Friday, March 24, 2017

SIMPLY: KEEP OUT




“Due to the size of the equipment, the gate will be removed along with a small section of fence. Heavy gauge safety fencing will be installed during this period of time and, for safety purposes, it is asked that all residents and personnel outside of the contractors refrain from accessing the pool deck during this time… …We will keep you posted as timelines and other updates are received…”


The above two sentences were part of an email sent yesterday to our association homeowners by the community management. It made me give a mental tsk, tsk. It brought out the curmudgeon in me, ready to write a blog post. When I copied and pasted he sentences to a blank Word .doc, the first thing the grammar and usage check didn’t like was “period of time.” That one hadn’t bothered me. What did make me cringe were those last lines. The writer should have kept it simple (K.I.S.S.) and written “we ask everyone but the contractors to keep out of the pool area until further notice.”

When presented with contrived, stilted writing, and we seem to get more and more of it lately, my mind begins to skim the text, noting what I need to know, eager to get to the end and find the X to delete the whole thing. 




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