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Annotated Bibliography

Orwell, George. Politics and the English language. London: Penguin, 2013. Print.

Language helps us to effectively communicate with one another. Orwell, George focuses

on the position of language, specifically the English language. It has been modified by the

political issues. The English language has developed as a result of civilization. This paper

creates an annotated bibliography based on the text “Politics and the English Language,” by

Orwell, George, 2013 focusing on how it has changed and how it can be protected and reinstated.

According to Orwell (2013), modern English is based on words that contain meaningful

content and images that make the meaning clearer. The modern English writing has experienced

growth with time. It consists of gumming together long strips of words that have been already set

by a person and made more presentable by sheer humbug, making it easy to write in the English

language. Simple words such as “I think,” have made writing easier and more attractive.

However, what it shows is that there is a transformation of the English language and writing.

Orwell (2013), argues that there is a decrease of the English language, which must have occurred

as a result of economical and political issues. The English language has simply been influenced

by these factors. The modern English, particularly, the written English is full of bad habits.

These habits spread as a result of imitation by the writers. Indeed, when a writer wants to say

something, he or she is faced with questions such as “what am I trying to say?” “What words

will express it?” “What image or idiom will make it clearer”? “Have I said anything that is
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avoidably ugly?” (Orwell 631). Orwell (2013) claims that some of the bad behaviors can be

avoided which can make one think clearer. It is the first step of political regeneration.

Political writing has typically changed the English language. Drawing from Orwell

(2013), political writing is bad writing. Writers who used to write political writings rebelled

against good writing and expressed their private opinions, thus affecting the English language.

The political languages that were found in leading articles, pamphlets, white papers, speeches,

manifestos never incorporated the homemade turn of speech. Indeed, when an individual

watched some tired hack on the framework, instinctively repeated conversant phrases such as

iron heel, atrocities, bestial, bloodstained tyranny and so on. Orwell claims that such a speaker

turned himself into a machine because the speech or the writing made is one that he or she is

used to make over and over again (Orwell 632). As such, it reduced the state of the writer’s

consciousness at any rate favorable to political conformity.

The great enemy of the English language is the lack of sincerity. According to Orwell

(2013), when a gap is created between a person real and declared aims, the person turns as the

words along and contain exhausted idioms such as cuttlefish spurting out ink. It is what mark the

modern English language. Previously, such things never happened. So, all matters are political

matters and politics itself is a mass of deceptions, folly, evasions, schizophrenia and hatred.

When the entire climate is bad, language suffers from political matters. In regards to political

matter, the German, the Italian and the Russian languages have all depreciated over the years due

to dictatorship. Fortunately, language has the potential of corrupting an individual thought. A bad

usage of language has the ability to be spread by imitation and tradition, even among individuals

who ought to and do know better. The raid of thoughts can only be safeguarded in a person is

constantly on guard against them and the rejection in the usage of such phrase.
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The transformation of the English language is reversible. According to Orwell (2013), the

corruption of language is probably curable because it reflects the present social conditions,

meaning that the growth of language cannot be influenced by any direct tinkering with

constructions or words. Indeed, stupid and silly words have vanished through the conscious

deeds of a minority. For instance, words such as ‘leave no stone unturned’ vanished as a result

of jeers of a few journalists. The worst thing that can happen is surrendering to the words to give

meaning. The mistakes that are made when writing or speaking the English language happens

due to choices of words. For instance, when an individual thinks of a concrete object, he or she

thinks wordlessly and then hunt for the best word that will give meaning or fit in. A person has

the potential to prevent such things to happen by choosing the correct words and prevent blurred

meaning. So, despite the fact that bad habits cannot be changed all in a moment, churning from

bad habits can reinstate good language.

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Work cited

Orwell, George. Politics and the English language. London: Penguin, 2013. Print.