My Hard English HomeWork #1

Politics and the English Language
by George Orwell

1.) Whats the main idea?
- The author makes it very clear that the use of the English language is degrading and it would be hard to stop something that is bound to happen.

2.) To what does he compare our use of English language? What analogy does he use?
- The author compares our use of the English language to "a man who drinks because he feels himself a failure, and then fail all the more because he drinks". The explanation being that the language is slovenly due to our foolishness but the sloppiness makes it easier for our minds to be foolish.

3.) Sight the ways by which the English language is defiled/violated.
- The author sighted two common mistakes from the five example readings he chose. These were staleness of imagery and lack of position wherein the writer cannot express his/her ideas or he/she says something else.
-Asides from those two, he sights an error in using wrongly using metaphors due to the lack of understanding what they truly mean.
-Another common mistake that he states is the use of pretentious diction. He explains that the use of Greek, Latin, Russian, German or French usually can be replaced by simple English or Anglo-Saxon terms.
-He sights that it is a mistake to use meaningless words. He compares two critiques on the work of a Mr. X. The first of the two is plain and simple while the second was needlessly long due to the use of meaningless words. The author states another example by translating a very simple verse from Ecclesiastes showing that there is a big difference from good old English to Modern English. It ends up twice as long and does not explain much to the reader at least not as much as the original text. The comparison was very funny and most definitely made very curious to the point that I pondered if todays writers actually take this into account.
-Close to the end of the author's write-up, he emphasizes that the use of double negatives is one of the worst things that you can do to "murder" the English language.

4.) The bad use of the English language is clearly seen in today's political writing. How does the author prove this statement?
-The author states that English prose and political writing have a common problem and that would be the staleness in imagery and the lack of precision. Where the writer "either has a meaning and cannot express it, or he/she inadvertently says something else, or he/she is almost indifferent as to whether his/her words mean anything or not.

5.) What are the authors recommendations in the proper use of the language?
-The author tips his readers on how to write properly if "instinct fails"
(i) Never use a metaphor, simile or other figures of speech which you are use to seeing in print
(ii) Never use 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 when 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 that say anything barbarous