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The Rev. Dr. Willis R. Schwichtenberg, or as many know him "Pastor Switz," has served Immanuel Lutheran Church for 30 years. However, writing that he has only served Immanuel for 30 years would be a discredit to all that he has done for the Freeport community through his service to Immanuel.
The Rev. Dr. Willis R. Schwichtenberg, or as many know him "Pastor Switz," has served Immanuel Lutheran Church for 30 years. However, writing that he has only served Immanuel for 30 years would be a discredit to all that he has done for the Freeport community through his service to Immanuel.Pastor Switz came to Freeport in October of 1982. From that time he has tirelessly served the people of Immanuel and the Freeport community. When Pastor Switz began his ministry in 1982, Immanuel Lutheran was located on Chicago Street. Immanuel was already in the process of relocating its school to its current location at 1964 West Pearl City Rd. The building that had served Immanuel well for so many years had reached its capacity and the church needed to move the school to a new location. The old school building now finds great use as the FACC building on Chicago Street.It would be another 10 years before the congregation would build a new church building next to the relocated school. Building projects and relocating at trying times for congregations. Many emotions and memories are stored away in the walls of the places we call home. The same was true for Immanuel, however due to the outstanding pastoral leadership and ministry which God has granted to Pastor Switz, Immanuel was able to make these transitions under his care.Pastor Switz is a wonderful pastor and educator. Through the School of Immanuel Lutheran, he has taught thousands of children over his 30 years of serving Immanuel. Through his leadership and ministry, those thousands of children have gone on with the foundation of Biblical teaching and fundamentals resting securely in the minds.No one can think of Pastor Switz without recalling his gifts for drama and acting. Very early in his ministry at Immanuel, Pastor Switz began writing, conducting, directing and acting in a yearly Lenten drama which depicted the scene of the Last Supper. Ever year a new theme, or thought, was added to the drama so that people not only walked away from the drama having seen the Biblical account of the Last Supper, but also a knowledge of how they can live to glorify God.Pastor Switz also depicted Martin Luther, the great reformer every year for Reformation and other special occasions. The "Good Doctor" would make his entrance to the singing of the Reformer's hymn, "A Mighty Fortress is Our God." Luther, depicted by Switz, would tell the congregation of why the Reformation was so important and that we reside on the principles of the three Solas (Alone): Grace Alone, Faith Alone, and Scripture Alone.Switz swiftly began making his presence known in Freeport as he used his gifts in journalism to create a weekly radio program which he continues to this day. Introspect can be heard on 92.1 every Sunday morning at 8:30 a.m. He has also coordinated for many years the weekly column, "From the Pulpit" which is in the Faith section of The Journal-Standard every Thursday.Beginning in 1996, and continuing through to 2010, Pastor Switz contributed to the continuation of proclaiming the Gospel through the Pastoral Ministry through his supervision of 13 different Vicars (Pastoral Interns). These Vicars, including the present Pastor at Immanuel, Rev. Richard Schultz, learned how to be a pastor from Pastor Switz. His ability to mentor and shape these men for the ministry is greatly appreciated by these me who are all over the United States and Canada.Pastor Switz always finishes his reports to the congregation and emails with the phrase, "It's a Joy to Serve." His ministry has been a joy in the lives of those he has served far above the joy he has had in his fulfilling ministry. To God be the glory.Rev. Ros Schultz is pastor at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Freeport.
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|home : index : ancient Rome : Appian of Alexandria's Roman History
Appian's History of Rome: The Punic Wars §§11-15
|Appian of
Alexandria (c.95-c.165) is the author of a Roman History and
one of the most underestimated of all Greek historians. Although only his
books on the Roman Civil Wars survive in their entirety, large parts of
other books have also come down to us. His account of the Punic Wars, which
deals with the wars in Africa, is fortunately among these better preserved
The translation was made by Horace White; footnotes
and additions in green
by Jona Lendering.
|[§11] [204] Massinissa,
getting wind of this plot, managed to escape, and made his inherited power
strong by collecting a body of cavalry who were trained to hurl the javelin
advancing and retreating and advancing again, either by day or by night;
for their only method of fighting was flight and pursuit. The Numidians
also know how to endure hunger. They often subsist on herbs in place of
bread, and they drink nothing but water. Their horses never even taste
grain; they feed on grass alone and drink but rarely. Massinissa collected
about 20,000 such and led them in the chase and in pillaging expeditions
against other tribes, thinking to keep them exercised in this way. The
and Syphax,
thinking that these preparations of the young man were made against them
(for they were conscious of the affront they had put upon him), decided
to make war on him first, and after crushing him to march against the Romans.
[§12] Syphax and the Carthaginians were much the more numerous. They marched with wagons and a great load of luggage and luxuries. On the other hand, Massinissa was an example in all doing and enduring and had only cavalry, no pack animals and no provisions. Thus he was able the more easily to retreat, to attack, and to take refuge in strongholds. Often, when surrounded, he divided his forces so that they might scatter as best they could, concealing himself with a handful until they should all come together again, by day or by night, at an appointed rendezvous. Once he was one of three who lay concealed in a cave around which his enemies were encamped. He never had any fixed camping place. His generalship consisted especially in concealing his position. Thus his enemies never could make a regular assault upon him, but were always warding off his attacks. His provisions were obtained each day from whatever place he came upon toward evening, whether village or city. He seized and carried off everything and divided the plunder with his men, for which reason many Numidians flocked to him, although he did not give regular pay, for the sake of the booty, which was better.
[§13] In this way Massinissa made war on the Carthaginians. In the meantime [proconsul Publius Cornelius] Scipio, having completed his preparations in Sicily, and sacrificed to Jupiter and Neptune, set sail for Africa with fifty-two war-ships and 400 transports, with a great number of smaller craft following behind. His army consisted of 16,000 foot and 1,600 horse. He carried also projectiles, arms, and engines of various kinds, and a plentiful supply of provisions. And thus Scipio accomplished his voyage.
When the Carthaginians and Syphax learned of this they decided to pretend to make terms with Massinissa for the present, until they should overcome Scipio. Massinissa was not deceived by this scheme. In order to deceive them in turn he marched to Hasdrubal with his cavalry as though he were reconciled to him, fully advising Scipio beforehand. Hasdrubal, Syphax, and Massinissa encamped not far from each other near the city of Utica, to which Scipio had been driven by the winds, and he also was camped hard by. Not far from him was Hasdrubal with an army of 20,000 foot, 7,000 horse, and 140 elephants.
[§14] Now Syphax, either being moved by fear, or being faithless to all parties in turn, pretended that his country was harassed by the neighboring barbarians, and set out for home. Scipio sent out some detachments to feel the enemy, and at the same time several towns surrendered themselves to him. Then Massinissa came to Scipio's camp secretly by night, and, after mutual greeting, advised him to place not more than 5,000 men in ambush on the following day, about five kilometer from Utica, near a tower built by Agathocles, the tyrant of Syracuse.
At daybreak he persuaded Hasdrubal to send Hanno, his master of horse, to reconnoiter the enemy and throw himself into Utica, lest the inhabitants, taking advantage of the proximity of the enemy, should start a revolution. He promised to follow if ordered to do so. Hanno set out accordingly with 1,000 picked Carthaginian horse and a lot of Africans. Massinissa followed with his Numidians. Thus they came to the tower and Hanno passed on with a small force to Utica. Hereupon a part of the men in ambush showed themselves, and Massinissa advised the officer who was left in command of the cavalry to attack them as being a small force. He followed at a short distance, as if to support the movement. Then the rest of the men in ambush showed themselves and surrounded the Africans; and the Romans and Massinissa together assailed them on all sides and slew all except 400, who were taken prisoners. After he had accomplished this, Massinissa, as though a friend, hastened after Hanno, who was returning, seized him and carried him to Scipio's camp, and exchanged him for his own mother, who was in Hasdrubal's hands.
[§15] Scipio and Massinissa ravaged the country and released the Roman prisoners who were digging in the fields, who had been sent thither by Hannibal from Spain, from Sicily, and from Italy itself. They also besieged a large town called Locha, where they met great difficulties. As they were putting up the scaling ladders, the Lochaians asked a parley and offered to leave the city under a truce. Thereupon Scipio sounded a retreat; but the soldiers, angry at what they had suffered in the siege, refused to obey. They scaled the walls and slaughtered indiscriminately, not sparing women and children. Scipio dismissed the survivors in safety; he then deprived the army of its booty and compelled the officers who had disobeyed orders to cast lots publicly, and punished three of them, upon whom the lot had fallen, with death.[1]
Having done these things he began ravaging the country again. Hasdrubal sought to draw him into ambush by sending Mago, his master of horse, to attack him in front, while he fell upon his rear. Scipio and Massinissa being surrounded in this way divided their forces into two parts, turning in opposite directions against the enemy, by which means they slew 50,00 of the Africans, took 1,800 prisoners, and drove the remainder over a precipice.
|Note 1:
A mild form of decimation.

subset: commoncrawl


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Greensburg Salem wrestling to celebrate program's 700th win
TribLIVE Sports Videos
Greensburg Salem has a storied football program with 674 victories, ranking third in the WPIAL behind New Castle and Jeannette.
The wrestling program, which began in 1936, achieved the 700-win milestone with three victories at the North Hills Duals on Saturday.
