6 ms·

The Armed Forces Officer Chapter Twenty: Writing and Speaking (1950)

KineticLensman 6y ago
(1950). Interesting to compare this with a 2017 equivalent [0] which contains a lot more actionable guidance (written in PowerPoint). A lot of this is relevant in commercial writing, e.g. the use of active voice - which tends to make it clear who has responsibility for things. Important in contracts, etc. [0] https://www.jmu.edu/uwc/tutor-resources/MSL202L15%20Writing%20in%20the%20Army%20Style.pdf https://www.jmu.edu/uwc/tutor-resources/MSL202L15%20Writing%...
- tyingq 6y ago
  The USAF has their "Tongue and Quill" book also: https://static.e-publishing.af.mil/production/1/saf_cn/publication/afh33-337/afh33-337.pdf https://static.e-publishing.af.mil/production/1/saf_cn/publi...
- mattkrause 6y ago
  Much of the advice over active/passive voice misses the mark. Decide what you want to emphasize and choose the form that does so. Consider some of the examples in that deck. "PVT Jones wrecked the HMMWV." That's a good choice if you're describing the (mis)adventures of Private Jones. On the other hand "The HMMWV was wrecked by PVT Jones" might be better if your argument continues with "but the problems with the motor pool started long before the accident."
captain_price7 6y ago
> Men who can command words to serve their thoughts and feelings are well on their way to commanding men to serve their purposes.
- Terretta 6y ago
  > ”Superior qualification in the use of language, both as to the written and the spoken word, is more essential to military leadership than knowledge of the whole technique of weapons handling.”
lailalessdad 6y ago
https://instapage.grsm.io/lailaless8672 https://instapage.grsm.io/lailaless8672
steve76 6y ago
The purpose of battle is to end it and limit the violence. The natural way, as in not swimming against the tide, is to bring civility to martial conflict. Military instruction on writing may be inspirational to people who short change some pursuits of knowledge. It may also be a giant trap, led to lure the naive and adolescents to the land of I Have No Mouth and Must Scream. Please do not turn everything into a special ops mission. The real face of conflict is ugly, human degradation and slow motion suicide that spreads across generations. The article mentions Churchill, who would watch movies with naval officers about Nelson and Raleigh and be moved to tears. School kids today watch movies that would make him vomit or be forever horrified. That's a much better emotion if you are going to led a martial life. RoboCop, or Saw would be better movies to show the officers of the Royal Navy. Something that really creates horrific anger because of sadistic cruelty. Instead of Nelson, may I direct everyone to one Eugene Fluckey, who after winning the Medal of Honor, demanded a return to the Pacific. His officers mandated a psychiatric assessment, which he failed, due to his novel ideas of submarine mounted rocket launchers, bombardments, boarding parties, and shore raiders. Immediately he returned to the fight and went on to build under water launched nuclear missiles. That was close to 100 years ago. With the weaponization of space, on the scale of solar systems, galaxies, maybe even everything, imagine what we can do to each other. Awful. Killing other people is never a good thing. If anything should be censored, it's this, the pursuit of the martial, as in teaching your children how to use fatal combat techniques and intelligence on one another. They get it enough. We have enough of it in the world already.
Nodraak 6y ago
For anyone in Germany (or any country which is blocked by this website), here is the raw html. Save it and open it with your favorite web browser :) http://paste.awesom.eu/Y36k http://paste.awesom.eu/Y36k
- macintux 6y ago
  For anyone like me who was unfamiliar with this restriction: https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180306/03423339363/project-gutenberg-blocks-access-germany-to-all-public-domain-books-because-local-copyright-claim-18-them.shtml https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180306/03423339363/proje...
  - commandlinefan 6y ago
    Thanks for the context - I had assumed that Germany was blocking it because it pertained to the US military.
- folli 6y ago
  Somehow ironic that Germany restricts access to Project Gutenberg, which is named after a famous german.
  - watwut 6y ago
    It is other way round. Gutenberg blocks Germany.
    - vulcan01 6y ago
      This is because Germany wanted Gutenberg to restrict access to most of their collection, which is not in the public domain in Germany. Gutenberg instead decided to block Germany rather than comply with copyright law.
      - watwut 6y ago
        Where do you see most of their collection? Most of Guttenberg collection does not have copyright claim in Germany.
ckozlowski 6y ago
My grandfather gave me some advice when I was in high school. He was a radio and communications engineer from the 1950s to 80s. By the time he retired, he'd worked as a program manager with a staff of hundreds. His advice to me, a budding IT enthusiast and likely heading for a career in such, was simple: "Learn to read and write well. You can't be a good engineer if you can't write well." It was invaluable advice.
gdubs 6y ago
This reads like it’s straight from “The Art of Plain Talk”, 1946. [1] I picked up that book over a decade ago, and it had a big effect on the way I write. There’s a temptation to use big words to sound more professional. Part of it is understanding your audience. But even when speaking to a crowd that can grasp the meaning of fancier language, you risk clouding your message. Feynman understood this. A big part of his brilliance was taking hard ideas and making them simple. My first real introduction to the idea of writing with simple, clear sentences came from Cliff Stoll. People thought the Cuckoo’s Egg was ghostwritten. In Silicon Snake Oil he shared thoughts on what made his writing so enjoyable. What I remember most is simplicity. And short sentences. 1: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1862302.Art_of_Plain_Talk https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1862302.Art_of_Plain_Tal...
LanceH 6y ago
I tried to find where it says, "No officer shall review a document without requesting changes."
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
mcguire 6y ago
I kind of like Chapter Three: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/25482/25482-h/25482-h.htm#CHAPTER_THREE http://www.gutenberg.org/files/25482/25482-h/25482-h.htm#CHA... "There is a common saying in the services, and elsewhere, that greater privileges grow out of larger responsibilities, and that the latter justifies the former. This is part truth and part fable." Actually, this book looks pretty good generally.
jrd259 6y ago
How regrettable that the document has no named author, other than the official sponsor. The advice stands or falls without it, still one would like to know the name of the one who advocated so well for clear writing.
- chipsa 6y ago
  Government pamphlets like this typically don't have one author.
  - animal_spirits 6y ago
    "In 1950, the great Soldier-Statesman George C. Marshall, then serving as the Secretary of Defense, signed a cover page for a new book titled The Armed Forces Officer. That original version of this book was written by none other than S.L.A. Marshall, who later explained that Secretary Marshall had “inspired the undertaking due to his personal conviction that American military officers, of whatever service, should share common ground ethically and morally.” Written at the dawn of the nuclear age and the emergence of the Cold War, it addressed an officer corps tasked with developing a strategy of nuclear deterrence, facing unprecedented deployments, and adapting to the creation of the Department of Defense and other new organizations necessary to manage the threats of a new global order." [0] https://ndupress.ndu.edu/Publications/Books/Armed-Forces-Officer/ https://ndupress.ndu.edu/Publications/Books/Armed-Forces-Off... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.L.A._Marshall https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.L.A._Marshall
animal_spirits 6y ago
A great quote at the beginning of Chapter Eight: Getting Along With People [0] "If you like people, if you seek contact with them rather than hiding yourself in a corner, if you study your fellow men sympathetically, if you try consistently to contribute something to their success and happiness, if you are reasonably generous with your thoughts and your time, if you have a partial reserve with everyone but a seeming reserve with no one, if you work to be interesting rather than spend to be a good fellow, you will get along with your superiors, your subordinates, your orderly, your roommate and the human race." [0] https://www.gutenberg.org/files/25482/25482-h/25482-h.htm#CHAPTER_EIGHT https://www.gutenberg.org/files/25482/25482-h/25482-h.htm#CH...

