24.4.11

Alfred Kahn's memo

Alfred Kahn wrote a celebrated memo on writing with clarity. As described in The New York Times:
Though written long before the Internet age, the memo immediately went viral. It was published verbatim in The Washington Post, which also praised it in an accompanying editorial. It generated a marriage proposal from a Boston Globe columnist, who gushed: “Alfred Kahn, I love you. I know you’re in your late 50s and are married, but let’s run away together.” A Singapore newspaper suggested that Mr. Kahn be awarded a Nobel Prize. A Kansas City newspaper urged him to run for president. And, shortly after the memo’s appearance, he was appointed to the usage panel of the American Heritage Dictionary, a position he held until his death.

Here is the memo in full, spotted at here and here. Spotted via Boing Boing.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

thank you. I have just learned I have been using the word 'hopefully' incorrectly all the time :)

Marc Hamann said...

Don't worry janimo, Kahn's point #9 is entirely correct.