Language lessons 1

Gary Day rightly takes people to task for bastardising English but he unfairly tars all managers with the same brush (Why I, THES , October 11). Linguistic excesses are every bit as likely to be committed by lecturers.

Academics have a penchant for shrouding their profession in mystery. How better to achieve this than to use language that few will understand and even fewer will have the courage to challenge for fear of sounding ignorant. If more of us were like the child in the Emperor's New Clothes , we might stem the tide of gobbledygook.

Robert Leyland
Stockport