The Greensburg Salem School District will honor the achievement Wednesday when the Golden Lions host Indiana. The ceremony is at 6:45 p.m., followed by the match. School officials urge all past wrestlers to attend.
"It's neat that we have two highly recognized programs at the state," said Greensburg Salem wrestling coach Randy Parsley, who was a wrestler for the school's 400th win, assistant coach for No. 500 and head coach for the 600th and 700th victories. "This program has a lot of stability. You don't have to worry about who is the coach."
Past coaches, PIAA and WPIAL champions and former wrestlers will be attending, including three-time NCAA champions Greg Jones (West Virginia) and Brian Kapusta (North Dakota State) and Hall of Fame coach Rob Waller.
Others expected to attend are PIAA champions Phil Detore (1965), Mickey Kenney (1970), Ken Parsley (1978), Donnie Jones (2003, 2004) and Jeff Kapusta (1992).
Jeff Kapusta, Kenny Trumbetta and the late Sam Kucenic were two-time All-Americans, and Vertus Jones, who will be unable to attend, was a state champion and a three-time All-American at West Virginia.
Paul Schofield is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.com.
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Daily NewsView All News
Fiji: First national minimum wage baseline survey today
The state of a Fiji is conducting a survey today to establish a national minimum wage according to the Fiji News. Minister Jone Usamate said the survey would result in the determination and introduction of a national minimum wage, the hourly rate below which all sectoral minimum wage rates must not be allowed to fall.
He said the survey would assess existing wage levels in Fiji's labour market, including conditions of employment in the context of the requirements under the Employment Relations Promulgation 2007 (ERP) and the 10 current Wages Regulation Orders (WROs) against the backdrop of the economy.
The ministry confirmed there are 6706 enterprises with 171,865 workers.
Out of these enterprises, 4065 are covered under the Wages Regulation Orders and 2641 are enterprises where workers are employed through individual bargaining.
The survey ends at the end of the month.


text:
Forms for International Students (F-1 Visa)
As an international student (non-citizen or non-permanent resident), you may be required to complete other forms as required by immigration law. Just find the heading that applies to you, then download and print the forms on your computer. Adobe Reader is required to view these pages.
English Version
Korean Version
Portuguese Version
Spanish Version


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I've got a piece of source in my current project which represents
a balanced binary tree, built from a load of preinitialized structs
in C. All that needs to be visible from the "outside" is one symbol
("LanguageTree_Root"), everything else is static, and of no concern
to the other modules.
I managed to nail the module at a fixed location in code memory
(One should be able to replace the whole structure without the need
to reprogram the program code), but I just can't nail the one symbol
for the LanguageTree_Root to a fixed address (which should be the
beginning of the block).
The documentation tells me that using the _at_ keyword is not
possible for a pre-initialised variable, but without
pre-initialisation, the LanguageTree_Root pointer in code space is
worthless, even if i can nail it to a fixed address...
To bring the module to the proper location I already use the
linker option
which places the "normal" code stuff and constants at the beginning,
one "Last" module at the very end of the code, and the LanguageTree
module at location 0xC000.
The LanguageTree_Root symbol ends up "somewhere" in the 0xC0000,
but I just can't get it to the beginning.
Any ideas that might help me?
Christian Treczoks
see here: http://www.keil.com/support/docs/301.htm
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Peak Experiences Indoor Rock Climbing Center
Peak Experiences, Inc. is the largest indoor rock climbing facility on the East Coast. With more than 14,000 square feet of climbing surface and our 50-foot climbing walls, Peak can offer over 100 top-quality routes. The gym is open seven days a week and has friendly and knowledgeable staff available to teach you the rock climbing basics safely indoors, rain or shine. We offer introductory classes, climbing samplers, day passes, student discounts, plus we've got a fully stocked retail shop. Climbers of all ability and ages are welcome. Be sure to ask about Passages Adventure Camp, voted Richmond's "Best Day Camp" three years in a row. We also welcome community and corporate groups to experience our customized teambuilding programs. Call us today to schedule your trip to the great indoors at Peak Experiences (804) 897-6800.


text:
DENVER (AP) After months of uncertainty about marijuana and its tax potential, Colorado lawmakers start work Tuesday deciding how to spend pot taxes.
Voters have already decided to spend the first $40 million on school construction, but anything beyond that is up to lawmakers to appropriate.
Estimates vary widely on how much tax money Colorado will receive from recreational marijuana sales, which just started in January. But legislators should have at least $25 million to spend, with the likely winners to be youth drug-prevention programs and efforts to reduce stoned driving.
The legislative Joint Budget Committee meets Tuesday to review a proposal from the governor on spending the money. The governor has said the top priority should be reducing any negative impacts from legalization on children.
KKCO firmly believes in freedom of speech for all and we are happy to provide this forum for the community to share opinions and facts. We ask that commenters keep it clean, keep it truthful, stay on topic and be responsible. Comments left here do not necessarily represent the viewpoint of KKCO 11News.powered by Disqus


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By Dow Jones Newswires' Nisha Gopalan and Isabella Steger
Bank of America Merrill Lynch Asia co-head of mergers & acquisitions Michael Cho has been laid off from the Wall Street bank, according to a person familiar with the situation, in one of the most high profile departures in recent months from investment banks in Asia. Cho was co-head of M&A at Bank of America for Asia excluding Japan, India and Australia.
The other co-head, Zhang Xiuping, is still with the bank and was hired from Deutsche Bank in October 2010 to focus on China. Despite being a source of growth for investment banks, Asia hasn't been immune to layoffs.
The drumbeat of Wall Street layoffs is getting louder.
Our colleagues at Dow Jones Newswires confirmed news that Bank of America is prepping a 3% headcount reduction in its investment banking and capital markets division.
"Like many investment banks, Bank of America's Merrill Lynch division has resumed the regular process of trimming weak performers and cutting staff when shifting market dynamics and customer demand leave banks with too much staff. That practice was put on the back burner during the financial markets meltdown."
Layoffs at Morgan Stanley may be announced this month and could claim 1,500 to 1,800 jobs, or about 3% to 4% of its work force, according to a person familiar with the investment bank's plans. Morgan Stanley CEO John Mack (Associated Press) Job cuts on Wall Street are as common now as big bonuses used […]
Deal Journal is an up-to-the-minute take on the deals and deal makers that shape the landscape of Wall Street, including mergers and acquisitions, capital-raising, private equity and bankruptcy. In short, wherever money changes hands. Deal Journal is updated throughout each trading day with exclusive commentary, analysis, data, news flashes and profiles. The Wall Street Journal's David Benoit is the lead writer, with contributions from other Journal reporters and editors. Send news items, comments and questions to email@example.com.
In Asia, Deal Journal writers include Isabella Steger in Hong Kong and Gillian Tan in Sydney. They can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.com and email@example.com
Dealpolitik is Ronald Barusch's strategic look at deals currently making the headlines as well as the major forces at work in the deal-making world. He was a M&A lawyer with Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom for over 30 years. He retired in 2010 after 25 years as a partner at the firm. Click here for his current and archived columns.
Content engaging our readers now, with additional prominence accorded if the story is rapidly gaining attention. Our WSJ algorithm comprises 30% page views, 20% Facebook, 20% Twitter, 20% email shares and 10% comments.


text:
Monson: Don't blame Riley Nelson for BYU's woes, blame Bronco
BYU football has had many stories within its story this season, but one at the forefront is this: The Curious Case of Riley Nelson.
In Nelson, BYU has a student-athlete who demonstrates many of the admirable qualities it would want in a high-profile player. He's tough, plucky, a leader, a seemingly decent young man who likely will go on to great success in life. He's made the most of his talents as a Cougar quarterback. There's only one problem: He never should have played the position at BYU.
He's not good enough.
He's tough enough. He's plucky enough. He has enough leadership. He's a decent enough man. He's fulfilled his potential. But, in all his determination to make the most of himself and to get and keep the job, he's left a hole at the single position where BYU cannot have a hole. It doesn't matter how good its defense is, how talented its wide receivers are, how promising its young running back is.
Without the right trigger, the BYU offense seizes up like an engine with sludge in its fuel line.
And BYU coaches should have known that. They can't just get by with grit and determination at quarterback. And, yet, that's what they tried to do.
It's not Nelson's fault he's been a weak link. It's a credit to him that he's tried so hard and overcome so much. He threw for 335 yards against San Jose State on Saturday night, and gave as much effort as could ever be expected of any QB. But BYU's stalled drives in the red zone, its mistakes, some of them committed by Nelson, including turnovers and missed open receivers, could have been prevented by one bit of coaching insight.
Nelson should have been playing safety.
I know, Nelson didn't want to play safety. He wanted to fulfill his dream of playing QB at QBU. But Bronco Mendenhall should have known better, should have recognized the fact that the Cougars couldn't win "at a higher level" with a marginal talent at quarterback. Instead, he rewarded Nelson's grit with more encouragement and playing time, as though he were a fullback or linebacker.
Mendenhall hooked his fate and even worse, the fate of his team to an unsuitable player. And the Cougars are paying for it now, at 6-5. As Nelson overthrew open receivers late in that tight game at Spartan Stadium, maybe Mendenhall was thinking about that. But I doubt it.
Not only was his quarterback a notch below what was needed, he was injured, too. Still, Mendenhall stayed with him because, as the coach said it, "He gave us a chance to win the game."
He also gave the Cougars a chance to lose it, which is precisely what happened. Again.
