![]() Waters, on the order of the day, Achilles' heel, swan song, hotbed. Into the hands of, no axe to grind, grist to the mill, fishing in troubled Examples are: Ring the changes on, take up the cudgelįor, toe the line, ride roughshod over, stand shoulder to shoulder with, play Power and are merely used because they save people the trouble of inventing But in between these twoĬlasses there is a huge dump of worn-out metaphors which have lost all evocative iron resolution ) has in effect reverted to being an ordinary wordĪnd can generally be used without loss of vividness. ![]() Visual image, while on the other hand a metaphor which is technically "dead" A newly invented metaphor assists thought by evoking a Work of prose construction is habitually dodged:ĭying metaphors. List below, with notes and examples, various of the tricks by means of which the Phrases tacked together like the sections of a prefabricated henhouse. Less of words chosen for the sake of their meaning, and more and more of As soon asĬertain topics are raised, the concrete melts into the abstract and no one seemsĪble to think of turns of speech that are not hackneyed: prose consists less and Vagueness and sheer incompetence is the most marked characteristic of modernĮnglish prose, and especially of any kind of political writing. Indifferent as to whether his words mean anything or not. The writer either has a meaning andĬannot express it, or he inadvertently says something else, or he is almost That by that time the meaning of what I have said here will have become clearer. I will come back to this presently, and I hope That the fight against bad English is not frivolous and is not the exclusiveĬoncern of professional writers. If one gets rid of these habits one can think more clearly,Īnd to think clearly is a necessary first step toward political regeneration: so Which spread by imitation and which can be avoided if one is willing to take the Modern English, especially written English, is full of bad habits It becomes ugly and inaccurateīecause our thoughts are foolish, but the slovenliness of our language makes itĮasier for us to have foolish thoughts. Thing that is happening to the English language. ![]() A man may take to drink because he feels himself to be a failure,Īnd then fail all the more completely because he drinks. But an effect can become a cause, reinforcing the originalĬause and producing the same effect in an intensified form, and so on Now, it is clear that the decline of a language must ultimately have politicalĪnd economic causes: it is not due simply to the bad influence of this or that Natural growth and not an instrument which we shape for our own purposes. Underneath this lies the half-conscious belief that language is a Sentimental archaism, like preferring candles to electric light or hansom cabs to It follows that any struggle against the abuse of language is a Our language - so the argument runs - must inevitably share in the generalĬollapse. That the English language is in a bad way, but it is generally assumed that weĬannot by conscious action do anything about it. Most people who bother with the matter at all would admit Remember, friend, the fact that you have trouble writing means that you are a good writer. ![]() Perhaps it will provide as good of a starting place for him, as it did for me. Below are some choice excerpts from one of my favorite essays, Politics and the English Language. Thus, I decided I'd share with him some advice from my favorite english teacher: George Orwell. As a result his prose suffered from incomprehensibility. I recently met a young writer who commented that he had so many thoughts - all of which ran so fast - that he could not find the proper words to express them. ![]()
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