Preview

How Does George Orwell Criticize The English Language

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
923 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
How Does George Orwell Criticize The English Language
Writing is an important skill, as it is used by everyone in order to communicate. Some forms of communication, such as advertisements and the newspaper, are written to draw attention to and explain a subject. Other forms can be written to express feelings or thoughts on a day-to-day basis. George Orwell wrote Politics and the English Language, which criticizes the English language. Orwell used this book to express his feelings about language, and he included ways to improve the English language, including both speaking and writing. Writing has become a huge part of society today from social media to regular day-to-day communication, but social media portrays a foolish side of writing, and newspaper illustrates skillful writing. Newspaper …show more content…
A tweet is short, and because no one reads over it, it can come across as slovenly or lackadaisical. Someone critically looking over him or her writing can be very beneficial. An article by Sharon Jayson talked about red ink having a “negative impact,” and it is unfortunate that society has become so prone to thinking they are the best that they will not take criticism (Jayson 1). It is important to have marks on a paper and know how to accept criticism. “Criticism from others can be difficult to take,” but accepting it is crucial to success (Henry). “I basically rely on being wrong at times so that people who are smarter than me can show me how I am wrong and how I can improve my understanding,” and having an attitude like this is important because it means this person knows how to accept criticism and thrives off of it (On the Importance of (Constructive) Criticism). If everyone was able to thrive off of criticism, writing and social media would be better off. Sure, it may be hard to proofread every tweet, but the revision is needed in order to become a better writer. As a community, it is important to learn how to take criticism in order to improve and learn how to use English correctly. …show more content…
“Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print. Never use a long word where a short one will do. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out. Never use the passive where you can use the active. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent,” this quote shows the ways to writing can be abused because it is important to keep sentences as simple as possible (Orwell 7). Orwell is correct when he says active words should be used, rather than passive words. Active words emit more excitement and action than the passive alternative. It is vital to use this information from Orwell because simple sentences are important to use instead of complex sentences. Even though the people in today’s society try to sound smarter with complex sentences, the reader can get lost very easily and lose interest. Orwell presented five, outdated points that will improve the English

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    George Orwell’s essay “Politics and the English Language” written in 1946 discusses how language can be used to obscure what one is saying. Orwell states that language can be snow obscuring details (2). He talks of how politicians use this to their advantage when trying to win the public's opinion. Some twenty years this is exemplified by the US’s involvement in Veitnam. The famous statement “We had to destroy the village in order to save” is what Orwell was describing in his essay. Although the origin and authenticity of this statement is often challenged it does does summarize the U.S.’s stance on the Veitnam war; meaning the use of deception through media, and the disregard of Vietnamese civilians wellbeing.…

    • 612 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    A major theme for both of Orwell’s works is the idea that people, ignorantly, don’t care about what they say or think, and then because they don’t have minds of their own they are easier to manipulate. In his Politics and the English Language, Orwell says how people don’t think about what they are writing and how they have no control over their own mind as ready-made phrases fill their paper and their mind. Then in 1984, Orwell takes this idea a step further showing how easy a civilization of thoughtless ignorance can become one of mindless devotion towards the government. In the book the characters lose their sense family ties, lose sense of time, they lose emotions, they lose their individuality, they lose their ability to remember the past,…

    • 155 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    a. If you get rid of them, you will be able to think more clearly…

    • 969 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Writing has always been one of the most crucial aspects of a person’s daily life simply because it is everywhere. As a few examples, it is present when sending a letter, writing an email, posting on social media, publishing research documents, generating a code, etc. Yet, despite the unique goal a specific written piece might have, in general, it has the purpose of communicating something, an idea, to someone else, an audience. Therefore, how well something is written should be assessed as a matter of its effectiveness to communicate clearly its core idea.…

    • 679 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    As it is mentioned in the beginning of "Politics and the English language " that "George Orwell (1903-1950), one of the most brilliant social critics of the twentieth century...", Orwell states that English Language is losing its identity. He illustrates six solutions to improve language and the language usage for explanation is manipulative. In "Politics and The English Language", George Orwell is trying to tackle the issue of English Language decline due to bad language usage, but the six solution that Orwell stated are being broken by him that weakens his argument on English Language destruction that leads an individual to have sense of manipulation.…

    • 422 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    George Orwell wrote “Politics and the English language”, in his essay he talks a lot about how nowadays in his time the writers and politicians use really long and complicated ways and words of saying things he even called the language of his time “ ugly and inaccurate”, when really they should just be short and straight to the point. His argument made so much sense that’s just so understandable.…

