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.It becomes away of not making things clear, a tool for clever obfuscation, a way ofhedging bets and keeping one s nose clean.We all know when language is being used for politics.It s hard tounderstand if you re uninitiated.It s dense and vague.It s abstractand impersonal.It s formal and cold or it s falsely breezy.It s heavyon ideology and light on fact.It s loud and long about ends but quietand short about means.It s polysyllabic.It dwells on processes notpeople.It s passive.These are all fine ways to say a whole lot less thanyou seem, at first, to be saying, while taking a very long time to do it.Writing like that intends not to include but to exclude its readers.Itmeans to fend them off, not to suffer them.Such writing is cautionand self-interest run amok.Its roots go down to fear and, deeper still,in some cases, to an instinct for keeping hold of one s secrets.Good writing transcends politics.It rises above fear.Within thelimits of professional care and political reality, it will speak plainly toits readers, aiming to say as much as possible, as economically as pos-sible.As opposed to the kind of fearful, political writing we encountertoo often, good writing will be humane, plain, active, informal, con-crete, clear, and specific.It will have a voice.It will have a life.Here are the things George Orwell thought writers should do tosave their prose from politics.1 Never use a metaphor, simile or other figure of speech you are used toseeing in print.2 Never use a long word where a short one will do. 42 writing well3 If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.4 Never use the passive where you can use the active.5 Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word or a jargon word if you canthink of an everyday English equivalent.6 Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.(george orwell, Politics and the English Language )Try thisSee if you can mend this paragraph, a victim of politics.Pursuant to the recommendations of our nominated consult-ants, an all-departmental initiative has been implemented,effective immediately, rationalizing human and financialresources in conformity with our strategic mission statement,which I am sure you have all internalized and made opera-tional in your teams.An organization-wide announcementon this decision will be circulated in the foreseeable future.Or this:At ground level, the next issue of Gardens Plus would havebeen an informative publication for our readers, however ithas been decided that Gardens Plus did not have the align-ment for our company direction, and hence does not coincidewith the bigger picture for our next five-year business plans.Short and right and niceAt the end of a workshop, Molly, in her Glaswegian accent, summa-rized my message thus: What you re saying is that you want it saidshort and right and nice. It sounded better in Scots.But it s thriftily put, and it says it prettywell. chapter 2SENTENCINGOn the craft of the sentenceI take it as a basic principle that anyone who aspires to use hisnative tongue professionally and publicly had better know it.wallace stegnerWranglingWhen these boots arrived at the door in a box and I put them on andwalked them up the stairs, my wife heard me coming.She stopped meon the way to my study at the top and pointed down. What are thesefor? she said.She wasn t saying how good they looked. They re yard boots, I explained. They re not meant to look pretty.They re meant to work. So when was the last time you did any actual work in boots of anykind? she said sweetly.Fairly.Cruelly.I got the boots to carry me to the shops, to push prams in to thepark, to negotiate the sand down there, to take the pavementscoming home, and to hold me up when I walk around teaching.That s work, isn t it? These past days by the lake, they ve come intotheir own as uncompromising, waterproof walking boots.But thetruth is I got them because I like boots, and I wanted these ones.And I ve been wondering down here why it is I like to sit (and to getup and pace around) and write in yard boots, and it came to me thatI m a wrangler.And what I wrangle is sentences.They come to mewild from the scrub.I rope a few at the edge of the trees and leadthem to the yards.I gentle them and whisper and bully them tame.After a little while, sometimes as short as a few hours, a few of themlet me on. 44 writing wellWhat I m doing is teaching them manners and technique a bitmore grace than they had when they found me.I need them to carryme where I want to go, and for that to look pretty smooth [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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.It becomes away of not making things clear, a tool for clever obfuscation, a way ofhedging bets and keeping one s nose clean.We all know when language is being used for politics.It s hard tounderstand if you re uninitiated.It s dense and vague.It s abstractand impersonal.It s formal and cold or it s falsely breezy.It s heavyon ideology and light on fact.It s loud and long about ends but quietand short about means.It s polysyllabic.It dwells on processes notpeople.It s passive.These are all fine ways to say a whole lot less thanyou seem, at first, to be saying, while taking a very long time to do it.Writing like that intends not to include but to exclude its readers.Itmeans to fend them off, not to suffer them.Such writing is cautionand self-interest run amok.Its roots go down to fear and, deeper still,in some cases, to an instinct for keeping hold of one s secrets.Good writing transcends politics.It rises above fear.Within thelimits of professional care and political reality, it will speak plainly toits readers, aiming to say as much as possible, as economically as pos-sible.As opposed to the kind of fearful, political writing we encountertoo often, good writing will be humane, plain, active, informal, con-crete, clear, and specific.It will have a voice.It will have a life.Here are the things George Orwell thought writers should do tosave their prose from politics.1 Never use a metaphor, simile or other figure of speech you are used toseeing in print.2 Never use a long word where a short one will do. 42 writing well3 If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.4 Never use the passive where you can use the active.5 Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word or a jargon word if you canthink of an everyday English equivalent.6 Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.(george orwell, Politics and the English Language )Try thisSee if you can mend this paragraph, a victim of politics.Pursuant to the recommendations of our nominated consult-ants, an all-departmental initiative has been implemented,effective immediately, rationalizing human and financialresources in conformity with our strategic mission statement,which I am sure you have all internalized and made opera-tional in your teams.An organization-wide announcementon this decision will be circulated in the foreseeable future.Or this:At ground level, the next issue of Gardens Plus would havebeen an informative publication for our readers, however ithas been decided that Gardens Plus did not have the align-ment for our company direction, and hence does not coincidewith the bigger picture for our next five-year business plans.Short and right and niceAt the end of a workshop, Molly, in her Glaswegian accent, summa-rized my message thus: What you re saying is that you want it saidshort and right and nice. It sounded better in Scots.But it s thriftily put, and it says it prettywell. chapter 2SENTENCINGOn the craft of the sentenceI take it as a basic principle that anyone who aspires to use hisnative tongue professionally and publicly had better know it.wallace stegnerWranglingWhen these boots arrived at the door in a box and I put them on andwalked them up the stairs, my wife heard me coming.She stopped meon the way to my study at the top and pointed down. What are thesefor? she said.She wasn t saying how good they looked. They re yard boots, I explained. They re not meant to look pretty.They re meant to work. So when was the last time you did any actual work in boots of anykind? she said sweetly.Fairly.Cruelly.I got the boots to carry me to the shops, to push prams in to thepark, to negotiate the sand down there, to take the pavementscoming home, and to hold me up when I walk around teaching.That s work, isn t it? These past days by the lake, they ve come intotheir own as uncompromising, waterproof walking boots.But thetruth is I got them because I like boots, and I wanted these ones.And I ve been wondering down here why it is I like to sit (and to getup and pace around) and write in yard boots, and it came to me thatI m a wrangler.And what I wrangle is sentences.They come to mewild from the scrub.I rope a few at the edge of the trees and leadthem to the yards.I gentle them and whisper and bully them tame.After a little while, sometimes as short as a few hours, a few of themlet me on. 44 writing wellWhat I m doing is teaching them manners and technique a bitmore grace than they had when they found me.I need them to carryme where I want to go, and for that to look pretty smooth [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]