POLITICS AND THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

George Orwell's essay "Politics and the English Language" argues that the decline of English is reversible and that avoiding bad habits of writing can help people think more clearly, which is a necessary first step toward political regeneration. He holds that the decline has political and economic causes, but that bad language also reinforces those causes. The essay identifies staleness of imagery and lack of precision as common faults in modern English prose, especially political writing. It then lists habits such as dying metaphors, verbal "operators" like "render inoperative," and pretentious diction, and it cites five sample passages from writers including Harold Laski and Lancelot Hogben as examples.