The CIA invites the public to read these two documents: ELEGANT WRITING IN THE CLANDESINE SERVICES ELEGANT WRITING-REPORT NUMBER TWO Both documents purport to be written by Richard T. Puderbaugh. Puderbaugh collects and savors boneheaded writing by spies. The CIA web site calls this kind of writing “tortured prose“. Here’s a passage fromPuderbaugh’s first report: the […]
Tag: spies
Oblique Linguistic Enigmas: deciphering “NOT/NOT”
Languages, it is said, are never static – words, their meaning, their pronunciation and preferred syntax are constantly evolving. But the changes are not restricted to words – punctuation marks too, evolve. Take, for a recent example, an unusual construct from an official US Govt. source – reprinted by the UK Guardian as part of […]