Suggestions for Writing

1. Using examples from your own writing, observation of popular culture, or reading of contemporary texts, explain why you do or do not agree with Orwell’s opening statement that “the English language is in a bad way.”

   Question

   uZxg83qH9uNZ3NUqyV8wT7hdxc9/5MQeJeZaOsQNhvI0w6Xk3EOeDQ1B873FE1s7

   Chapter 10 - Politics and the English Language - Suggestions for Writing: Using examples from your own writing, observation of popular culture, or reading of contemporary texts, explain why you do or do not agree with Orwell’s opening statement that “the English language is in a bad way.”
2. Write an essay agreeing or disagreeing with the following assertion by Orwell in paragraph 13: “In our time it is broadly true that political writing is bad writing. Where it is not true, it will generally be found that the writer is some kind of rebel, expressing his private opinions and not a ‘party line.’ Orthodoxy, of whatever color, seems to demand a lifeless, imitative style.” Support your position with examples from political speeches, newspaper columns and articles, advertisements, and Web sites.

   Question

   uZxg83qH9uNZ3NUqyV8wT7hdxc9/5MQeJeZaOsQNhvI0w6Xk3EOeDQ1B873FE1s7

   Chapter 10 - Politics and the English Language - Suggestions for Writing: Write an essay agreeing or disagreeing with the following assertion by Orwell in paragraph 13: “In our time it is broadly true that political writing is bad writing. Where it is not true, it will generally be found that the writer is some kind of rebel, expressing his private opinions and not a ‘party line.’ Orthodoxy, of whatever color, seems to demand a lifeless, imitative style.” Support your position with examples from political speeches, newspaper columns and articles, advertisements, and Web sites.
3. Compare and contrast paragraph 14 in Orwell’s essay with the following paragraph from Toni Morrison’s 1993 Nobel Prize speech.

   The systematic looting of language can be recognized by the tendency of its users to forgo its nuanced, complex, mid-wifery properties for menace and subjugation. Oppressive language does more than represent violence; it is violence; does more than represent the limits of knowledge; it limits knowledge. Whether it is obscuring state language or the faux-language of mindless media; whether it is the proud but calcified language of the academy or the commodity driven language of science; whether it is the malign language of law-without-ethics, or language designed for the estrangement of minorities, hiding its racist plunder in its literary cheek—it must be rejected, altered and exposed. It is the language that drinks blood, laps vulnerabilities, tucks its fascist boots under crinolines of respectability and patriotism as it moves relentlessly toward the bottom line and the bottomed-out mind. Sexist language, racist language, theistic language—all are typical of the policing languages of mastery, and cannot, do not permit new knowledge or encourage the mutual exchange of ideas.

   Question

   uZxg83qH9uNZ3NUqyV8wT7hdxc9/5MQeJeZaOsQNhvI0w6Xk3EOeDQ1B873FE1s7

   Chapter 10 - Politics and the English Language - Suggestions for Writing: Compare and contrast paragraph 14 in Orwell’s essay with the following paragraph from Toni Morrison’s 1993 Nobel Prize speech. The systematic looting of language can be recognized by the tendency of its users to forgo its nuanced, complex, mid-wifery properties for menace and subjugation. Oppressive language does more than represent violence; it is violence; does more than represent the limits of knowledge; it limits knowledge. Whether it is obscuring state language or the faux-language of mindless media; whether it is the proud but calcified language of the academy or the commodity driven language of science; whether it is the malign language of law-without-ethics, or language designed for the estrangement of minorities, hiding its racist plunder in its literary cheek—it must be rejected, altered and exposed. It is the language that drinks blood, laps vulnerabilities, tucks its fascist boots under crinolines of respectability and patriotism as it moves relentlessly toward the bottom line and the bottomed-out mind. Sexist language, racist language, theistic language—all are typical of the policing languages of mastery, and cannot, do not permit new knowledge or encourage the mutual exchange of ideas.
4. Working in groups, find examples of writing in current newspapers or magazines or a political speech that illustrate what Orwell calls “staleness of imagery” and “lack of precision” (para. 11). Then revise the writing by applying one or more of the six rules Orwell prescribes in the penultimate paragraph of his essay.

   Question

   uZxg83qH9uNZ3NUqyV8wT7hdxc9/5MQeJeZaOsQNhvI0w6Xk3EOeDQ1B873FE1s7

   Chapter 10 - Politics and the English Language - Suggestions for Writing: Working in groups, find examples of writing in current newspapers or magazines or a political speech that illustrate what Orwell calls “staleness of imagery” and “lack of precision” (para. 11). Then revise the writing by applying one or more of the six rules Orwell prescribes in the penultimate paragraph of his essay.
5. Orwell uses many terms that refer to language. Develop a glossary that has the following components: (1) the term as Orwell uses it, (2) a definition of the term, and (3) an example from your own reading (including advertisements). Include the following terms, along with any others you note: mixed metaphor, pretentious diction, euphemism, parody, idiom, archaic language (“archaism”), dialect.

   Question

   uZxg83qH9uNZ3NUqyV8wT7hdxc9/5MQeJeZaOsQNhvI0w6Xk3EOeDQ1B873FE1s7

   Chapter 10 - Politics and the English Language - Suggestions for Writing: Orwell uses many terms that refer to language. Develop a glossary that has the following components: (1) the term as Orwell uses it, (2) a definition of the term, and (3) an example from your own reading (including advertisements). Include the following terms, along with any others you note: mixed metaphor, pretentious diction, euphemism, parody, idiom, archaic language (“archaism”), dialect.
6. Suppose “Politics and the English Language” were being reprinted in a specific contemporary magazine. Redesign the essay by adding visual images and graphic displays that will appeal to the magazine’s audience. Do not change Orwell’s language; simply download the essay from the Internet, and then redesign it by including graphs, charts, cartoon characters, icons, color, or different fonts. Explain the rhetorical effect that you intend these changes to have.

   Question

   uZxg83qH9uNZ3NUqyV8wT7hdxc9/5MQeJeZaOsQNhvI0w6Xk3EOeDQ1B873FE1s7

   Chapter 10 - Politics and the English Language - Suggestions for Writing: Suppose “Politics and the English Language” were being reprinted in a specific contemporary magazine. Redesign the essay by adding visual images and graphic displays that will appeal to the magazine’s audience. Do not change Orwell’s language; simply download the essay from the Internet, and then redesign it by including graphs, charts, cartoon characters, icons, color, or different fonts. Explain the rhetorical effect that you intend these changes to have.