"Politics and the English Language" by George Orwell

I'm positive Orwell would be even crankier if he were alive today and discovered that English has gotten "worse" since his essay was written. What I found funny was that many of the jargon, foreign words, and metaphors he despised so passionately are still being used and are more common than it seems they were in his time with countless new ones tossed in as well.

As most of my peers found the reading entertaining, so did I once I got a page or two in, and found myself agreeing with a lot of Orwell's complaints. I never liked reading political language because it was so stiff and hard to understand, but I thought that was only because I simply didn't understand it. Orwell's lament about how political and "technical" language is inherently difficult on purpose makes me feel better about it, though. It is true that politicians use more words and bigger words for the sake of being vague while also sounding important and intelligent. It's constantly frustrating how they glaze over the details that are most important, but it's more frustrating that it actually works.

Though I agree with Orwell's dislike of tired metaphors and stale language, I think what needs to change is the idea that stale, pompous language shows intelligence. It doesn't, it only confuses your audience. It's also more difficult to write in simple terms, more often than not. The only way to get out of this is to be aware of it, I suppose, and not be fooled, as Orwell says.

-Justyne Marin