What faults, if any, does Orwell's essay contain?
What are the especially positive aspects of his essay?
In the past, have you made some of the same mistakes Orwell points out? If so, which?
(Blog responses here are informal, so write freely.)
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Orwell's essay explains how writers make their writing so fancy. It is quite to understand because the words were scrambled in the esaay. He pointed out how some writers can not accurately depict images in their wring. They lack precision and accuracy. It is off topic and throws readers off point. Orwell porpsed that we need to get straight to the point and stop beating around the bush. There are highly intelligent writers writer essays that is hard to understand and use fancy words to explain their point. It is making them appear more not intelligent to the public because thy can not write.
ReplyDeleteJermaine
I loved this essay. It's one of those pieces that brings me back to reality. I am usually caught up in the frills of writing and don't express or eplain what the "meat and potatoes" of my essay are. I agree with what we is saying we do need to find a way to write with percision without losing the art of writing. I cannot really point of the faults of orwell's essay because my writing is obviously not superior to his, but his points are clear and true. It would be wonderful to be able to understand academic writing or scientific, our society (vague and politically correct as it is) just needs to find a more concise way of expression.
ReplyDeleteMargaux <3
Orwell's essay was great. It goes to show that good writing does not have to have all these elaborate words. Such as the five exaples in the esssay, the reader may not get the point of the writing right away. the reader may have to read over the essay a few times to finally got the point. Im not sayin that its bad to have "expensive" writing, but its nice to find a balance, or get the message across. As for myself i try to "paint a picture" in my essays, i try to be descriptive. -Jonathan Leiva
ReplyDeleteOrwell's essay was actually quite refreshing. While I dont plan on making any serious changes to my writing style it has made me more aware of how you can lose your message in the jumble of 'pretty' words. Orwell's essay contains many of those visuals that draw away from the actual purpose of the sentences. Yet, he points out that he too is guilty of the very things he opposes in the essay. He also used some of the 'pretty' words but not as much as in the examples he gave.
ReplyDeleteThe positive aspects of his essay are that he explains how to write something and avoid all the clutter. He also tells us that the decadence of the English language is reversible. I have said some of the military imagery such as 'shoulder to shoulder', 'brother in arms', etc. I'm also guilty of using a lot of the filler words as well as 'in my opinion' instead of 'I think'.
Overall this essay was an eye opener to how much the english language is changing, and how its so subtle over time that we dont really notice it until someone like orwell points it out.
-Chris MacKenzie
I thought that this essay had many strong points. Orwell brought several different points to my attention. I believe the thoughts about political language were very true. I think that most political speeches are believed by the people because they just have a lot of big, intelligent sounding words in them. In actuality, these speeches true motives are being masked by these kinds of words. Also, I agree with Orwells point about how bad habits are taught to us by tradition. In my past writing or english classes I just wrote the way my teacher told me to. I never questioned their ways because you are told that their way is the correct way.
ReplyDeleteI think this essay was a great look into different aspects or areas of writing. It gave many reasons about how the english language may be diminishing.
-Jenny Welch
I thought the essay was very honest. He presented his opinions and backed them up using past and present examples. The only fault I found in the essay was the “collocations” of “irreducible” words. Orwell continues to mention how useless these “big” words are, yet he uses them throughout his own essay. I really liked when he talked about the Russian government and how they use euphemisms to say things like “I believe in killing off your opponents when you can get good results by doing so”. I do tend to make some of the mistakes orwell mentions, such as use big words to fill up spaces when I don’t know what to say -.- I now know that just because you write all fancy, your essay won’t necessarily be any better.
ReplyDeleteAmi :D
Reading Orwell's essay I realize how writting is now about making everything look pretty and intellengent, with the use of big words, whose meanings do not fit into the sentence, but are used loosing the actual idea of the sentence and the image. I believe Orwell is right about political languange, political figures when making speeches are never clear about what they are saying and use words in a different meaning to mislead you. Also, he talks about "jargon" how depending on what kind of writting, a similiar set of words are used like "phenomenon, element, liquidate" to give the wrtitting a scientific air. He also makes a really strong statement by saying that if the writer really cared about what he is trying to say to his reader he wouldnt confuse them with "pretentious diction" and "incompatable metaphors." I am very guilty of the mistakes Orwell points out, by using words not for their meaning but to fill space, and automatically using the same overused metaphors, too lazy to make my own.
ReplyDeleteOrwell made many good points in the essay. the ones that really stood out to me were the points he made about the use of passive vs active language in politics, the use of words that have no true meaning, over used metaphors, and the overall vauugeness of Modern writing.
