The Foreign Service Journal, November 2016

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | NOVEMBER 2016 19 The department and AFSA should recognize in some way those Foreign Service and Civil Service writers who write with “aliveness, humanity, brevity, clarity and simplicity.” ous business, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have fun with our writing—we’re not obituary writers. Injecting plain English and a little tongue-in-cheek humor into cables and Official-Infor- mals (when appropriate) keeps the writing fresh and alive. Lively writing will make even “serious” subjects more compelling and interesting. As State Department writers, we owe it to our readers—whether the public, foreign governments or other U.S. government officials—to write as clearly as we can. As the French author Stendhal said in 1840, “I see but one rule: to be clear.” Bureaucratese is the opposite of clear writing. And when we are not clear—when our writing bores and confuses people or causes them to stop reading—we do a disservice not only to our readers, but to American interests we proudly work every day to promote. n