Having interviewed past Cougar quarterback greats, they've detailed what it takes to properly play the position at BYU: an accurate arm, good decision making, toughness, the willingness to take on the mantle. But it's bigger than just that. BYU's quarterback gives energy and hope to the entire team.
Remember the days when the Cougars came out flat in a game against a good opponent, and, as they fell behind, everyone knew they still had a good shot because they had a quarterback who could bring them back?
Seems like a long time ago.
No matter how diligent and tough and admirable a player might be, it doesn't work if receivers streaking toward the end zone are missed by five yards.
Nelson seems a great guy and he'll probably have a great life. But we're talking football here. That future success won't bring back victories BYU could and should have had in 2012. Put an average good quarterback from the Cougars' past on this particular team, with these receivers and that defense, and consider what BYU's record might have been.
It's not Nelson's fault. He did everything he could.
The blame is on the coaches, who are supposed to be experts at their profession. They blew this call and they'll continue having blown it, even as Nelson moves on to great promise in whatever profession he chooses to pursue outside of football.
Gordon Monson hosts "The Big Show" weekdays from 3-7 p.m. on 1280 AM/97.5 FM The Zone. Twitter: @GordonMonson.


text:
Gabby: "For Some Reason I Kept Screaming, 'I'm Gonna Get A Car!'"
Moments after her Oscar nomination was announced, Gabourey Sidibe was on GMA gushing about her fellow nominees and what she'll wear, even though her mom told her to, "act like a serious 26-year-old today, not like a teeny bopper." »


text:
Concise Beam is an easy to use program for the design of precast concrete beams. Concise Beam will perform a load analysis and design checks in accordance with the latest edition of ACI 318, CSA A23.3 & S6, AS3600, or NZ3101.1. Key code parameters can be customized to simulate other design codes.
LRFD Prestressed Beam is a program that designs simple span prestressed beams such as Florida-I, AASHTO, Florida Bulb-T, Florida-U, Florida Double-T, Flat Slab, Inverted-T) in accordance with the AASHTO LRFD Bridge Specification that you use for your project
This software program provides complete analysis of deflection and stresses caused by direct forces on simply supported beams. Its intuitive interface enables immediate productivity, while more advanced features allow great flexibility in problem definition.
ProSteel 5's options include design and checking of simply supported beams, column design and checking, analysis of openings in beam webs and simple connection design.
Key features
- Steel beam design and checking to BS5950-1:2000
- Column design and checking to BS5950-1:2000
RISAMasonry offers a complete answer for analysis and design of masonry construction. RISAMasonry designs masonry walls, columns and beams (lintels) to the latest codes and includes a library of masonry units. The program addresses the working stress design of beams, columns and both in-plane and out-of-plane walls. The program designs slender walls using the iterative strength design method.
StruCalc is the next generation of structural analysis software. The intuitive interface combined with the power to design multiple span members using steel, wood, flitch beams or manufactured lumber propels StruCalc ahead of the competition. It has a fully customizable database.
With the SuperBeam software you can check or design steel and timber beams in minutes, saving you time and money. Features:
Steel beam design and checking to BS449
Timber and flitch beam design and checking to BS5268
Column design and checking to BS449, with simple base plate sizing
Checking of timber posts and studs to BS5268
ShapeDesigner is a useful tool for structural engineers, for the design or analysis of steel, aluminum, and polymeric or composite materials sections. ShapeDesigner calculates the stress distribution including normal, warping and shear stresses, the equivalent Von-Mise, principal and residual stresses.
Concrete Beam Design designs one-way flexural members, including beams, one-way slabs and joists. This concrete design software goes beyond typical concrete beam design programs and includes beam dimensions, bar sizes, quantities, development lengths, cut off locations, stirrup spacing, deflection checks, capacity diagrams and more.
QRod is a free program for the design and prediction of the performance of Sucker Rod Beam Pumping Installations. QRod's objective is to help the beam pumping system designer implement state of the art design technology without getting buried with details.
The IDX Beam Analysis Tool supplies a comprehensive analysis of the deflection and stresses caused by forces on direct single beam devices. The intuitive user interface allows an immediate increase in productivity and the same advanced features for great flexibility in defining the problem.
Wood Beam Sizing is a computer program, designed to handle the basic mathematics for calculating the load, length and positioning of wood beams in wooden houses. You can see all results and calculations and save multiple load combinations for each project.
Mixte is an advanced software application for the analysis and design according το Eurocode 4 of composite road and railway bridges. It is distributed to the European market since 1997 (initial version had French design code) and has been used for the design of hundreds of road and rail bridges.
reZonator is a powerful software tool for designing laser resonators, and calculation the propagation of light beams (as gaussian so as ray vectors) in complex optical systems. The program has a modern user friendly interface so you need no special training to use all of its functions and tools.
The purpose of this program is to support users of data of the CHRIS sensor onboard of the ESA Proba platform. It provides extensions for BEAM, which allow accomplishing the following tasks: Noise reduction: Removes the vertical striping in CHRIS response-corrected images caused by the slit effect and a superposition of high-frequency noise. Cloud screening and more.
T-Beam now integrates the latest Active-X technology in its new release.
The use of floating palettes inside AutoCAD enables the designer to have all the tools needed to create quick and accurate T-Beam layouts at the touch of the mouse. New features have also been added to enable existing architectural layouts to be quickly and easily converted into T-Beam format.
Beam 2D offers a much wider range of formatting options than those available in Beam II. While all Beam II text output was displayed and printed in scientific notation, Beam 2D provides choice between scientific and standard notation with various degrees of user-selected precision.
EngiLab Beam.2D ML 1.20.1104


text:
There's a thoughtful report out from Cicero this week which dovetails as a frank bit of relationship counseling between the financial services and media communities. In an attempt to move the debate on from the mistakes of the past, Changing the conversation - How can retail banks rebuild their reputation? looks at how the vicious cycle of distrust between the two parties can be broken.
First up on the couch are execs from the financial services sector. Understandably virtually everybody thinks the banks have a negative image in the press, but nearly three quarters reckon there is a degree of hysteria in the media's portrayal of the UK retail banking sector and over half believe that UK media coverage does not fairly portray the sector.
One senior banker puts his finger on the dilemma: "To engage effectively with the media requires trust… If you are a banker why would you put yourself at extra risk? I feel there are a lot of good bankers around that had nothing to do with any of the issues that people are really angry about, who have taken a lot of bashing these days, and therefore they are a bit reticent to put themselves out in public." At least a small majority in the FS industry accept they can do more to improve its reputation. 55 per cent believe banks should engage more proactively with the media specifically, acknowledging the need to do more to improve their standing in the press and, by extension, to the wider public as a whole.
If it takes two to tango right now both of the dancing partners are at either ends of the bar: one mouthing off abuse, the other feeling very sorry for itself. Self pity will do nothing to benefit the banks in the long term and, as Cicero conclude, silence is no longer an option for the UK banking sector.


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Quick Tastings – Maltstock 2011
I'm so very tired. It's over a week since I got back from The Netherlands and still I am a broken wreck who looks on the concept of being a 'shell of a man' as being a step up. And what is to blame for this? Maltstock 2011 – the best whisky festival I've been to so far. A gathering of whisky fans from mainly across Europe organised by a group of whisky fans and with the intention of being pretty much the least commercial whisky festival in the world.
The weekend took place at an old Cub Scout lodge in Nijmegen, near the German border, and the plan was simple – turn up, bring whisky, put the whisky on one of the tables provided, share, talk toot and maybe sleep. A few companies had organised tastings, including my employers who had commented "do you want to do a tasting?" when I tried to blag some whiskies from our tasting cupboard to take along for the table, and I ended up showcasing some upcoming releases in the Elements of Islay range. There was also the promise of music and a BBQ, but mainly it was focused around sitting down with a bunch of new friends and drinking, talking and generally contemplating whisky.
I didn't take all that many notes, as I was too busy talking, being tired and generally bewildered by the sheer amount of interesting whisky on offer, but on Saturday afternoon I decided to be 'professional' and get something down on paper. Here's what I tried:
King's Court Choice Tamdhu – A bottling done for the Dutch King's Court Whisky Society at 53.5% and pushed in my general direction by a few of their members. On the nose it was big, with diesel, baked beans, heavy caramel, treacle, lime skins and cheese rind. To taste it was full of spiced orchard fruit, refresher chews and and a rich baked bean savouriness. It lingered long on the finish with a tasty chunk of spicy apple pie. Maybe a bit too much for me, but one that I'd like to try again with a bit of water.
Wasmund's New Make – A new make spirit also pushed at me by the KCWS folks, along with the following aged version, this is a malted barley American new make rather than the usual unmalted grain based fare. On the nose it was very gluey, with wood polish, cinnamon and heavy varnish. To taste it was simpler, with orchard fruit, a meaty richness and some hammy smoke. The fruity flavour becomes less surprising when you realise that the malt was smoked over apple and cherry wood.
Wasmund's Single Malt Whisky – The aged version of the previous whisky, this is only 14 months old so not really whisky yet in the eyes of the SWA. However, it's from the USA where you can call anything made in the correct manner whisky, with the rule being that it's not 'straight' until 2 years old and you have to list the age if it's under 4. I think. They have lots of rules. Anyways, on the nose it was a woodier version of the new make – glue, spice, wood polish and a whole heap of freshly cut timber. To taste it was big and spicy, with lots of wood, more varnish and, strangely, no vanilla. Too much wood for me, but very interesting to see the development.
