This article in The New York Times on “how JPMorgan Chase got into the mess of the London whale trades that dominated the financial news last year” illustrates the real costs of inexact communication.
A key figure in the controversy wrote at the time the following in a memo to “the International Senior Management Group of the Chief Investment Office:
...sell the forward spread and buy protection on the tightening move,... use indices and add to existing position,... go long risk on some belly tranches especially where defaults may realize,... buy protection on HY and Xover in rallies and turn the position over to monetize volatility.”
Gibberish. Yet it was approved, even though “relevant actors and regulators could not understand” it.
This is a reminder to all of us in the publishing trade that good writing is rooted in clear writing! As Strunk and White said in The Elements of Style,
Since writing is communication, clarity can only be a virtue. When you become hopelessly mired in a sentence, it is best to start fresh; do not try to fight your way through against the terrible odds of syntax. Usually what is wrong is that the construction has become too involved at some point; the sentence needs to be broken apart and replaced by two or more shorter sentences.
Muddiness is not merely a disturber of prose, it is also a destroyer of life, of hope: death on the highway caused by a misplaced phrase in a well-intentioned letter, anguish of a traveler expecting to be met at a railroad station and not being met because of a slipshod telegram. Think of the tragedies that are rooted in ambiguity, and be clear! When you say something, make sure you have said it. The chances of your having said it are only fair.
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