11/8 Eng 107 :Orwell's Politics and the English Language

We were supposed to read this essay last week, it is about Orwell and how he believes that the english language is hurt because of the way we write. He gives us five rules to go by which are :

(i) Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.

(ii) Never us a long word where a short one will do.

(iii) If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.

(iv) Never use the passive where you can use the active.

(v) Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.

(vi) Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.

He goes about this essay explaining these rules and examples of them and how and why we should follow them, he also tells us what we should try to avoid such as being cliche, using big words when little ones are fine, and don't use dead phrases. The essay was pretty hard to read because of the way he writes, it can be confusing if you're not used to reading texts like that. It was also a pretty lengthy essay but overall it was good and well written and a lot of the things he says and the rules he has are good ones to go by.

I also thought it was pretty cool when he said we don't always have to use big words and simple ones will do. That just reminded me of when I was still getting ready for SAT's and the teacher telling us that if we can use a simple word instead of a big one, then do it. So I thought that was pretty cool :]