Laphroaig Cairdeas Ileach 2011 – The one whisky that I tried all weekend that I own, although I haven't opened it yet. Cairdeas is the name Laphroaig give to their yearly Islay Festival bottlings and while I haven't yet made it to the island they offer a few bottles of it to the Friends of Laphroaig through their website – I've fortunately managed to grab a bottle for the last 4 years. I've not opened last year's yet either, but the other two were rather good and from what I've heard this year's is the best of the lot. A nose of smoked fish, Dr Pepper fruit, dry grass and cracked mud. To taste it had sweet smoke, a hint of empty sardine tins and lime pith leading into a sweet wood and wet smoke finish. It's got some of the fruit that I've found in the older bottlings of younger Laphroaig that I've tasted recently through work (the mid-90s 10 year old tasted like lightly smoked passion fruit – a bit of a revelation compared to today's version) but didn't have that much of that on the palate, replacing it with metallic smoked fish and citrus, which is fine by me. These bottles do seem to command silly prices so this one will sit in my collection for a bit, at least until I've opened and finished the 2010 Cairdeas 'Master Edition'…
Aberlour 8 year old, bottled 1970s – One of the things we have at work is a lot of old bottles of whisky. And I mean a lot. One of the first that I noticed while wandering the shelves was the 1970s Aberlour bottlings, packaged in a dumpy square bottle, and having tasted their more recent versions I've been wondering what they were like. This one was one of the 50% releases for the Italian market and according to our site they go for a fairly reasonable £175. I was quite lucky to get a taste of this as it was left out by the guys from Full Proof, who had brought along some of their whiskies to buy by the dram. They wandered to the tasting table and quietly put this and the following whisky down and then wandered off. A few of us saw the arrival and descended on the bottle immediately and as quietly as it appeared it was taken back inside and hidden away. On the nose it had honey & lemon, cinnamon & cloves. To taste there was a light caramel, gentle sherry wood, cream, vanilla and cinnamon. The finish was long with sugar, spice, white grapes and perfumed wood. Not a dram to set the world alight but just one that tasted really nice…
Glen Grant 21 year old, bottled 1970s (maybe 1980s) – This one was left on the table for longer than the Aberlour and picked up mixed reactions. I'm not sure if it's a 70s or 80s bottle because by this time the booze was starting to kick in and I didn't check the back label, which would have told me a bit more (the way that ABV and volume are reported are two of the easiest ways to start dating a bottle, especially between 70s and 80s). While not everyone was keen I rather liked it. The nose had rose Turkish delight, general floral notes, chocolate, cream and star anis. To taste it had butter, more cream, cinnamon, cake batter and a hint of green leaves (drunkenly written down as 'Greensleeves'…).
Burn of Speyside – An interesting dram with an interesting story. Wm Grant's don't like selling their casks in such a way that people can independently bottle it and as such they 'spoon' their whisky – pouring a teaspoon of one of their other malts into each cask that they sell on for blending so that they can't be bottled as single malt, legally having become a blended malt. Each of the combinations from their various distilleries has a different internal name, of which Burnside describes Balvenie spooned with Glenfiddich. So, back in the early 2000s a shipment of casks of Balvenie sunk in the New Waterway and then sat underwater for a bit, with the insurance company writing them off and noone really wanting the expense of getting them back. A Dutch company eventually stepped up to the plate and retrieved them, bottling them and then releasing at a ridiculously low price (~€15). However they made one mistake – they labelled it as being Balvenie with a spoon of Glenfiddich in. Grant's fiercely protect their brands and demanded that the company change their labels immediately. As you can see from the picture (click it to embiggen), they did. With a biro…
On the nose this one was quite fiery, with lots of malt and spice and not a lot of complexity. To taste it was sweet with butter, fruit shortcake and a touch of wax. The finish was spicy with cinnamon, drying woodiness, cream and vanilla. A rather nice little dram going to show that young Balvenie can be nice, although the chance of seeing any appearing from the distillery is probably far fetched.
Gold Cock 12 year old – I rather liked the Hammer Head from the Czech Republic so when I saw that there was another brand from the country I jumped at the chance to try some. The fact that we got about 30 minutes of 'Grab the cock', 'How does the cock taste', 'Have you seen the cock?' and other such 'jokes' out of the name was a drunken bonus. I first picked up their 3 year old blend and was surprised to find it entirely full but with the seal broken. One quick sniff showed me why it hadn't been touched – really not good. This wasn't an auspicious start to my Gold Cock experience but I soldiered on to the 12 year old. On the nose there was oak leaf, caramel, butter and honey. To taste there was cream, syrup, minty menthol, corn flakes, fake butter and sour wood. My overall assessment was 'not quite as bad as you might have initially through, but still pretty awful'. I'll stick with the Hammer Head for now.
Schwarzer Pirat – One distillery I've been trying to find something from for a while is Germany's Blaue Maus. You don't see (m)any of their bottlings in the UK and I've not been so interested as to try importing one, so it was good to be able to try this one from their stable. On the nose there was hot melting plastic, fake butter and sickly caramel. To taste there was plastic, bitter burning plastic fumes, more nasty fake butter and just generally nothing of merit – actively vile. I won't be importing any of Blaue Maus's stuff for now, but I might give another one of their expressions a chance. If someone else tries it first…
Glen Scotia 12 year old, 1980s – Another older bottling that I've been eyeing up at work. Glen Scotia is a distillery that I'm never entirely sure about – I like Springbank's fare in general but Glen Scotia's similar but different style is one that I'm up and down about. On the nose this one had a hint of the farmyard with mulchy grain and smoke, as well as a touch of wax. To taste it had minty menthol, sweet grain, ground granite, sweet apples and custard. The finish was bitter wood overlayed with a bit of cakey pastry. Not bad at all.
Bruichladdich 15 year old, 1970s – Another one from the Full Proof chaps and one that seemed to be left on the table with little notice. I've not tried any older Bruichladdich's and with the imminent (now just passed) 10th anniversary of their reopening of the distillery and release of the Laddie 10 (and hopefully the simplification of their range to manageable levels – it's hard work stocktaking the Bruichladdich shelf at work…so many almost identical bottlings in identical tins) this was a perfect one to end my notetaking on. On the nose it had a weird but winning combination of ham and Turkish delight. To taste it had sweet & sour fruit, coal dust and stone, with a finish of ham and bitter berries. My notes were getting shorter, but this was a rather nice dram to end my conscious whisky appreciation on.
Tickets for next year's Maltstock are already available and I'll certainly be going if I can. I'll just make sure to sleep before I go…
Many thanks to the organisers for an excellent weekend – I've got at least two more posts to write about the weekend when I get some time to sit down and pick over my notebook, and those will barely scratch the surface. Thanks to the lovely people who came to my tasting and didn't point and laugh too much, and to my excellent quiz team, who somehow managed to come second in the uber-geeky quiz: Jason B Standing, Neil Ridley, Ben Ellefson (who works for some random web development company and makes up stuff about traffic cone thieves…) and Menno and Ras (I think – I am rubbish with names) from WhiskyBase – We Heart Master of Speciality WhiskyBase Squad will return… Ben and Neil have got posts up about the weekend and even Ben's is worth reading…
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Posted: September 21st, 2011 under Quick Tastings, Whisky.
Tags: aberlour, balvenie, blaue maus, bruichladdich, glen grant, glen scotia, gold cock, laphroaig, maltstock, schwarzer pirat, tamdhu, wasmunds


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18 Comments on Burqas and Bikinis: Introducing the Concepts Macroproblematic and Microproblematic
It's sort of sad that this is the first time (outside of gchat conversations with you) that I have actually seen this distinction made.
I feel that perhaps the point should be made that people do often engage in macroproblematic behaviour for specifically microproblematic reasons. For example, wearing a burqa because of an honestly held belief that men's sexuality is uncontrollable. In which case I am uncomfortable with the strength of: "No woman's individual choice to don a burqa should ever, ever be up for debate or scrutiny from anyone." Uncomfortable because I would like to debate and scrutinise an opinion that awful.
But aside from that, I agree with this post and am surprised and dismayed few others seem able to make the distinction.
I would also like to point out that, while microproblematic ideas have been observed in a laboratory, macroproblematic ones have not. It's only a theory.
With individual actions that are not microproblematic negatively affecting broader society, I'm surprised you didn't suggest a Pigovian tax.
More seriously, this is the first time I've found a feminist-theory-type thing interesting.
Silly me, I forgot that it's only wrong for heterosexual men to talk about what "no" means. Everyone knows that double standards are only wrong if men hold them.
On the point of there being no male equivalent of lingerie, I can't speak for women, but I've seen billboards with these sorts of images: http://thesindrome.com/fashion/celebrity-fashion-trend-sports-stars-underwear/
They're certainly not for the enjoyment of straight guys, although gay guys probably enjoy them — I don't know, maybe someone else could provide a more informed perspective. Either way, the male models in underwear ads certainly have the kinds of bodies that men are expected to aspire to.
I'd hazard a guess and say that, in general, the sight of a fit male body is sexually appealing to straight women, but most women don't feel comfortable in expressing it overtly, for fear of being thought of as sexually loose or something like that.
