The English You Need to Know Book

Though Lasch primarily wrote Plain Style for the University of Rochester's history department, this primer is useful for anyone wishing to understand the political and ideological implications of written style. The foreword, written by Rochester's Stewart Weaver, provides a compelling history of Lasch's "plain style" in his work as a scholar and teacher, while relating the experiences and beliefs that may have led Lasch to write Plain Style in the first place. In his comprehensive and well-reasoned guidelines, Lasch occasionally interjects a passing thought on the words and writing of his surroundings: two-letter postal codes, he writes, "...are bureaucratic innovations designed to surround the postal service with an illusionary air of efficiency"; of Pauline Kael's movie reviews, "... contractions mingle with the aesthetic, therapeutic idiom of jaded urban sophistication." Fascinating. By far the highlight of this book is a hilariously critical (but constructive) letter of feedback Lasch wrote on an especially unintelligible student paper, courtesy of Weaver. It's worth seeking out Plain Style for his frustrated response alone; no quotation would do it justice.