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Politics And The English Language (2000)

by George Orwell(Favorite Author)

4.34 of 5 Votes: 1

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review 1: Orwell's writing is so clear. He really gets to me.This essay is basically saying (about writing): We should be concrete, keep in mind the meaning of what we're trying to say and find a vivid way of saying it, otherwise we're in our way to becoming mindless drones repeating the same ready-made phrases, making every text bland and vague, devoid of meaning. It also shows the dangerous implications that the misuse of language carries in political discourse.It's really short, insightful, and you can find it online! Read it!PS: I sure am guilty of using pretentious language to dress things up though, I guess we all are. At least we're aware of it(?).
review 2: Mind-opening essay. Simple and concise language. First published in 1946, the issue is still relevant to c... moreurrent context. George Orwell points out the corruption of thoughts and language as the cost of politic immorality. He is offended by the insincerity (the overuse of wordy and pretentious jargon to polish meaningless prose in political speeches) and the laziness (excessive use of ready-made phrases and dying metaphors that are chosen for convenience rather than efficiency) of fashionable writing at his time. For that he suggests the action one can do to rid the ugliness of language, nourish one's thinking process, better one's writing, clarify one's thoughts which are the beginning steps to politic regeneration. Orwell's explanation of the harmful habit leading to ugly writing is what interests me most. He stated that working with words is a risky business. If a writer uses word to start his thinking process, words (jargon, ready-made phrases, worn-out metaphor) will steer him away from what he thinks. Words might define his thought for him and conceal the meaning even to himself. Using words as the guidance of thought, writer is likely to write unconsciously, which then results in vague and meaningless texts. For that Orwell suggests, writer must begin to think wordlessly. He must get his meaning clear by pictures or sensations, before hunting for the right word that evokes perfectly what he means. Only until discovering Orwell's revelatory idea that I am aware of my problem. I've been struggling with writing for so long but oblivious to the harm of letting words alter my mind. I always start my thinking process with words. The result often end up with sloppy texts , which are fabricated by series of words arbitrarily popping up in my mind. In retrospect, my habit must be rooted in my 12 years of common education. Back then, most of my literary works are the act of memorizing and imitating. Furthermore, my cousins were even taught to memorize around 20 essays, with precise punctuation before taking any literature exam. No critical thinking was immersed. No intelligence involves. Certainly, all those pieces of writing are close to trash, and were written merely for the sake of passing the exam. I mustn't blame my weakness on the system, as I still saw many talented friends who endured the same education but still create admired works. Nevertheless, the vast majority of my generation adopts the same habit. We often write unconsciously; the flow of words come rushing in and fill the paper at exactly the required length. We have been used to deprive the act of thinking out of the process of writing at the very young age. We forget, or even have no idea, to let our sensation speak. Therefore, expressing one's thought and one's feeling clearly are a far foreign term to many individuals. less

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