Do you think more women would allow themselves to overtly express their enjoyment of a desirable male body if our society were more egalitarian?
I have to say that covering one's entire body, including one's face, seems microproblematic to me in a way that nudity certainly isn't … I'll grant anybody the right to dress any way they want, but when you cover your face, you're effectively preventing yourself from becoming a participant in society in many ways. Face recognition is literally the main way in which we identify each other and by covering your face, you render yourself invisible *as an individual* — this would be problematic even if patriarchy didn't exist. Thoughts, anyone?
I see what you mean here in that they are not just covering their faces but their facial expressions, thus limiting their potential for non-verbal communication. It would be interesting to ask burqa wearers what they do to compensate for this – perhaps they are more explicitly verbal, or rely more on tonality etc, when wearing the burqa? Also interesting would be to ask them if *they* feel more socially isolated when they cover up. Perhaps studies have already been done on these questions? I shall have to do some research…
I realize this is a bit late to the party, but this post really resonates. Reading backwards in the posts, when the terms "microproblematic" and "macroproblematic" were used I knew right away what was meant. And this is a very good explanation.
If anyone has heard of the blue curtains argument, (which is the not at all fancy sounding way I've picked up to describe this) it's essentially this. There is nothing individually wrong with blue curtains, but if all you ever see is blue curtains, it starts to be come suspicious/problematic.
Reading this post was a real "A-ha!" moment. This distinction strikes me as so tremendously and fundamentally useful that I'm kind of surprised that terminology wasn't already available to describe it.
Off the top of my head, it strikes me as very convenient for discussing topics such as the Bechdel test. In the past I've found it a bit tricky to articulate why it's a major problem for films in aggregate to fail the test even if many aren't overly problematic as individual works. This will help, I think.
This was my first thought, too! I was talking about the Bechdel test with my teenage brother and sister and we were all floundering to express just that.
This terminology is pretty clear and concise, though we're still left with the "what do we do about it?" questions that might be more easily answered if we ignore this phenomenon.
Exactly! It's been established that there is nothing inherently wrong with individuals acting in a way that reflects more macroproblematic trends. After accepting that, though, I'm left with the question of "how do we address these macroproblems without criticizing individual people/media/trends that resemble them?" For example, if I am trying to explain to someone unfamiliar to the social justice community the dangers of hypersexualization, how can I do so without first citing a number of small instances that hint at a broader problem without making those instances out to be microproblematic? And, furthermore, how can we treat an individual problem (for argument's sake, an act by one person) that exists because of a fundamental acceptance of a macroproblem without taking away the agency of the actor (thereby treating it like a microproblem when it is, actually a macro).
Maybe I'm approaching this too much in a second-wave manner?
Excellent post, well written, and making us think. In addition to the important broader point you made about issues that may not be issues at the micro level but are issues at the macro level, there is the issue that something as superficial as the choice of "dress" is in fact judged by others. So, the choice of dress is not only about personal taste, but also about chosing what message you want to give out. So because the macro level is a reality, what does this mean for individual choice? How aware are people about the macro message of their individual choice, and how " free" is their choice, given the overwhelming influence of macro issues on that "free" choice?
I heard these terms for the first time a few months ago and finally reading your post I find them appealing and useful to an almost revolutionary degree! Well done. The macro/micro distinction is so helpful and I wish I had been armed with it in so many past conversations. Thanks!
Very well-written article. You explained very well how both the attitude i.e, to tell women to cover-up completely and exposing women's bodies in a hyper-sexy way in media, are problematic. I liked your article so much that I bookmarked it. Now when someone brings up the topic of objectification of women in society and media, I would be sure to refer them to this article.
Thank you for exploring these differences. I have always been torn about accepting feminist arguments because the distinction between micro and macro problems isn't made but when you lay the distinctions out like this everything makes a lot more sense.


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Updated April 12, 2003
Plain Language Association International
The Old Criticism
The New Criticism
[This article is from Volume 5 of The Scribes Journal of
Legal Writing (1994-1995). If you would like a copy
(or copies) of the article, e-mail professor Kimble at firstname.lastname@example.com or write
to him at Thomas Cooley Law School, Box 13038, Lansing MI
48901. Please include your mailing address.]
The price that any movement pays for even modest
success is that critics emerge. Critics can be healthy for a
movement. They can correct error, temper excesses, and prompt the
kind of reflection that deepens understanding. So it's
probably a sign of progress that there is debate about the
movement for plain legal language.
Still, some of the criticism has become stale and
should at last be put to rest. The old criticism is, in essence,
that we either should not or cannot write in plain language:
should not, because it debases the language; and cannot, because
of the overriding demands of precision. I have looked at these
misconceptions elsewhere.(1) So
have other writers.(2) But since
the old misconceptions linger, I'll try to dispel them again
Meanwhile, there's a new criticism that
deserves a longer look. The new criticism is, in essence, that
plain language doesn't matter: its approach to communication
is too narrow, and there is no empirical evidence that it
improves comprehension. These are serious criticisms, and to
explain why they are mistaken will require some exploring.
The old criticism of plain language has come mainly
from within the legal profession. Again, these critics say that
plain-language advocates want baby talk or a drab, simplified
version of English. (I hear it from some of my own colleagues.)
Either that, or the critics argue that the need to express
complex ideas precisely makes plain language impossible.(3)
One last stab at the old criticism:
Plain language has to do with clear and effective
communication -- nothing more or less. It does, though, signify a
new attitude and a fundamental change from past practices.
If anything is anti-literary, drab, and ugly, it is
traditional legal writing -- four centuries of inflation and
obscurity. In his ground-breaking book, David Mellinkoff
describes it as wordy, unclear, pompous, and dull.(4) Lawrence Friedman agrees:
"The fact is that legal writing, as it pours out of
thousands of word-processors, is overblown yet timid,
homogeneous, and swaddled in obscurity. The legal academy is
positively inimical to spare, decent writing." (5) John Lindsey adds that lawbooks
are "the largest body of poorly written literature ever
created by the human race."(6) Of course, the law has had its
share of fine stylists; but it has been overwhelmed by legalese.
And the costs must be enormous.(7)
The heritage of plain English is just the opposite,
as Bryan Garner explains: "It is the language of the King
James Version of the Bible, and it has a long literary tradition
in the so-called Attic style of writing."(8) Plain English is the style of
Abraham Lincoln, and Mark Twain, and Justice Holmes, and George
Orwell, and Winston Churchill, and E.B. White. Plain words are
eternally fresh and fit. More than that, they are capable of
great power and dignity: "And God said, Let there be light:
and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was
As for the notion that plain language is
unsophisticated, once again just the reverse is true. It is much
harder to simplify than to complicate. Anybody can take the
sludge from formbooks, thicken it with a few more provisions, and
leave it at that. Only the best minds and best writers can cut
through. In short, writing simply and directly only looks
easy. It takes skill and work and fair time to compose -- all
part of the lawyer's craft.
The title of a recent law-review article perfectly
captures the stubborn myth that precision is incompatible with
plain (or clear) language: "Should the Main Goal of
Statutory Drafting Be Accuracy or Clarity?"(10) The truth is that drafters
usually do not have to choose between one or the other: "the
instances of actual conflict are much rarer than lawyers often
suppose."(11) What's
more, by aiming for both, the drafter will usually improve
The purposes of legislation are most likely to be
expressed and communicated successfully by the drafter who is
ardently concerned to write clearly and to be intelligible. The
obligation to be intelligible, to convey the intended meaning so
that it is comprehensible and easily understood, . . . requires
the unremitting pursuit of clarity by drafters. Clarity .
. . requires simplicity and precision.
The blind pursuit of precision will inevitably lead to
complexity; and complexity is a definite step along the way to
The blind pursuit of precision will inevitably lead to
complexity; and complexity is a definite step along the way to
Typically, the critics argue their case by offering
definitions of technical terms, like standardized valuation
per person and motor fuel.(13) This argument is not
convincing. Plain-language advocates have said repeatedly that
technical terms and terms of art are sometimes necessary, and
that some legal ideas can be stated only so simply. But technical
terms and terms of art are only a small part of any legal
document -- less than 3% in one study.(14) This hardly puts a damper on
plain language.
Nor is it any real criticism that occasionally a
plain-language version might miss a point or make a mistake. Here
is what the Law Reform Commission of Victoria said about one of
their projects:
If some detail has been missed, it could readily be
included without affecting the style of the plain English
version. It would not be necessary to resort to the convoluted
and repetitious style of the original, nor to introduce the
unnecessary concepts which it contains. Any errors in the plain
English version are the result of difficulties of translation,
particularly difficulties in understanding the original version.
They are not inherent in plain English itself. Ideally, of
course, plain English should not involve a translation. It should
be written from the beginning.(15)
What is the point, after all, of being precise but
unclear? The result is what Robert Benson calls
"unintelligible precision."(16) It makes about as much sense as
precise mud. And besides, this whole debate assumes that
traditional legal writing is precise to begin with -- a dubious
Of course, legal writers must aim for precision.
But plain language is an ally in that cause, not an enemy. Plain
language lays bare the ambiguities and uncertainties and
conflicts that traditional style tends to hide. At the same time,
the process of revising into plain language will often reveal all
kinds of unnecessary detail.(18)
In short, you are bound to improve the substance -- even
difficult substance -- if you give it to someone who is devoted
to being intelligible.
