Key Points of "Politics and the English Language"

     The thesis of George Orwell's essay, "Politics and the English Language" is undeniably that the use of English as a whole is going downhill as a result of cultural influences. He goes on to support this by providing five examples which he believes exemplify this decaying of language that later support his major claims in the essay. Additionally, Orwell goes on to note various common writing errors and discusses methods to produce work of better quality. Overall, in my opinion, here are the key pieces of advice Orwell presents...

     The main point that struck me in reading this essay is the emphasis Orwell places on keeping all writing concise. Basically, he argues that long words, if possible, should be excluded and replaced by more straightforward ones. He argues that lengthy words and their repeated usage, work to make the writer sound egotistic rather than intelligent. Similarly, Orwell states that phrases and sentences should be kept short as well. He expresses that if unnecessary words can be found in any work of writing, they should be eliminated, as they only add unimportant clutter. Furthermore, going on the apparently key theme of the essay, he insists that the less there is of excess, the better, as a simplistic writing style proves the most effective.

     Another interesting aspect of this essay is Orwell's insistence on the elimination of foreign, scientific, and jargon words from the English vocabulary. He states that there is "no real need for any of the hundreds of foreign phrases now in current English" and criticizes the words for adding both vagueness and pretentiousness to the language. Orwell believes that the sole reason these words are so commonly used is because poor writers use them to conceal their incompetence when it comes to writing.

     Lastly, Orwell places high emphasis on originality. He criticizes the over usage of commonplace phrases that only add generic blandness to writing, citing many metaphors as examples. The detriments of these phrases are great, he argues, as they foster laziness in writers who settle for a preconceived label rather than taking the time to engineer one themselves.