In the course of writing some tone of voice guidelines recently, we came across the following passage from Ben Jonson: 

"Language most shows a man: speak that I may see thee. It springs out of the most retired and inmost parts of us, and is the image of the parents of it, the mind. No glass so mirrors a man's form or likeness so true as his speech." 

Which seems to us as good an explanation as any of why good copy is worth paying for:  because people judge you by what you say and how you say it. If you sound intelligent, honest and lively, they'll assume you are. But if all you can come up with is a semi-literate string of vacuous buzz-words, who's going to want to do business with you? 

Kind regards


Alan Paterson
PS Following our last 'le mot juste' newsletter, one of our correspondents was good enough to send on the following letter from the Times:

Sir,
Some years back I dated an American who was a graduate student at the Sorbonne. When in France, he would try to improve his conversation skills by attending American movies with French subtitles.

One, a Western, featured a cavalry officer and his men charging up a hill where the Indians and their chief waited silently. The officer greeted the chief who raised his hand and said: "How!" This was translated in the subtitles as "Enchanté".

ampers&
020 7379 5869
www.wherewordswork.com
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