One critic who downplays intelligibility makes
these two revealing statements -- one of them cavalier and the
other one insular:
If [legislative drafters] write a statute that is not
rapidly comprehensible but fulfills the requester's intent,
they have done their job, although they will slow down readers,
which is a trivial consideration.(19)
[L]egislative drafters will get help in advancing
their art from advocates of focusing on accuracy, not from
advocates of focusing on clarity. . . . Also, major help will
come not from academics, who not only are likely to be wedded to
the plain-language school but also have insufficient knowledge of
the exigencies of drafting, but from professional legislative
drafters. It is time for drafters to fill the vacuum into which
the academics have rushed, to take responsibility for developing
their own art.(20)
[L]egislative drafters will get help in advancing
their art from advocates of focusing on accuracy, not from
advocates of focusing on clarity. . . . Also, major help will
come not from academics, who not only are likely to be wedded to
the plain-language school but also have insufficient knowledge of
the exigencies of drafting, but from professional legislative
drafters. It is time for drafters to fill the vacuum into which
the academics have rushed, to take responsibility for developing
their own art.(20)
First of all, many of the academics who support plain language
have done a good deal of legislative drafting.
Second, the vast majority of plain-language
advocates are not academics at all. They are lawyers who draft
legal documents for a living, under pressure. The proof is in the
membership list of Clarity, an international organization that
studies and promotes plain language.(21)
Third, the author -- like many other critics of
plain language -- seems to be unaware of the plain-language
literature and the extent of plain-language activities around the
world. The argument that it can't be done, or done
accurately, is answered by the fact that it is being done, by
people with the will and the skill to do it. Here are some
examples that involve legislative drafting alone (if only more of
them were from the United States!):
Note the last item. What a revolutionary way to
draft major legislation.
The time has passed, you'd think, when
legislative drafters should argue that their only audience -- or
even primary audience -- is the legislator who requests a law or
the judge who may interpret it. What about those who have to read
it because they are directly affected, such as administrators and
professional groups? What about citizens who might wish to read
it because it affects their lives? Do we discount them as merely
secondary or as incapable of delving into such priestly
The better view is expressed by the Parliamentary
Counsel of New South Wales: "The ordinary person of ordinary
intelligence and education [should] have a reasonable expectation
of understanding . . . legislation and of getting the answers to
the questions he or she has. This is of critical
importance."(34) Certainly,
we have to recognize the political and employment realities that
drafters face. Yet we can fairly ask them to be informed and
open-minded and to consider what steps they could take together
to begin changing old attitudes about in-group drafting.
Let me sum up the debate over the old criticism with an
exchange of letters (one of them mine) that appeared not long ago
in the Michigan Bar Journal. (35)
To the Editor:
Andrew Tierman's article [in an earlier issue] was the
most refreshing piece I have read in years. I, as he, believe
that the Plain English Jihad has marched beyond removing archaic
usage to militarily enforcing politically correct "bad
I was dismayed in a recent negotiation when attorneys for a
major company refused to properly use the possessive form of
their own company's name. This dumbing down made the
documents more difficult to understand with no apparent benefit
(except to illiterate document drafters).
English has and will continue to evolve, but it will suffer if
zealots forbid the use of its flavor and precision. I do not look
forward to a day of bland, two-syllable words and five-word
I can't let pass the letter from [X] in the September
issue of the Bar Journal. He sets a new record for
distorting the plain-language movement.
What's discouraging is that we have addressed
these criticisms so many times.
Change is hard -- especially when it has to keep overcoming
myths and misconceptions.
The new criticism of plain language comes mainly from outside
the legal profession. Robyn Penman, from the Communication
Research Institute of Australia, argues that there is no hard
evidence that plain language improves comprehension; that
plain-language advocates tend toward a narrow, text-based
(instead of reader-based) approach to communication; that the
only way to be sure whether readers understand a document is to
test it on the readers; and that plain language will not reduce
litigation because the very essence of law is interpreting
My response to Penman and the new criticism:
You'll notice that in some of these studies the
level of comprehension remained lower than the revisers might
have hoped. That serves to remind us: revising documents is
difficult work involving many variables, there are limits to the
level of comprehension we can expect with legal documents, and we
still have a lot to learn.
But the fact remains that there
is evidence to show that plain language
improves comprehension. What's more, it
is a substantial gain to move from 10%
to 55%, or from 51% to 80%, or even from 50% to 66%. Finally,
what no study can easily measure is motivation -- that is, the
number of readers who don't even try to understand, say, a
traditional mortgage because they can tell in one look that they
don't stand a chance.
The new critics flirt with distortion when they
characterize plain language.
First, they distinguish between a "text-based
approach" to plain language and a "reader-oriented
approach." (50) The
text-based approach, they say, relies merely on language -- words
and sentences. The reader-oriented approach relies on testing
readers to make sure that they understand and can use the
Then the critics make all the old arguments against
text-based guidelines: long sentences can be managed; there can
be good reasons to use the passive voice; shorter does not always
mean clearer; readability formulas are only a rough measuring
device; and so on.(51)
But these are all nonissues. Every reputable book
on plain language recognizes, for instance, the good uses of the
passive voice.(52) The language
guidelines, the ones for words and sentences, are just that --
guidelines, not inflexible rules. And guidelines are not only
useful to writers, but essential to the writing process. All
writers use guidelines, whether they realize it or not -- either
explicit guidelines or ones they have internalized.(53)
The important point is that plain language cannot
be confined to a "text-based approach." In one
breath, the critics seem to acknowledge this;(54) but in another breath, they
speak of "the typical text-based claims of the plain English
movement" and "the basic, text-based tenets of the
plain-language movement." (55) Unfortunately, they are
ignoring the overwhelming weight of the plain-language
It's true, of course, that not every voice in
the choir sounds exactly the same; that some articles and
advocates are more narrowly focused than others; and that casual
observers, including many lawyers, still think of plain language
as all about vocabulary, or getting rid of archaic words and
complex verbiage. It's also true that the very term
"plain language" lends itself to a narrow
interpretation. But that interpretation is not accurate, not if
you listen to the full choir.
Once more: the plain-language movement should not
be identified with one approach as opposed to another. We have
learned from the commentators and researchers, from our own
research, and from our work in rewriting documents. And in any
number of books and articles, we have set out dozens of
guidelines for plain language -- guidelines that range over
planning, design, organization, sentences, words, and testing.(56)
In addition, we recognize that the guidelines may
vary according to the intended readers and how they will use the
document. So for documents that organizations or the larger
public will use, plain language involves -- ideally -- a process
of developing the documents to meet the users' needs.(57)
This is another nonissue. The new critics proclaim
that "[a] proper reader-oriented approach would test the
actual documents on potential readers and modify the documents
accordingly." (58) But
again, the plain-language literature is strongly on the side of
testing.(59) The Document Design
Center has been stressing it for 15 years.(60) The Plain English Campaign, in
England, has also been involved in testing for years.(61)
Now there's more to say about testing documents
than I can say here, and more to know about it than anybody knows
today. It is a field of its own, with a growing literature.(62)
The results of testing will obviously depend on
many variables: the type of test, the complexity of the subject,
the experience and ability of the readers, the skill of the
writer or reviser, and more. And almost by definition, the degree
of improvement on a revised document will depend on how well the
original scores: the higher the results, the less room there is
for improvement. Finally, because there
are limits to the level of
comprehension we can expect with legal documents, our goals must
be reasonable.
Consider, for instance, one study of a complex
document, a disability-income insurance policy. The testers
identified situations in which, according to industry experts,
policyholders regularly misunderstood their benefits. Using
multiple-choice questions about those situations and a
plain-language policy, the testers aimed for a score of at least
70% right on each question -- a goal that readers achieved on six
of ten questions.(63)
After writing most of this article, I tested
before-and-after versions of two documents, a contract and a
statute. The contract has been used by a Michigan state agency
for work done for the agency by independent contractors. I
rewrote it into plain (or plainer) language and checked it for
accuracy with the agency's director. The statute is a South
African statute redrafted as part of a demonstration project for
that country's new Ministry of Justice.
To test both documents for comprehensibility, my
research assistant prepared two sets of multiple-choice
questions, 14 questions for the contract and 21 for the
In the appendix to this article is an example, from
the contract, of a before-and-after provision and a question.
Also included is the script that I read at the beginning of each
test. As you can see, I tried to test for accuracy and for speed.
With the statute, I also asked participants to rate how difficult
they thought the exercise was -- a kind of frustration index.
I tested the contract on 27 members of the agency
staff, most of whom had never used the contract (the few who had,
I split up evenly). I also tested it on 38 second- and third-year
law students. I tested the statute on 43 other law students,
mostly first-year students, who signed up voluntarily after I
posted a notice. Finally, I tested the statute on 24 members of a
law-school staff (an educated public; they averaged three years
of college). For each test, half the readers randomly got the
original version of the document and half got the plain-language
Here are the results -- which you can add to the
others listed earlier:
Overall % of correct answers (accuracy)
Average minutes to answer all questions (speed)
Improvement in accuracy: 45.5%
Improvement in speed: 16.2%
Improvement in accuracy: 23.5%
Improvement in speed: 19.7%
Average rating of difficulty, with 1 = very easy
& 10 = very hard (perceived ease)
Improvement in accuracy: 16.9%
Improvement in speed: 4.7%
Improvement in ease: 41.3%
Improvement in accuracy: 21.4%
Improvement in speed: 8.9%
Improvement in ease: 25.9%
During most of their days, most lawyers are in
their offices -- writing. They write letters to their clients,
letters to other lawyers, memorandums of law, briefs, lawsuit
papers of all kinds (complaints, answers, motions,
interrogatories, requests for admissions), transactional
documents (contracts, wills, trusts, bylaws), and much more.
