The Penguin Guide to Plain English

Giles Turner held the lead on Mavis Davis, before Geoff Glazzard dislodged
him with a deceptively fast round on his first ride, Hello Oscar.
Are we really to believe that Hello Oscar appeared to be running fast but
that this was a trompe loeil and he was really taking his time? Clearly the
construction m ust be changed. One can hardly substitute dislodged him
w ith a deceptively leisurely ro u n d . It w ould not be very neat to substitute
dislodged him w ith a round m uch faster than it seemed, but that is
probably the best we can do.
A comparable kind o f misuse threatens the w ord availability. It too
is in danger o f suffering reversal o f meaning.
A real concern of AA members is the high cost of petrol, and its availability
as rural petrol stations struggle to stay open.
Clearly the availability o f petrol can never be a concern. It is the lack o f
petrol or the possible unavailability of petrol that is or m ight be a matter
of concern. A real concern of AA m embers is the high cost o f petrol,
and the doubt w hether it will continue to be available as rural petrol
stations struggle to stay open.
help, improve
There is sometimes near-reversal o f meaning in the use o f w ords for
im proving, curing or helping. Here are two instances from magazines
on the subject o f restoring hair. The first is a caption:
Hair-raising electrichogenesis, a process to help baldness, being launched
at Manor House Hospital in North London.
The question arises w hether helping baldness is the same thing as helping
the m an w ho is bald. Clearly the need is to get rid o f baldness, w hich
sounds as though it ought to be the opposite o f helping it. The passage
should read: a process to help to cure baldness. The second example
seems to represent the same error:
However, increasing intake of iron itself and vitamin C to aid iron absorption
often fails to improve hair loss . . .
Again the question is w hether to improve hair loss is the same thing as
to improve the hair. A loss is not something that needs to be im proved,
but to be repaired. So the sentence should end: often fails to repair the
loss o f hair.