Editing The Complete Plain Words (section)

==1973 revision by Bruce Fraser==
The 1954 text was reprinted seven times during Gowers's lifetime, and he made a number of amendments in the various impressions.<ref name=fraseriii>Gowers (1973), p. iii</ref> Changing times in the 1960s meant that a substantial revision was needed if the book was to continue to fulfil its purpose. Gowers, fully occupied for a decade in making the first revision of Fowler's ''[[Modern English Usage]]'', was unable to carry out the task; he died in 1966, a few months after the publication of the revised Fowler. Another retired senior civil servant, [[Bruce Fraser (civil servant)|Bruce Fraser]], was asked to revise ''The Complete Plain Words''.<ref name=fraseriii/> The new edition, 250 pages long, was published by HMSO at £1, in hardback with black cloth binding and dust-jacket, in the same format as the first edition.<ref>Gowers (1973), dust-jacket ''et passim''</ref>

Fraser preserved Gowers's structure, and added three new chapters, the most important of which was titled "Some recent trends"; it covered the increasing prevalence of informality, and the influences of America, science, technology, economics, business, and personnel management. The final sections of the chapter were on "vogue words" and "modish writing".<ref>Gowers (1973), p. x</ref> Fraser noted that though Gowers had said approvingly in 1954 that the use of the [[Subjunctive mood|subjunctive]] was dying out, it was now, under the influence of American writing, making an unwelcome reappearance in English usage.<ref name=hunt/>

Reviewing the new edition in ''The Times Literary Supplement'', [[David Hunt (diplomat)|David Hunt]] commented of Fraser, "his wit, perhaps a little drier and more Scottish, is equally acute, diverting and instructive".<ref name=hunt>Hunt, David. "The Corridors of Gowers", ''The Times Literary Supplement'', 22 June 1973, p. 719</ref> In ''The Times'', [[Dennis Potter]] said that the book remained "the happiest thing to come out of the Treasury". He praised Fraser for replacing Gowers's dated examples of officialese with modern specimens and updating the text to reflect current trends, but concluded:
{{quote|The core of the book remains Gowers, but I do not think Fraser, for all his desire to be faithful, has been able to keep the urbane, untroubled, effortless grace which made the original so instantly attractive. And, to be fair, the times have made this all but impossible.{{space}}... ''The Complete Plain Words'' in any new version cannot possibly have the same impact as Gowers first had when he reminded administrators that they could best express themselves in a clean and economical prose. But this version, which battles with later jargon and more subtle temptations, a version less sure of the nature of its readership or the mood of the nation, is an honourable and certainly a useful guide.<ref>Potter, Dennis. "Where English is now at", ''The Times'', 5 April 1973, p. 16</ref>|}}

The Fraser edition was reprinted in hardback three times between 1973 and 1983.<ref>Gowers (1973) fourth impression, p. ii</ref> Penguin published a paperback version in the UK in 1973,<ref>[https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/780718977 "The Complete Plain Words"], WorldCat, retrieved 14 April 2014</ref> and in the US in 1975.<ref>[https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/2386478 "The Complete Plain Words"], WorldCat, retrieved 14 April 2014</ref>