Obviously, most of these documents cannot be put through rounds
of testing on potential readers.
So what should a lawyer do, sitting there in the
office without the aid of scientific certainty? The lawyer can
still plan the document, that is, still treat it as part of a
process. How? At least think about who will read the document,
what the readers will have to do with it, what their motivation
is, and what knowledge and reading ability they have. Think about
how the document fits into a system of other documents or other
activities. (Does it comply with the statute? Is it consistent
with the client's other forms and policies?) Show the
proposed document to the client and explain the hard parts. Try
to make sure that it carries out the client's wishes. These
process steps may take a few extra minutes or hours or days,
depending on the document, how unusual it is, and how difficult
the subject is.
In any event, the lawyer must at some point think
about design and organization and style. Let's assume that he
or she knows better than to just order up the formbook model.
Let's also assume that he or she has the skill to write in
plain language. What should the lawyer do, sitting there in the
office? Consider the evidence and the indicators.
First, empirical studies show that plain language
improves comprehension. The guidelines that have been developed
through research and experience will improve most legal
documents. We do not have to start over again with every new
Second, traditional style -- legalese -- fails all
the tests and does not communicate, as indicated in 27 pages of
detailed analysis by Robert Benson.(64) Despite the sheer weight and
variety of that evidence, the new critics have rejected it
because it was not based on testing of readers.(65) But which way does it point,
for the lawyer who is making a choice? Would the critics
recommend just settling for formbook models?
Third, additional research shows that readers
prefer plain language over traditional style.(66) Readers prefer it by a wide
margin; they find it substantively more persuasive; and judicial
readers assume, ironically enough, that lawyers who use it come
from more prestigious firms. But this evidence, too, is dismissed
because it does not necessarily prove that readers can better
understand what they prefer.
No doubt readers can be wrong in thinking they
understand something; they can prefer what they might not really
comprehend. But here again, where do you suppose the odds lie? If
readers prefer version A to version B, which is more likely to be
clear and efficient? Which way should a lawyer write?
One other point about preferences. Remember that
some legal documents -- briefs, most lawsuit papers, and even
letters -- are meant to be persuasive documents. They go beyond
conveying information; they are meant to persuade the judge or
the other lawyer or the client that the writer is correct or has
the better argument. For these kinds of documents, readers'
preferences are surely important.
Fourth, just take a look at the daily fare. Go into
any law firm or law library. Go to any file or to any set of
forms, and you will find stuff like this:
Know All Men By These Presents: That Pierce
Corporation ("Pierce"), a Pennsylvania corporation, in
consideration of the sum of $____, and other good and
valuable consideration, received in accordance with the terms of
a certain letter agreement dated April 7, 1993 by and between
Pierce and Blue Avenue Associates, a Pennsylvania limited
partnership, receipt of which Pierce hereby acknowledges, does
hereby remise, release, and forever discharge Blue Avenue
Associates and its successors and assigns of and from all, and
all manner of, actions and causes of action, suits, debts, dues,
accounts, bonds, covenants, contracts, agreements, judgments,
claims, and demands whatsoever in law or equity, arising out of
that certain lease commencing October 1, 1992 by and between
Pierce and Blue Avenue Associates, which, against Blue Avenue
Associates Pierce ever had, now has, or which its successors,
assigns, or any of them, hereafter can, shall, or may have, for
or by reason of any cause, matter or thing whatsoever, arising on
or before the date of this General Release, but reserving all
rights with respect to the return of the security deposit held by
Blue Avenue Associates.
In Witness Whereof, Pierce Corporation, intending
to be legally bound hereby, has executed this General Release on
April 28, 1993.
Know All Men By These Presents: That Pierce
Corporation ("Pierce"), a Pennsylvania corporation, in
consideration of the sum of $____, and other good and
valuable consideration, received in accordance with the terms of
a certain letter agreement dated April 7, 1993 by and between
Pierce and Blue Avenue Associates, a Pennsylvania limited
partnership, receipt of which Pierce hereby acknowledges, does
hereby remise, release, and forever discharge Blue Avenue
Associates and its successors and assigns of and from all, and
all manner of, actions and causes of action, suits, debts, dues,
accounts, bonds, covenants, contracts, agreements, judgments,
claims, and demands whatsoever in law or equity, arising out of
that certain lease commencing October 1, 1992 by and between
Pierce and Blue Avenue Associates, which, against Blue Avenue
Associates Pierce ever had, now has, or which its successors,
assigns, or any of them, hereafter can, shall, or may have, for
or by reason of any cause, matter or thing whatsoever, arising on
or before the date of this General Release, but reserving all
rights with respect to the return of the security deposit held by
Blue Avenue Associates.
In Witness Whereof, Pierce Corporation, intending
to be legally bound hereby, has executed this General Release on
April 28, 1993.
Or go down to the local courthouse and pull a
BE IT REMEMBERED that on the 30th day of March,
1993, came on for hearing before this Honorable Court the motion
of Plaintiff to Supplement XYZ Corporation's Appendix to
Plaintiff's Memorandum of Points and Authorities in Support
of Motion for Summary Judgment, and this Court being of the
opinion that such Motion is well taken and should be granted,
does hereby grant the motion of Plaintiff to Supplement XYZ
Corporation's Appendix to Plaintiff's Memorandum of
Points and Authorities in Support of Motion for Summary Judgment.
BE IT REMEMBERED that on the 30th day of March,
1993, came on for hearing before this Honorable Court the motion
of Plaintiff to Supplement XYZ Corporation's Appendix to
Plaintiff's Memorandum of Points and Authorities in Support
of Motion for Summary Judgment, and this Court being of the
opinion that such Motion is well taken and should be granted,
does hereby grant the motion of Plaintiff to Supplement XYZ
Corporation's Appendix to Plaintiff's Memorandum of
Points and Authorities in Support of Motion for Summary Judgment.
These specimens are ridiculous on their face. And
if you multiply them almost to infinity, you get some idea of
what the plain-language movement is up against.
So that no one misunderstands, let me reemphasize
the value of testing public documents whenever possible. At the
same time, though, most lawyers are not writing major public
documents that can be subjected to testing. So lawyers are left
to their own devices. They must fall back on their skills, on
their training, on their perceptions and judgment, perhaps on an
editor-friend. They have to make choices. And the evidence --
scientific, impressionistic, and everything in between --
strongly indicates that plain language will be better understood
and will save time. It is no guarantee and no panacea. But it is
the clear choice.
The reason for testing documents, of course, is to
identify problems that readers might have in understanding and
using the documents, to point the way toward solutions, and to
provide proof that the final version of the document works.
During the process that leads up to the final version, the value
of testing is mainly negative: it reveals deficiencies. To fix
the deficiencies, you will probably need to follow plain-language
guidelines. At the least, you are unlikely to improve the
document by violating those guidelines.
When the Document Design Center revised a tax form
for the sale of a home, they found that users had the most
trouble filling out three items on the form.(68)
First, this item:
Face amount of any mortgage, note (e.g., second
trust), or other financial instrument on which you will get
periodic payments of principal or interest from this sale (see
Face amount of any mortgage, note (e.g., second
trust), or other financial instrument on which you will get
periodic payments of principal or interest from this sale (see
Users did not know what the word
mortgage referred to -- the amount of
the original loan on the home, or the amount of any loan that the
seller might have made. The revised version:
If you are providing the financing for the buyer of
your former main home, what is the total amount of the loan?
If you are providing the financing for the buyer of
your former main home, what is the total amount of the loan?
This version makes the condition explicit; uses an
active construction ("you are providing") with a short,
concrete subject ("you"); puts the central action in a
verb ("are providing"); puts the most important
information ("total amount of the loan") at the end of
the sentence; and simplifies the vocabulary ("total amount
of the loan" instead of "Face amount of any
mortgage, note (e.g., second trust), or other financial
The second item that caused trouble:
Basis of home sold (see instructions).
Basis of home sold (see instructions).
Users did not understand the technical term
basis, and the instructions did not
begin by specifying the number to start with in making the
calculation. The revised version incorporates a mini-worksheet
into the separate instructions; in other words, it uses a kind of
example or chart. And the worksheet shows users what number to
start with and what numbers to add and subtract; in other words,
it puts the information in a logical sequence.
The third item that caused trouble:
Subtract line 9f from line 8a.
Subtract line 9f from line 8a.
Users didn't know what to do if they had not
needed to fill out line 9f. The revised version includes a
sentence that explains what to do in that case.
All these changes follow plain-language guidelines
or are consistent with them. Even adding detail here and there,
adding words in certain places, is no contradiction. In the end,
using plain language will usually result in a shorter
I don't mean to suggest that every change and
technique in every document will find its precise rationale in a
plain-language guideline. But I do question the new critics when
they say of one of their projects -- the "Capita"
project -- that "[p]lain English was nowhere in
sight" and that their revisions were "not in plain
As they report it, the project involved highly
technical insurance documents. The success of the project
"was due to communication research, design methods, testing,
project planning and successful negotiation." (70) But there is nothing here that
is foreign to plain language. Next: "The factor which
led to the massive improvements in form-filling by Capita agents
[was the use of branching structure, or algorithmic form]."
