Re: Politics and the English Language
August 13, 2003, 01:11 pmA few weeks ago I read George Orwell's Politics and the English Language. My former roommate Jeff used to tell me that I ought to read it. He is an enthusiast of bad writing. In high school, he used to read communist propaganda for fun.
I remember reading the textbook in my Business Ethics class and thinking, “What the hell is going on? Is this person intentionally obfuscating their words to make them as unreadable as possible?” Seriously. It seems like some people think the more words I use and the more compliated my sentence structure, the smarter I'll seem!
I feel like I've always been encouraged to bullshit in school. Like back in middle- and high-school, I was constantly given assignments word count/page requirements, resulting in papers with mostly fluff. In my CIS 320 and 420 classes, we had to write these deliverables and one of my group members could just pour the bullshit on. In addition to that, he could take any normal word or phrase and replace them with this masturbatory nonsense resulting in sentences nearly twice as long. I think he thought that was a positive talent.
I try to remind myself that the goal is successful, efficient communication. I try to be succinct. It's important.
I also try to improve my vocabulary and I like using words that I know which provide the “best fit” for what I'm trying to say. But I worry about accessibility. And I worry about sounding like an asshole. I don't want people to think that I'm trying to put anybody down by trying to use “fancy words”.