Particularly in scientific subjects, the use of technical vocabulary is unavoidable. Orwell follows his own rules closely as seen in 1984. These are the rules Orwell suggests: (i) Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print. I hope you learned something new. The problem is the absolute nature of Orwell’s rules. Think of fresh ones wherever you can. Four Resources for PhDs Considering a Non-Academic Career, 18 Online Resources and Apps for PhD Students with Dyslexia, Ten Research Commandments: Getting the Most out of Your Research Trip. (iii) Try cutting a lot of your word-count, especially those words that add little extra meaning. You may visit our FAQ page for more information. In 1984 the government uses propaganda slogans such as “freedom is slavery” and “ignorance is strength”, and develops a “Newspeak” language to curtail freedom of thought (and therefore action). I really appreciate the advice–the above is a great essay I read with my students. 2) Never use a long word where a short one will do. Image 1 (open copyright): https://www.vautiercommunications.com/blog/6-rules-for-writing-george-orwell, academia, politics, research, thesis, writing, writing up. Let us take Orwell’s six rules in turn, and consider the resonance each recommendation could carry for a PhD researcher in the twenty-first century. Your email address will not be published. The lines from PARADISE LOST. Not only does the passive voice have the effect of slowing down writing, it enables the political writer to avoid placing responsibility. Modern English, especially written English, is full of bad habits which spread by imitation and which can be avoided if one is willing to take the necessary trouble. The drunk can break the cycle if he stops abusing drink, and so the better use of language could help society improve. If writers cannot bring themselves to use an established figure of speech, the best advice might be to avoid elaborate language altogether: simply state an idea in plain terms. 68503, hello@infusion.media (By the way, I can’t get rid of the errors in the Orwell essay on the Mount Holyoke College site. Geoffrey Pullum, Mr Liberman’s stablemate at Language Log, goes so far as to dismiss Orwell’s essay as “dishonest”. “You all” and “yous” seem to be a reaction to this lack of distinction, but there has to be a reason why two distinct forms were abandoned at some point. For all that we should be free to use the word “niggardly” if we wish, we can usually get our point across with the more familiar and less controversial stingy. They will construct your sentences for you — even think your thoughts for you, to a certain extent — and at need they will perform the important service of partially concealing your meaning even from yourself.”. (iv) Don’t over-use the passive voice. “Early Modern English distinguished between the plural you and the singular thou. He was writing in 1946, Europe was broken by the Second World War and on the verge of a cold war that threatened to wipe out civilisation. Ultimately, Orwell’s efforts were underpinned by political concerns, in an era where propaganda had become the arme de choix of a range of oppressive political movements. Orwell did not intend his guidelines to be used by postgraduates, but PhD students can find value in several different aspects of the guidelines, particularly in relation to the economy and clarity of writing. (passive) Of one passage excusing the horrors of Stalinism, he wrote: “A mass of Latin words falls upon the facts like soft snow, blurring the outline and covering up all the details. These ideas anticipated “speech act theory” developed at Oxford University in the 1960s which saw the use of language being an action in the world, as opposed to merely describing the world. 402-477-2065. Of all Orwell’s rules, this is perhaps the recommendation which is most dependent on personal preference. dying metaphors, cliches, urban myths, “just-so” stories help the lazy-minded explain anything difficult away. George Orwell published his essay “Politics and the English Language” in April 1946 after a second world war and one of the most extensive uses of propaganda in an era of mass media. 9 Responses to “Orwell: Timeless Guidelines for Writers” Jay Wagers on July 26, 2007 12:38 pm. Knowledge and Versatility. Never use a long word where a short one will do.Pretentiousness is insincerity. I’m grateful to them; please don’t blame them :) ORCID Indeed, here are his rules liberated from those dogmatic “nevers” and the “always”: (i) Avoid using metaphors, similes, or other figures of speech which you are used to seeing in print. As a writer covering the rise of fascism and Stalinism, he understood how language could change behaviour. Active: I knew the difference between right and wrong.Passive: The difference between right and wrong was known by me. Reduce the number of things you have around you. So from each of Orwell’s rules, reproduced here in bold, I will extrapolate how the rule can be used as a “rule” to help live a good life. Moved on: with difficulty and labour hee. Required fields are marked *. As long as the use of the passive voice does not obscure the clarity of prose (see rules 2 and 3), it seems somewhat drastic to forbid its use altogether. © 