I’m working on a writing question and need a sample draft to help me understand better.
Politics and the English Language
Journalist and author George Orwell wrote classics such as 1984 and Animal Farm.
Language and politics are deeply intertwined. You can’t understand one without understanding the other.
In that spirt, I’d like you to read the two following pieces.
The first is an opinion article from the Columbia Journalism Review (Links to an external site.). It’s about the tendency of journalists and police officials to use the phrase “officer-involved shooting,” which has been receiving significant pushback.
The second is the landmark essay from George Orwell Politics and the English Language (Links to an external site.).
Taken together, I think these pieces — written in 2020 and 1946, respectively — can shed light on the power of language, and the relationship between grammar and politics.
For your submission, I’d like you to build on Orwell’s six rules for writing clearly. Your job is to come up with your own seventh rule. Your rule can be an edit or tweak of one of Orwell’s existing rules or you can come up with something fresh. Draw upon your own pet peeves and perspective. What do you think it takes to write clearly? What’s something a writer should always do, never do or only do under certain conditions?
Write your rule in two sentences. Go!
0 comments