverse impact on sequoia
groves. At death, a great keening and lamentation
for a fallen monarch is taken up by giant
sequoias throughout the Sierra. Many are scarred
forever and become morose and apathetic, refusing
to pose for photos or provide for the enjoyment
of future generations. Why bother? A very few go
renegade, knowing that time is on their side.
They plot vengeance. Waiting, waiting, waiting... .
It went through four edits and no one picked up on it!! Finally one of the Sequoia experts wrote me a "hey, wait a minute" note. The utterly humorless compliance specialist just crossed it out without comment. Sigh... .
I'll see if OldRanger from the High Sierra Topix Forum wants to weigh in. He's written a bunch of compliance documents and might have some thoughts.
g.
PS: just found the note from the second guy to spot it:
This kind of reminds me of when a group of us were tasked by Management (notice the capital letter) with drafting SEKI's Strategic Plan back in the 1990s. My bleary recollection is that in the draft document someone (Annie?) replaced all occurrences of "cross-training" with "cross-dressing," and it went utterly unnoticed by Management. So we had nice phrases like "management will support and encourage employee cross-dressing ...."
It's the only way to stay sane when producing deathly bureaucratic documents that otherwise crush the spirit and stifle anything resembling creativity. At least that's what I tell myself.
