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Pith
Of all those
arts in which the wise excel, Nature's chief masterpiece is writing well.
— Sheffield, Duke of Buckinghamshire
Bad writing
exists because people either have nothing to say, do not know how to say it, or
deliberately conceal what they really want or mean to say.
So says George Orwell in "Politics and the English
Language."
Using a well-known verse from Ecclesiastes, Orwell
translates "a passage of good English into modern English of the worst sort":
King James Version, 1611 |
Modern Version, 1946 |
I returned and saw
under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither
yet bread to the wise, nor riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill;
but time and chance happeneth to them all.
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Objective considerations of contemporary phenomena compels the conclusion
that success or failure in competitive activities exhibits no tendency to be commensurate
with innate capacity, but that a considerable element of the unpredictable must invariably
be taken into account." |
Orwell penned
"Politics and the English Language" in 1946. In the 53 years since then, has the
English language continued to change for better or worse? Readers, send us your heat! Give
us your light! We welcome examples of both pith and palaver. Contact
editor@persuasivepen.com.
See these links: http://plainlanguage.com http://plainlanguage.gov |
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