2020 Pubs and Publications — Powered by WordPress. You'll also get three bonus ebooks completely free. Your email address will not be published. Never use a long word where a short one will do. Don’t fritter it away on a cluttered life. To write in dismay about the state of language when so much of your world has been reduced to rubble seems like worrying about a stain on the carpet when the house around you has burned down. Begin with a clear idea of what it is you want to say. On a site like this one, it’s especially unforgivable. … Here is an example that makes it easy to understand: The man was bitten by the dog. “Politics and the English Language” has plenty of lines in a passive voice and a lot of unnecessary words. This is simply a matter of intuition. The most relevant of the rules, in this context was of course number (i). TARA. Overall, few would argue that Orwell’s six rules of writing do not provide a solid base around which to centre prose. By following Orwell’s 5 rules for effective writing, you’ll distinguish yourself from competitors and clearly communicate your ideas. Written more than half a century ago, it remains as timely in 2007 as it was when he wrote it. While in the 80s we seemed to exist “in the jungle of life” as mere animals, the latest jargon fad is to use high finance and technology phrases like “leverage” and “optimize”, when we mean “make the most of” and “improve”. George Orwell (left) wrote that when he was about sixteen, he “suddenly discovered the joy of mere words, i.e. Like too many words, too many things become a burden. 4) Never use the passive where you can use the active. Do you recognise yourself in his conclusion that “[a]ll writers are vain, selfish, and lazy, and at the very bottom of their motives there lies a mystery”?). This sounds easy, but in practice is incredibly difficult. 3) If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out. You’re right of course. We attempt to be clever and showy. “Cearta” really is the Irish word for rights, so the title provides a good sense of the scope of this blog. The point is that Orwell is imploring us to at least try to follow the rules. This distinction ultimately led to familiar thou becoming obsolete in standard English (and Dutch), although this did not happen in other languages such as French.”. The dog bit the man. II. He tweets at @DanielEAdamson. This sounds easy, but in practice is incredibly difficult. Orwell drew on Communist rhetoric for many of his illustrations, ... but the section that I keep going back to is the one in which Orwell formulates six rules for clean, honest writing: 1) Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print. Don’t use big words to impress, but don’t underestimate the intelligence of your reader. IV. I think the following rules will cover most cases.”. Academia.edu In this essay Orwell discusses the political use of language to manipulate and obscure: Millions of peasants are robbed of their farms and sent trudging along the roads with no more than they can carry: this is called transfer of population or rectification of frontiers. His six suggestions are to help people write plainly to avoid being misunderstood. However, it is most effective when it is used to improve research, rather than to belittle work. By “things” I mean commitments as much as inanimate objects. Seneca wrote that wealth is the slave of a wise man the master of a fool. Make yourself the subject of an active sentence. There is absolutely no excuse to publish a post that contains errors. While we needn’t write billets doux for love letters, we’d be up a creek if we had to come up with “an everyday English equivalent” for such assimilated foreign expressions as laissez-faire, détente, and cliché. Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.We are surrounded by tired ideas that are tempting to embrace. Do you have a question for Johnson, or a suggestion for a future column? Moderation, as always, is key. As ready-made ideas and meanings crowd into our mind, we’re tempted to give up trying to think clearly for ourselves. , Very interesting comments. Since their publication, these guidelines have become much loved from amateur literary blogs to self-help websites. As such, the avoidance of archaic or obscure vocabulary is a sensible measure. The former is sloppiness, the latter is willful distortion. IN MY last column, I referred to The Economist’sstyle guide, which includes George Orwell’s famous six rules for writing, taken from “Politics and the English Language”: (i) Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print. Around the same time, my colleague flagged a candidate for “The world's worst sentence”. As they multiply around you, your attention will be spread thinly. We can spend our whole lives on the back foot — replying, explaining and complaining —or we can seize control. Above all, be sure to use common sense. If we try to follow them we can think better thoughts and live better lives. Treat others as you’d want to be treated yourself. Criticism is a necessary element of the PhD experience. Yet Mark Liberman, a professor of linguistics at the University of Pennsylvania and a blogger at Language Log, has taken us to task. Copyright © 2020 Daily Writing Tips . That performance can take over your life and one day you might wonder what’s really underneath it all. To guide writers into writing clearly and truthfully, Orwell proposed the following six rules: Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print. document.getElementById("comment").setAttribute( "id", "aec2c17edab9214d136115f371b521d4" );document.getElementById("d34a97b6b8").setAttribute( "id", "comment" ); Notify me of follow-up comments by email. Be prepared to write and rewrite until the words you’ve poured out on paper come as close as possible to the idea you wish to convey. 5) Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent. Orwell implores his audience to think for themselves when they write and speak. Never use the passive where you can use the active. “Most people who bother with the matter at all would admit that the English language is in a bad way.” So began one of George Orwell’s most celebrated essays, ‘Politics and the English Language’. 2. Of the tensed transitive verbs in “Politics and the English Language”, at least a fifth are in the passive voice. (See his essay Why I Write, in which he concluded that writers typically write out of sheer egoism, aesthetic enthusiasm, historical impulse, or political impulse – if you’re a blogger, which one explains you? “…This last effort of the mind cuts out all stale or mixed images, all prefabricated phrases, needless repetitions, and humbug and vagueness generally. Break any of these rules sooner than saying anything outright barbarous. “What is above all needed is to let the meaning choose the word, and not the other way around,” he wrote. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent. The problem comes when people think these suggestions apply to ALL forms of writing, even fiction. However, it is also rather tyrannical to suggest that a rigid set of rules should dictate universal writing habits. By Carrie Winstanley . The problem with the former phrases is that they make difficult things sound easy (this is practically the entire point of self-help literature, which is where these phrases are most common), or — worse — that you are like a machine or a balance sheet. Originality is certainly a watchword of many PhD projects. English is not my first language, and since I first learned that there was a single form of “you” for both singular and plural, I have always wondered why and how this happened. Never use a long word where a short one will do. Good language is more democratic. 10/10/18. How many of us simply run with the tired old explanations for things? In all areas of academic life, the avoidance of barbarity should be encouraged. I know them all right. Rules for writing or rules for life? In response to Ricardo’s query, here’s what Wikipedia had to say on this point. However, I have to point out that much of these posts need a bit more scrutiny prior to posting. Let us take Orwell’s six rules in turn, and consider the resonance each recommendation could carry for a PhD researcher in the twenty-first century 1. If you’ve never read George Orwell’s 1946 essay “Politics and the English Language,” treat yourself. You should be thinking six questions as you write and when you finish and read it over you should be editing with six more questions in order to be successful. Stop Asking People if They Speak Mandarin or Cantonese, How to Move Past Language Learning Burnout Like a Polyglot, How I hacked the language learning process to jump-start my Japanese listening skills, How Language Alters Our Perception of the World, How I Improved my Japanese Language ProficiencyAfter Initial Setbacks. It contains many helpful examples and is, of course, a pleasure to read. This distinction made the plural forms more respectful and deferential; they were used to address strangers and social superiors. George Orwell’s Six Rules for Writing: A Reassessment. All rights reserved. I promise to try to do so too in future on this blog. One potential strategy is to include approximate English translations or explanations for more esoteric language. Orwell understood the power of language well. 4. That simply makes him human—a frailty shared by journalists at The Economist. … Common phrases have become so comfortable that they create no emotional response. This is simply a matter of intuition. 5. Here are his six rules for writing: 1. Rule number 4 might better be adapted to provide advice for life, rather than writing: ‘never be passive where you can be active’. Avoiding clichés keeps writers from crafting a lazy string of mixed metaphors, such as a nightmare casting a shroud in a guise of contagion that resembled a deer so unlucky as to be both caught in headlights and paralysed. (active). English may not be the first language of any given reader. Take the time to invent fresh, powerful images. Critics point out that a strict application of these rules would make for very strange writing. The point is Orwell knew how to write. Prior to delivery, we will scan the completed document with our plagiarism-detection software to further ensure that all text is original and all sources are properly cited throughout the paper and on a bibliography, … The COVID-19 pandemic has illustrated how opportunities can be snatched away in a tragically short period of time.