ReplyDeleteAt first, i was so caught up with good points and new information that i was rfeceiving from the essay, that i automatically agreed with his total statement. However, after re-reading the essay and paying close attention to the point that he was trying to make, I realized that he really did not prove his point afterall. I believe that each and every peice of writing serves different purposes. Not all writing was made in order for the reader to, at the end of the passage, shake his head in satisfaction and say, "that was a nicely worded passage!" In fact, over descriptive writing can actually take away the purpose of some types of writing. There are alternative motives behind every peice of writing, some authours would like to entertain, while some intend to to directly inform or pass a specific message (or indirectly in the case of political writin. But, even this writing is "good" because it fulfills it's purpose. Orwell never really convinced me with the examples that he gave that the Modern English language has declined. In fact, by re-reading these examples, i was actually convinced of the exact opposite!
-Sade Oyinloye
I understand Orwell’s concern with the evolution of language. I would not state that the English language is decaying, but it is changing. We should be careful not to lose our language as it evolves, though. Today, in our informal use of language (texting, daily conversations) we are excessively brief, yet in our formal use we overuse meaningless words. Both extremes could eventually damage our language as a way of thinking, speaking, or writing.
ReplyDeleteOrwell introduces politics into his essay as a cause/effect of the decay of language. I agree with him on this point. Politics abuses language in order to hide its true intentions, corrupting our thought. Consequently, people abuse language by using preselected expressions to communicate “their” ideas.
This essay was enlightening for me because it illustrated many errors I make while writing. I am a victim of the thesaurus when trying to write long essays; hopefully I will be able to change my old ways and deliver good essays.
At first, I had no interest in Orwells essay. After reading it several times it became more and more interesting. I enjoyed reading Orwells essay and completely agree with what he says. In this essay, Orwell gives examples and shows his reader how some writers use very complicating words and phrases do illustrate their thoughts. The message these writers send out are not clear though. I agree that using simple everyday words can be more successful than more complicating words that the reader may not be familiar with.
ReplyDeleteI do not think I have seen myself make these mistakes because as a writer I feel more comfortable using the everyday words to get my point across than to use a Thesaurus and find the most complicating word to substitute other words.
Manny N
Orwell’s six rules are on point. At work, I write scripts that have to sound conversational, because they are read on live air. I constantly remind myself to cut out the fluff, and be precise; which can be harder than waking up early for class, after an all night booze binge.
ReplyDeleteLike the politicians Orwell’s describes, I’m guilty of writing in private definition. With all the blogging in today’s world, private definition is necessary. It also spawns creativity in our use of words and metaphors.
For example, a friend on Facebook wrote, “f@## U.S Air. I said I’d never fly them again 10 different times. This time I mean it.” I replied with, “next time ask for the gummy bear special, it will make time go by faster than Tecmo Bo Jackson.” What I was really saying is. “You should have tried to get fellatio from one of the stewardess. At least it would make you tired, and you would be able to sleep through the entire flight. They replied with, “they only offer those in first class, and between me and you, we have a full set of teeth haha.” All in reference to the word gummy, the use of private definition allowed us to get our point across, without being vulgar about it.
Raul B
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PBvOxicz-0
I genuinely enjoyed reading Orwell's essay. I found it to be beneficial and highly applicable. Most people, in my opinion, tend to use "pretentious diction" in their writing. This may be to sound more intelligent or simply to fill up just enough space to get that five page paper that an instructor requested. I wouldn't say that Orwell's essay had many faults. If anything, it would be that he is sometimes guilty of the things he tells us not to do in our writing and he does admit to this. I especially liked that he lists a few things that scrupulous writers should always ask themselves, such as, "What am I trying to say? What words will express it?"
ReplyDeleteOf course, I have made some of the mistakes that Orwell points out. This essay does, however, open my eyes to those mistakes. Hopefully I'll do a better job of avoiding them from now on! (even though I'm pretty sure I used a generic metaphor right now -.-)
Dominique Pierin
I completely agree with berry8100. I think this essay should be read by every student going into high school. I have never been a good writer and I have made these mistakes over and over again. I am constantly worried that my writing does not look good. I put my focus on sounding like an intellectual rather than getting my point across.
ReplyDeleteThis essay is gold for every writer. I believe writers write to get their point across. Writing of topics that need to be heard, but we have lost that mindset. Writers are too worried about having a bad image then saying what they need to say. I found myself making countless revisions just because I also have that fear. This essay has brought me back to what’s important to writing. It’s the most meaningful essay I have ever read hands down and I think everyone needs to read it.
