Orwell relates what he believes to be a close association between bad prose and oppressive ideology: One of Orwell's points is: The insincerity of the writer perpetuates the decline of the language as people (particularly politicians, Orwell later notes) attempt to disguise their intentions behind euphemisms and
convoluted phrasing. Orwell says that this decline is self-perpetuating. He argues that it is easier to think with poor English because the language is in decline; and, as the language declines, "foolish" thoughts become even easier, reinforcing the original cause: Orwell discusses "pretentious diction" and "meaningless words". "Pretentious diction" is used to make biases look impartial and scientific, while "meaningless words" are used to stop the reader from seeing the point of the statement. According to Orwell: "In certain kinds of writing, particularly in art criticism and literary criticism, it is normal to come across long passages which are almost completely lacking in meaning."
Five passages Orwell chooses five passages of text which "illustrate various of the mental vices from which we now suffer." The samples are: by
Harold Laski ("five negatives in 53 words"),
Lancelot Hogben (mixed metaphors), an essay by
Paul Goodman on psychology in the July 1945 issue of
Politics ("simply meaningless"), a communist pamphlet ("an accumulation of stale phrases") and a reader's letter in
Tribune (in which "words and meaning have parted company"). From these, Orwell identifies a "catalogue of swindles and perversions" which he classifies as "dying metaphors", "operators or verbal false limbs", "pretentious diction" and "meaningless words".
(See cliches, prolixity, peacock terms and weasel words.) Orwell notes that writers of modern prose tend not to write in concrete terms but use a "pretentious Latinized style"
(compare Anglish). He claims writers find it is easier to gum together long strings of words than to pick words specifically for their meaningparticularly in political writing, where Orwell notes that "[o]rthodoxy ... seems to demand a lifeless, imitative style". Political speech and writing are generally in defence of the indefensible and so lead to a euphemistic inflated style. Orwell criticises bad writing habits which spread by imitation. He argues that writers must think more clearly because thinking clearly "is a necessary first step toward political regeneration". He later emphasises that he was not "considering the literary use of language, but merely language as an instrument for expressing and not for concealing or preventing thought".
"Translation" of Ecclesiastes As a further example, Orwell "translates"
Ecclesiastes 9:11: – into "modern English of the worst sort": Orwell points out that this "translation" contains many more syllables but gives no concrete illustrations, as the original did, nor does it contain any vivid, arresting images or phrases. The headmaster's wife at
St Cyprian's School, Mrs. Cicely Vaughan Wilkes (nicknamed "Flip"), taught English to Orwell and used the same method to illustrate good writing to her pupils. She would use simple passages from the
King James Bible and then "translate" them into poor English to show the clarity and brilliance of the original.
Walter John Christie, who followed Orwell to
Eton College, wrote that Vaughan Wilkes preached the virtues of "simplicity, honesty, and avoidance of verbiage", and pointed out that the qualities "Flip" most prized were later to be seen in Orwell's writing.
Remedy of Six Rules Orwell said it was easy for his contemporaries to slip into bad writing of the sort he had described and that the temptation to use meaningless or hackneyed phrases was like a "packet of aspirins always at one's elbow". In particular, such phrases are always ready to form the writer's thoughts, to save the writer the bother of thinkingor writingclearly. He did conclude though that the progressive decline of the English language was reversible and suggested six rules he claimed would prevent many of these faults, although "one could keep all of them and still write bad English". • Never use a
metaphor,
simile, or other
figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print. (Examples that Orwell gave included
ring the changes, ''
Achilles' heel, swan song, and hotbed''. He described such phrases as "dying metaphors" and argued that they were used without knowing what was truly being said. Furthermore, he said that using metaphors of this kind made the original meaning of the phrases meaningless because those who used them did not know their original meaning. He wrote that "some metaphors now current have been twisted out of their original meaning without those who use them even being aware of the fact".) • Never use a long word where a short one will do. • If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out. • Never use the
passive where you can use the
active. • Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a
jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent. • Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous. ==Publication==