(1950). Interesting to compare this with a 2017 equivalent [0] which contains a lot more actionable guidance (written in PowerPoint). A lot of this is relevant in commercial writing, e.g. the use of active voice - which tends to make it clear who has responsibility for things. Important in contracts, etc. [0] https://www.jmu.edu/uwc/tutor-resources/MSL202L15%20Writing%20in%20the%20Army%20Style.pdf https://www.jmu.edu/uwc/tutor-resources/MSL202L15%20Writing%...

tyingq 6y ago
The USAF has their "Tongue and Quill" book also: https://static.e-publishing.af.mil/production/1/saf_cn/publication/afh33-337/afh33-337.pdf https://static.e-publishing.af.mil/production/1/saf_cn/publi...
mattkrause 6y ago
Much of the advice over active/passive voice misses the mark. Decide what you want to emphasize and choose the form that does so. Consider some of the examples in that deck. "PVT Jones wrecked the HMMWV." That's a good choice if you're describing the (mis)adventures of Private Jones. On the other hand "The HMMWV was wrecked by PVT Jones" might be better if your argument continues with "but the problems with the motor pool started long before the accident."

captain_price7 6y ago

> Men who can command words to serve their thoughts and feelings are well on their way to commanding men to serve their purposes.

Terretta 6y ago
> ”Superior qualification in the use of language, both as to the written and the spoken word, is more essential to military leadership than knowledge of the whole technique of weapons handling.”

lailalessdad 6y ago

https://instapage.grsm.io/lailaless8672 https://instapage.grsm.io/lailaless8672

steve76 6y ago

The purpose of battle is to end it and limit the violence. The natural way, as in not swimming against the tide, is to bring civility to martial conflict. Military instruction on writing may be inspirational to people who short change some pursuits of knowledge. It may also be a giant trap, led to lure the naive and adolescents to the land of I Have No Mouth and Must Scream. Please do not turn everything into a special ops mission. The real face of conflict is ugly, human degradation and slow motion suicide that spreads across generations. The article mentions Churchill, who would watch movies with naval officers about Nelson and Raleigh and be moved to tears. School kids today watch movies that would make him vomit or be forever horrified. That's a much better emotion if you are going to led a martial life. RoboCop, or Saw would be better movies to show the officers of the Royal Navy. Something that really creates horrific anger because of sadistic cruelty. Instead of Nelson, may I direct everyone to one Eugene Fluckey, who after winning the Medal of Honor, demanded a return to the Pacific. His officers mandated a psychiatric assessment, which he failed, due to his novel ideas of submarine mounted rocket launchers, bombardments, boarding parties, and shore raiders. Immediately he returned to the fight and went on to build under water launched nuclear missiles. That was close to 100 years ago. With the weaponization of space, on the scale of solar systems, galaxies, maybe even everything, imagine what we can do to each other. Awful. Killing other people is never a good thing. If anything should be censored, it's this, the pursuit of the martial, as in teaching your children how to use fatal combat techniques and intelligence on one another. They get it enough. We have enough of it in the world already.