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ReplyDeleteAs I read Orwell’s essay it made more and more sense to me. While I do not agree with all his points I do understand exactly where he is coming from. Our language has become “decadent”. Too often people try to sound smart for the sake of hearing the sound of their own voice or purposefully confusing their audience.
ReplyDeletePolitics is a major contributer to the decay of language that Orwell is talking about but I also believe that it is much bigger than that. The problem is that politicians, lawyers, and corporations have created a system in which speaking with all the fluff is seen as being intelligent. Because of this, people emulate that style of speaking and writing so that others will see them as being worthy of their attention too.
Our language is always evolving. At the time that Orwell wrote his essay im-ing, texting, and e-mailing did not exist. That is why the essay does not apply to our more modern uses of language. I believe that his essay is almost perfectly fit to his post-war British audience.
The grand majority of us are guilty of breaking Orwell’s rules at one time or another. I myself have overused the thesaurus and have filled papers with useless words in order to fill word quotas. Because of this essay I hope to correct these problems.
I agree with Orwell's perspective in that some writers tend to think that overusing fancy language will make their essay better. In the
ReplyDeleteI find that I am also an overuser of the end, a well written essay is one that the reader can understand, relate to and enjoy. If the essay is full of extravagant language, or "fluff," the reader cannot easily relate or enjoy the essay.thesaurus. I actually used it to find another word for fancy, (extravagant).
I've read Orwell's essay before in high school in my English 4 class and I thought it was exactly what our teacher kept trying to tell us: that our writing was full of bs, that we kept trying to extend the details instead of really trying to convey the meaning. After reading his essay once again, his ideas are more clear. There were times in his essay where he wrote in ways that he spoke against and I believe he did it one purpose because he was trying to make it easier for the reader to understand where he was coming from. Orwell was trying to connect at our level so we would see our mistakes better than him just explaining what to do and what not to do when it comes to writing.
ReplyDeleteI do admit that I had a lot of times in high school and in my previous writings, I would BS my thoughts JUST to get to the end of the paper instead of really just writing what I wanted without worrying about the word count and number of pages required.
tiffany
Testing.
ReplyDelete--Lisenbee
Orwell's essay was intense. He makes me realize that good writing does not mean using 17-letter words to impress the reader.
ReplyDeleteI use filler words all the time and I'm afraid it takes away from the quality of my essays. I never noticed how much the English language is changing.
My favorite line of the essay is "...it becomes ugly and inaccurate because our thoughts are foolish, but the slovenliness of our language makes it easier
for us to have foolish thoughts." To me, that line is saying that our English suffers because of our thoughts but our thoughts suffer because of the carelessness
of our language. I agree that language and thoughts go hand in hand. For exampe, you can tell if someone is literate just by having a conversation with them.
--Asia Wilson
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ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading Orwell's essay and it allowed me to catch myself from making those very same mistakes he mentioned that people make while writing. In the essay, characteristics of being an effective essay are shown by Orwell not only stating his opinions, but using previous writings as examples. At the same time, I feel that our english is DEFINITELY influenced heavily by politics, but just like EVERYTHING else in the world, language is FOREVER evolving. As people adapt to the advancement of technology, the same happens with language. All in all, I learned a few helpful pointers from reading Orwell's essay, and was much more interesting than I expected.
ReplyDelete-Jonathan Ocampo
George Orwell's essay Politics and the English Language describes the decline in meaning of writings and individual words. He states that over the years many documents, especially political, have been deceiving its readers. By using example of how writers have improperly used phrases and metaphors he demonstrates that the quoted material is just wordy and inelegant. This all holds true; however, I do not believe that language is at a decline but a constant changing. Much like laws, words are subject to change. The only problem is when the words are used incorrectly that causes them to be looked down on. Orwell refers to occasions where politics use meaningless sentences to trick its readers. At these moments one must understand that it is politics, they'll do anything to get in your head. The words are as they are precieved, judgment of the words are based on perspective. If political language was concrete then the United States would be required to write a new constitution ever decade since technology is constantly improving and crimes using the technology are still judged on the same set of rules. Orwell's point is not well supported and his concept of language has minor flaws; on the other hand, he was ahead of his time while writing this essay. Text messaging, the plague of this generation, does make his argument slightly more understanble. To each is own. I use language as I would like. As long as it is understood then there is nothing that cannot be said.
ReplyDeleteAllan Cabral