The Penguin Guide to Plain English

mere choice o f words. Later on in the book we shall have to return to

consider the contexts in which errors abound, w ith an eye on m ore
complex problems o f sentence structure and syntax.

Reasoning
cause, reason, reasonably
N owhere is it m ore necessary to select w ords carefully than in dealing
w ith matters o f cause and effect. In this respect a current bad habit is the
careless use of the w ord reason. In the contexts w ith w hich w e are
concerned reason is best used o f hum an motivation. If a m an is hurrying
to catch a train, the reason for his haste may be that he wants to be
hom e in time for dinner. If he meets an old friend w ho detains him , that
is not the reason w hy he misses the train, it is the cause o f his missing
it. Thus w hen w e read: Acne is on the increase among w om en . . . The
reason is thought to be stress, we recognize that this should be: the
cause is thought to be stress. The error is a com m on one.
The common reason for money to go unclaimed is shareholders failing to
inform registrars of change of address . . . Another reason is cheques,
delivered to the wrong address, lapsing because they are not cashed within
six months.
This gives us two causes, not reasons. In correcting the passage it w ould
be far better, as so often is the case, to base the w ording neither on the
noun reason nor on the noun cause but on use o f the w ord because:
Money often goes unclaimed because shareholders fail to inform regis
trars of change o f address . . . It also may go unclaimed because cheques
are delivered to the w rong address, are not cashed w ithin six m onths and
so lapse.
The companys difficulties were due to no other reason than inefficiency.
Similarly this w ould better be: Inefficiency was the sole cause o f the
com panys difficulties.
If reason is a w ord that over-use has weakened, even m ore so is the
w ord reasonably. It is one o f those adverbs w hich we throw about in
conversation w ith little sense of precision. If we were m ore disciplined
in our choice o f w ords we should recall that the distinction between
what is reasonable and w hat is unreasonable is a crucial one. But