BONUS | The Beauty of Integrity in Writing | by Emory Cooper

 In Politics and the English Language, Orwell gives sound advice on how to communicate clearly through the written word. Yet why should one communicate clearly writing? There are two reasons. First, one writes clearly to preserve integrity. If a writing is hard to understand, then it is easy to deceive. Orwell contrasts good writing with the language of politics. "If you simplify your English, you are freed from the worst follies of orthodoxy...when you make a stupid remark its stupidity will be obvious, even to yourself. Political language...is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidarity to pure wind" (Orwell 9). Second, one writes clearly because clarity in language happens to be beautiful. "[The English language] becomes ugly and inaccurate because our thoughts are foolish, but the slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts" (1). One finds it much more appealing when an author presents a good idea in a way that one can easily grasp, than when he shrouds it in a multitude of syllables and filler phrases. As Proverbs 25:11 says, "[a] word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver."


Blogger is malfunctioning on me right now, so I have written my comments below.

Comment on Bug's post:

Good post, Bug. I definitely agree that modern society has a scary problem with how it handles the definition of words. A few examples come to mind: "science," social "justice," Black Lives "Matter," gender "equality"; the list could continue. Moreover, all of these examples relate to political controversy. Coincidence? I think not. You do a good job articulating how and why this happens.

Comment on Lily's post:

Hey Lily, good post. I am also glad that there is a way to change the habits of a society to reverse the pretension and meaninglessness in language. The problem is that many people do not know how to differentiate good language use from bad, or do not care, or both. If they did know and did care, society's language problem could be reversed. I hope that Honors can help educate society in this way. Again, good post!

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