(71) Neither is that technique
outside the plain-language literature;(72) in fact, the technique appeared
in the literature years ago. (73)
Finally, some language from a page of the new Capita forms:
2 Are there any other policyowners?
[part omitted]
3 Are policyowners:
You decide. Isn't this plain language? (Joint
tenant is a technical term, but insurance agents, the
apparent users, would understand it.)
I give credit to the members of the Communication
Research Institute of Australia for their excellent work, and for
pushing our understanding of communication theory and document
design. I only wish that, instead of denying that their work is
in plain language, they would consider whether they take it for
To put this another way, I challenge anyone to
systematically violate plain-language guidelines and produce
clear legal documents.
We are told that litigation will occur with or
without legalese because the essence of law is in the legal
interpretation of meaning.(75) To
say that, though, is to ignore the unnecessary litigation that
poor legal drafting produces.
In gauging what we can and cannot prevent, we need
to be clear about the difference between vagueness and ambiguity.
The law depends to a large extent on vague terms, like good
cause or reasonable person or gross
negligence. In fact, nearly all terms are vague to some
degree; they will always present some uncertainty at the margins,
some uncertainty about how they might apply to peculiar facts.
(Does highway include the shoulder? and so on,
endlessly.) Ambiguity, on the other hand, presents an either-or
choice, a choice between alternative meanings. Ambiguity is
almost always unintended and almost always a sin, but it's
always preventable.
Consider just one example.(76) The state wanted to revoke the
license of a private investigator who had been convicted of a
felony. The felony did not involve dishonesty or fraud. The
relevant legislation said:
The question was whether "involving dishonesty or
fraud" modified "felony," or just
"misdemeanor." The lawsuit wasted the trial court's
time, the appellate court's time, their staffs' time, and
the government lawyer's time. It could have been easily
avoided by listing the items, or by separating or connecting the
modifying words:
Or, with the same meaning:
Or, with the alternative meaning:
The law reports are littered with cases like this one. And who
knows how many other cases have been settled before trial, or
have been litigated in the trial court but not reported because
they were not appealed? In one study of 500 contract cases, the
investigators concluded that about 25% of those cases revolved
around problems of interpretation and that a good part of the
difficulty was directly traceable to incomplete negotiation or
poor drafting.(77)
What's more, it's not just ambiguity that causes
trouble. David Mellinkoff has cited the volumes of litigation
over such jargon as aforesaid, and/or, herein, and
whereas.(78) Then you
can add the more than 1,100 cases involving the ubiquitous
shall.(79) Then you can
add the cases caused by unnecessary doublets like any
and all; and by not using consistent terms -- the
same word for the same thing; and by not keeping related material
together, which some courts call "deceptive
placement";(80) and by
including so much detail that it becomes almost impossible to
detect inconsistencies. Think of all the cases waiting to happen,
and for no good reason.
Let me end with three comments.
First, we should stop wondering about the value of plain
language. It is, or should be, every bit as accurate and precise
as traditional legal writing. It is clearer -- considerably
clearer. It is usually shorter and faster. It is strongly
preferred by readers. It would greatly improve the image of
lawyers. In short, if lawyers everywhere made it their goal,
"the world would probably change in dramatic ways."(81)
Second, we do need to give more attention to testing major
documents, and not just legal documents. Government and
businesses send out forms, notices, brochures, and bills by the
thousands and hundreds of thousands. Testing a draft costs money.
But even some testing is better than none; some kinds of testing
are not expensive; and whatever testing is done on mass documents
should pay for itself many times over.(82)
So what about testing legislation? Legislative drafters work
under severe constraints, especially time, and further
improvement will depend in part on institutional changes and
support. We can take heart, though, because in a few places
government is starting to see the advantages of testing.(83) Even a very modest program of
spot-testing would have the great virtue of allowing for
The Office [of Parliamentary Counsel, which drafts Australian
legislation] has decided to undertake a document testing program
that would involve testing two documents a year. One document
would represent the standard or average Bill. . . . The other
document would incorporate experiments in plain English.
. . .
Testing the first document would monitor our progress towards
plainer and more useable legislation. Testing the second document
would establish whether techniques that we think improve
readability . . . have the desired effect.(84)
The Office [of Parliamentary Counsel, which drafts Australian
legislation] has decided to undertake a document testing program
that would involve testing two documents a year. One document
would represent the standard or average Bill. . . . The other
document would incorporate experiments in plain English.
. . .
Testing the first document would monitor our progress towards
plainer and more useable legislation. Testing the second document
would establish whether techniques that we think improve
readability . . . have the desired effect.(84)
This is how legislative drafters could tell whether they
really are developing their art -- which is, as far as humanly
possible, to get the law right and also make it clear to those it
Finally, this article has taken up a debate between those who
should be natural allies in the struggle for clearer
communication in the law. The plain-language movement is trying
to budge an entire profession off dead center, after four
centuries. The task is daunting enough without overstating our
differences, straining over definitions, and setting up
unnecessary dichotomies between goals and approaches. We have to
give lawyers something they can use -- when they write
for the public at large, and when they write those hundreds of
thousands of individual documents every day.
Thank you all very much for helping me out with this little
What I will have you do is briefly skim over some legal stuff
and then answer a list of questions. You should answer the
questions by referring back to the legal stuff.
Now, I want you to understand that this is not a test of you.
It's a test of what you are reading. I don't want you to
sign it. It's all anonymous. And you don't all have the
same stuff anyway.
So please, this is not a competition. It's not a race.
Don't worry if some other people finish before you. I'd
like you to read at your own normal reading speed. That's
part of the study. What I'm trying to learn is how long it
takes to use this stuff, reading at a normal pace.
For each question, we'd like you to circle the correct
answer. You'll see that one of the possible answers is a
question mark. You can circle that answer if you think the legal
stuff is unclear or if you're not certain about the
Now, you'll notice that up front here is a clock.
We'll start at a time that is rounded off. [Name the time.]
You start when I say, "Start." I won't say anything
else. When you finish all the questions, look
immediately at the clock. Write down the hour, minutes,
and seconds. The minutes can be hard to see, so my
secretary will be holding up a sign with the minutes. But you
have to get the seconds. [Use an example.] That's all you
have to do. We'll figure how long it took.
When you are finishing, please don't make a big display of
finishing -- don't slam your pencil down; don't shuffle
your papers -- because that may affect other people. Please just
sit quietly and wait until I say we're done.
Also, don't go back and change any answers. When
you're done, you're done.
Remember, don't sign either sheet. The only thing you do
is answer all the questions and then write the exact time you
finished on your answer sheet.
Are there any questions? Okay. Please do your best.
([For the statute only.] When everyone is done, ask:
"Please rate how difficult you think this exercise was. 1 is
very easy. 10 is very hard. Rate between 1 and 10, write that
number down on your answer sheet, and circle it. [Pause.] So you
should have two numbers on your answer sheet: the time you
finished and the level of difficulty.")
3. The CONSULTANT agrees to fully complete the described
assignment and furnish same to the DEPARTMENT by __________
calendar days after notification of Approval, it being fully
understood and agreed by the parties hereto that in the event the
CONSULTANT shall fail to do so as aforesaid, the DEPARTMENT
shall, without the necessity of notice, terminate the services of
said CONSULTANT without incurring any liability for payment for
services submitted after said due date or shall deduct, as a
liquidation of damages, a sum of money equal to one-third of one
percent (1/3 of 1%) per calendar day of the total fee if the
performance of the entire contract is delayed beyond the due
date. Upon written request by the CONSULTANT an extension of time
may be granted by the DEPARTMENT in writing, in the event the
CONSULTANT has not received from the DEPARTMENT proper
information needed to complete the assignment or, in the event
other extenuating circumstances occur, the time may be similarly
extended. It is further agreed that if a liquidation of damages
is imposed pursuant to the aforesaid provisions, any money due
and payable to the DEPARTMENT thereby may be retained out of any
money earned by the CONSULTANT under the terms of this
5. The Due Date for the Work.
The Consultant must complete and deliver the work by _______
calendar days after receiving notice that the Department has
approved this contract. The Consultant may ask in writing for
more time, and the Department may grant it in writing, if
the Consultant does not receive from the Department the
information needed to complete the work; or
there are other extenuating circumstances.
The Consultant must complete and deliver the work by _______
calendar days after receiving notice that the Department has
approved this contract. The Consultant may ask in writing for
more time, and the Department may grant it in writing, if
6. If the Consultant Misses the Due
If the Consultant fails to deliver the work by the due date,
the Department may -- without having to give notice -- choose
either one of the following:
terminate the Consultant's services, and not pay for
services that are submitted after the due date; or
claim liquidated damages of 1/3 of 1% of the total contract
payment for each calendar day late, and subtract this amount from
the total payment.
If the Consultant fails to deliver the work by the due date,
the Department may -- without having to give notice -- choose
either one of the following:
You are the Consultant. Because of circumstances beyond your
control, you will not be able to complete and deliver the work on
time. You have spoken to a Department official over the phone,
and the official has assured you that it is all right for you to
take 10 extra days.
[Note: The contract price -- $1,000 -- was set out in another
part of the contract.]
Reprinted with the permission of Scribes, the
American Society of Writers on Legal Subjects.