Notes on transparency
Photo by Wilhelm Gunkel on Unsplash
Euphemism is a rhetorical device a writer uses to allude to something rather than coming right out with it. If we take transparency to be a feature of good journalism and reporting, does that mean euphemism is an enemy of ‘good writing’?
The role of a journalist is to report faithfully. Similarly, in an annual report, it is a responsibility of authors to provide accurate information. A true account of the year’s activities and financial statements should be presented as clearly as possible.
The assumption is that readers (whether they are regulators, internal stakeholders or taxpayers) deserve to have the facts laid out before them. The language used should be in service of this transparency.
Of course, transparency isn’t always called for. Phrases of condolence like ‘I’m sorry for your loss’ are deliberately indirect to smooth over uncomfortable topics like death. When an audience can be assumed to know well enough what is being referred to, a euphemism is a way to communicate meaning gently, without pulling the audience into a traumatic space.
Kennings from old Norse poetry are short naming phrases that function similarly to euphemism. They expand our sense of the object, action or event alluded to. Memorable kennings include ‘whale-road’ for an ocean and ‘voice-bearer’ for a person, and more modern variations like ‘skyscraper’ for a tall building and ‘bookworm’ for an avid reader.
Reflecting on euphemism is to ask ourselves whether the audience will be familiar with what we’re alluding to, or whether we will need to spell it out. Sometimes euphemism is a mechanism for self-protection, allowing us to gloss over things that paint us in a lesser light.
Where our objectives are clarity and transparency, in both the writing and editing process, it’s important to recognise where we are slipping into euphemism: to ask if we are protecting our audience – or ourselves – from a hard truth.
If there is such a thing as ‘good writing’ – or writing that is in aid of transparency – it is probably something close to what Don Watson describes in Death sentence as ‘short sentences, the active voice, nouns and verbs without adjectives and adverbs fending for them: simplicity and directness’.