Nodraak 6y ago

For anyone in Germany (or any country which is blocked by this website), here is the raw html. Save it and open it with your favorite web browser :) http://paste.awesom.eu/Y36k http://paste.awesom.eu/Y36k

macintux 6y ago
For anyone like me who was unfamiliar with this restriction: https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180306/03423339363/project-gutenberg-blocks-access-germany-to-all-public-domain-books-because-local-copyright-claim-18-them.shtml https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180306/03423339363/proje...
- commandlinefan 6y ago
  Thanks for the context - I had assumed that Germany was blocking it because it pertained to the US military.
folli 6y ago
Somehow ironic that Germany restricts access to Project Gutenberg, which is named after a famous german.
- watwut 6y ago
  It is other way round. Gutenberg blocks Germany.
  - vulcan01 6y ago
    This is because Germany wanted Gutenberg to restrict access to most of their collection, which is not in the public domain in Germany. Gutenberg instead decided to block Germany rather than comply with copyright law.
    - watwut 6y ago
      Where do you see most of their collection? Most of Guttenberg collection does not have copyright claim in Germany.

ckozlowski 6y ago

My grandfather gave me some advice when I was in high school. He was a radio and communications engineer from the 1950s to 80s. By the time he retired, he'd worked as a program manager with a staff of hundreds. His advice to me, a budding IT enthusiast and likely heading for a career in such, was simple: "Learn to read and write well. You can't be a good engineer if you can't write well." It was invaluable advice.

gdubs 6y ago

This reads like it’s straight from “The Art of Plain Talk”, 1946. [1] I picked up that book over a decade ago, and it had a big effect on the way I write. There’s a temptation to use big words to sound more professional. Part of it is understanding your audience. But even when speaking to a crowd that can grasp the meaning of fancier language, you risk clouding your message. Feynman understood this. A big part of his brilliance was taking hard ideas and making them simple. My first real introduction to the idea of writing with simple, clear sentences came from Cliff Stoll. People thought the Cuckoo’s Egg was ghostwritten. In Silicon Snake Oil he shared thoughts on what made his writing so enjoyable. What I remember most is simplicity. And short sentences. 1: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1862302.Art_of_Plain_Talk https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1862302.Art_of_Plain_Tal...

LanceH 6y ago

I tried to find where it says, "No officer shall review a document without requesting changes."

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

mcguire 6y ago

I kind of like Chapter Three: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/25482/25482-h/25482-h.htm#CHAPTER_THREE http://www.gutenberg.org/files/25482/25482-h/25482-h.htm#CHA... "There is a common saying in the services, and elsewhere, that greater privileges grow out of larger responsibilities, and that the latter justifies the former. This is part truth and part fable." Actually, this book looks pretty good generally.

jrd259 6y ago

How regrettable that the document has no named author, other than the official sponsor. The advice stands or falls without it, still one would like to know the name of the one who advocated so well for clear writing.

chipsa 6y ago
Government pamphlets like this typically don't have one author.
- animal_spirits 6y ago
  "In 1950, the great Soldier-Statesman George C. Marshall, then serving as the Secretary of Defense, signed a cover page for a new book titled The Armed Forces Officer. That original version of this book was written by none other than S.L.A. Marshall, who later explained that Secretary Marshall had “inspired the undertaking due to his personal conviction that American military officers, of whatever service, should share common ground ethically and morally.” Written at the dawn of the nuclear age and the emergence of the Cold War, it addressed an officer corps tasked with developing a strategy of nuclear deterrence, facing unprecedented deployments, and adapting to the creation of the Department of Defense and other new organizations necessary to manage the threats of a new global order." [0] https://ndupress.ndu.edu/Publications/Books/Armed-Forces-Officer/ https://ndupress.ndu.edu/Publications/Books/Armed-Forces-Off... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.L.A._Marshall https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.L.A._Marshall

animal_spirits 6y ago

A great quote at the beginning of Chapter Eight: Getting Along With People [0] "If you like people, if you seek contact with them rather than hiding yourself in a corner, if you study your fellow men sympathetically, if you try consistently to contribute something to their success and happiness, if you are reasonably generous with your thoughts and your time, if you have a partial reserve with everyone but a seeming reserve with no one, if you work to be interesting rather than spend to be a good fellow, you will get along with your superiors, your subordinates, your orderly, your roommate and the human race." [0] https://www.gutenberg.org/files/25482/25482-h/25482-h.htm#CHAPTER_EIGHT https://www.gutenberg.org/files/25482/25482-h/25482-h.htm#CH...