Politics and the English Language Reflection — 2/5

         In his piece Politics and the English Language, George Orwell expresses his thoughts about what he considers "bad writing." He believes bad writing has unclear thoughts, poor sentence structure, and is filled with filler words. Poor writing also consist of elements such as dying metaphors, verbal false limbs, and pretentious diction. They stem from our "foolish thoughts" and bad writing habits. Orwell states, however, that these issues can be fixed if one were to take its time educating and correcting himself. In his piece, he uses an analogy to build his argument. He states, "A man may drink because he feels himself to be a failure, and then fail all the more completely because he drinks." This analogy shows that reading and emulating bad writing becomes a cycle and can form bad habits. Poor writing is hard to read because the writer fails to express himself clearly and efficiently. It sounds like he or she is trying to fit in as many details as possible into a sentence, but the audience ends up feeling lost. I agree with Orwell's claim because I have seen "bad writing" in social media, everyday conversations, and even on published texts. Over time, people misconstrue the original meanings of some phrases and even overuse some phrases to the point where the statement loses its original definition. This makes it more difficult to understand what people are expressing.