My column in this morning’s Calgary Herald:
Here’s a simple request for Calgary’s municipal election candidates. Please read George Orwell’s 1946 essay Politics and the English Language before writing another word.
If you’re like me, you’ll cringe when you read it. The gist of Orwell’s essay is that English is in decline and that political writing, in particular, is characterized by “sheer cloudy vagueness.” Orwell lists the easy shortcuts we English speakers use when we want to avoid “the work of prose construction” — stale imagery, lack of precision, pretentious diction, meaningless words and so on. Anyone who writes anything is guilty of at least one, and probably more, of these infractions.
With the civic election three months away, there are plenty of examples of bad writing on mayoral candidates’ websites. Here’s one from Wayne Stewart’s: “Calgary is a great city, but we cannot rest on our laurels, we must move forward or we’ll fall behind.”
It’s a string of empty cliches…
Read more: http://www.calgaryherald.com/opinion/op-ed/campaign+gobbledygook/3264737/story.html#ixzz0tWmiGUzR
Peter Versluys
July 13th, 2010
Your opinion piece was both thought-provoking and timely for me. I was not previously aware of the Orwell essay, but now I’ve read it and plan to go through it again. I’m planning to run in the 2010 municipal elections (in Didsbury). My campaign prep will be influenced by your comments and the Orwell essay.
I’d like to share an article that was influential for me in past: “Red Queen Principle: explaining the fallacy of the status quo”-Municipal World, May 2003. Author is James A. Gordon.
I’m also a wannabe writer. Current project has working title of: “Idioms: colourful wisdom or distracting cliches”. I thought this was going to be a humor piece, but its taken on a different tone.
I can’t believe how influential idioms and proverbs and metaphors have been in my life. Many are deeply ingrained-but also stale,constraining and divisive. Writing has helped to take a step back from sayings that for many years were rotely expressed. My hope is that through observaion, reflection, and imagination I will generate my own bits of colourful wisdom.
jklaszus
July 16th, 2010
Definitely read the Orwell essay again — it’s well worth it. And good luck with your writing and your campaign…