    • 226 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Language plays an important role for political debates and government decisions. Information is often misrepresented to gain the favor of the populous. This is evident in Orwell’s writing and in the “Hackvists” documentary, often during the course of Knappenberger’s documentary it is shown that euphemisms can greatly mislead and disrupt events in society. Orwell expresses similar views on the topic of euphemisms. In his writings Orwell conveys that a government's ability to abuse power for gain is completely unjust, this coincides with the hacktivist point of view on freedom of speech and oppression. The theme of censorship is commonly seen in the film, in relation to Orwell, he describes that the withholding of information can only lead to…

    • 912 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Orwell Questions

    • 253 Words
    • 2 Pages

    1. In the opening two paragraphs, what general attitude does Orwell identify as an impediment to the improvement of language usage?…

    • 253 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    My first point is the fact that Orwell admits to using the same bad language that he writes about! In the essay Politics and the English Language George Orwell says, and I quote, “Look back through this essay, and for certain you will find that I have again and again committed the very faults I am protesting against.” Now this sounds just like a high school girl if you ask me. They argue a point, argue it again, and then apologize and admit to being hypocritical. Some people out there will say that even though Orwell was a hypocrite, he was very qualified to write this paper. I agree with you on that. He was very, and I mean VERY, qualified to write this essay but that alone does not make hypocrisy okay. That’s just like saying that its right for the KKK to lynch black people and then write a book about how people should be…

    • 657 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    George Orwell demonstrated how writers and politicians use euphemisms, doublespeak, and other misconceptions to mislead their audience and hide their real agenda; he exposed politicians in his times and predicted future trends and practices in the English language usage. He expected the English language to deteriorate and individual thoughts and expression to be limited. His goal was to make people understand this practice and see through public speeches and political writings in an effort to reach the underlying truth and make individuals aware of the danger. Orwell wanted public readers and listeners to realize how politicians can change an ugly thing such as killing into a harmless action. Politicians use language that is vague and lacks precision and detail in order to mislead the public. They rely heavily on euphemisms to make negative things seem positive, the unpleasant look attractive, and the bad turn into good. They use long meaningless sentences to conceal the truth and manipulate the reaction of the people to certain events or actions. Politicians shape ideas and limit thinking; they tell lies and use imprecise wording. Orwell's message connects with politics in the English language beyond his days. There are several examples of these deceptive techniques used today; things that would make George Orwell turn in his grave.…

    • 979 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    George Orwell conveys his thoughts and feelings to the reader in many numbers of ways.…

    • 642 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In Paragraph 12, Orwell uses a similie to compare someone "choking" to "tea leaves blocking a sink", which shows how the author knows what he wants to say, but sometimes he has too many "stale phrases" in his head. In paragraph 15, Orwell uses a similie to compare "a mass of Latin words fall upon the facts" to "soft snow", which blurs the outlines, and covers up the details. In paragraph 16, Orwell compares "his words" to "cavalry horses answering the bugle", which create an analogy that is effective because both words and cavalry horses are powerful.…

    • 520 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    How does George Orwell convey his thoughts and feelings to the reader? In your answer, refer to the language he use and the tone created.…

    • 410 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    What is considered an effective composition? Is it the one that explains its ideas more clearly than the others? In order to have a clear and effective composition, the writer must make an appropriate use of genre. Genre provides the composition with style, design, appeal and approach towards the audience. In “Politics and the English language”, George Orwell managed to fulfill his purpose by making use of the different conventions of the composition’s genre.…

    • 1863 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    American Fat

    • 654 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In George Orwell’s passage, his tone was more critical and serious and his style was specific and formal. In his writing he used many references and details to support his ideas in the passage. He wrote about how the English language has progressively gotten worse because of people using too many sophisticated words in order to sound smart, but resulting in losing the meaning in what they are trying to say. In order to prove his point by researching passages that are guilty of using unnecessary words. For example, on page 541 he stated, “These five passages have not been picked out because they are especially bad – I could have quoted far worse if I had chosen – but because they illustrate various of the mental vices from which we now suffer. They are a little below average, but are fairly representative samples. I number them so that I can refer back to them when necessary:” This shows the amount of research he did and the amount of thought process put into his work. In addition, he separates his passage into and organized list of topics that are commonly used wrong in the English language such as Dying Metaphors, Operations or Verbal False Limbs, Pretentious Diction, and Meaningless Words. This shows he organized his thoughts to clearly get his point across to his readers in a well written passage. All of these examples show that…

    • 654 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays