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George Orwell on Clarity in Language |
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Politics and the English Language |
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The defence of the English
language
To begin with it has nothing
to do with archaism, with the salvaging of
obsolete words and turns of speech, or with the
setting up of a ‘standard English’ which must
never be departed from. On the contrary, it is
especially concerned with the scrapping of every
word or idiom which has outworn its usefulness.
It has nothing to do with correct grammar and
syntax, which are of no importance so long as
one makes one's meaning clear, or with the
avoidance of Americanisms, or with having what
is called a ‘good prose style’. On the other
hand, it is not concerned with fake simplicity
and the attempt to make written English
colloquial. Nor does it even imply in every case
preferring the Saxon word to the Latin one,
though it does imply using the fewest and
shortest words that will cover one's meaning.
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What is above all needed is to let the meaning choose the
word, and not the other way around. In prose, the worst thing one can do with
words is surrender to them. When you think of a
concrete object, you think wordlessly, and then,
if you want to describe the thing you have been
visualising you probably hunt about until you
find the exact words that seem to fit it. When
you think of something abstract you are more
inclined to use words from the start, and unless
you make a conscious effort to prevent it, the
existing dialect will come rushing in and do the
job for you, at the expense of blurring or even
changing your meaning. Probably it is better to
put off using words as long as possible and get
one's meaning as clear as one can through
pictures and sensations. Afterward one can
choose — not simply accept — the phrases
that will best cover the meaning, and then
switch round and decide what impressions one's
words are likely to make on another person. This
last effort of the mind cuts out all stale or
mixed images, all prefabricated phrases,
needless repetitions, and humbug and vagueness
generally. But one can often be in doubt about
the effect of a word or a phrase, and one needs
rules that one can rely on when instinct fails.
I think the following rules will cover most
cases:
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Never use a metaphor,
simile, or other figure of speech which you
are used to seeing in print.
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Never use a long word
where a short one will do.
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If it is possible to cut
a word out, always cut it out.
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Never use the passive
where you can use the active.
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Never use a foreign
phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word
if you can think of an everyday English
equivalent.
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Break any of these rules
sooner than say anything outright barbarous.
These rules sound elementary,
and so they are, but they demand a deep change
of attitude in anyone who has grown used to
writing in the style now fashionable. One could
keep all of them and still write bad English,
but one could not write the kind of stuff that I
quoted in those five specimens at the beginning
of this article.
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Copyrighted material |
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