Orwell on Writing Well

I am currently reading a number of books on the usage (and abusage) of the English language, including Between You and I by James Cochrane and Troublesome Words by Bill Bryson not to mention browsing through the bible on language usage that is Fowler's Modern English Usage. The former two are amusing A-Z lists of the most common mistakes in usage, spelling and punctuation.

Perhaps nobody has summarized things as well as George Orwell, in his essay titled "Politics and the English Language" (included as an appendix in Cochrane). He memorably "translates" a passage from the book of Ecclesiastes (King James Version) into modern English. The original passage read:

I returned and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.

Orwell suggests that in modern English the same passage might well read:

Objective consideration of contemporary phenomena compels the conclusion that success or failure in competitive activities exhibits no tendency to be commensurate with innate capacity, but that a considerable element of the unpredictable must invariably be taken into account.

Orwell readily admits that the above was an exaggeration, but anyone who has encountered modern business and management speak, or legal jargon, would wince in sympathy. He also believes that sloppy, unclear language is not only representative of sloppy and unclear thinking, but that it leads to more imprecise thinking.

At the core of bad writing, according to Orwell, is staleness of imagery and lack of precision. Bad writing is characterised by two things: the writer is unable to express his meaning or inadvertently means something different to what he has written; or the writer is indifferent to whether his words mean anything at all.

The first of the two is due to sloppiness and can be corrected. The second, in my opinion, is by far the more dangerous and pernicious, and can be seen in the management and business speak that is growing increasingly pervasive today. It is stale, imprecise and incomprehensible precisely because its writers have nothing to say to begin with.

While we might bemoan the fact that the English language is in a bad way (people are almost perpetually doing so, and are thus honoured with the title of pedant), is there anything that we can do about it? Orwell suggests the following six simple rules that govern clear language:

1. Never use a metaphor, simile or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print (i.e avoid cliches)
2. Never use a long word where a short word will do (i.e. avoid pretentiousness)
3. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out (i.e. avoid longwindedness)
4. Never use the passive where you can use the active
5. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent (i.e. avoid jargon)
6. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.

That I reckon is pretty good advice. I hope to bear it in mind in the entries ahead.