My thoughts on "Politics and the English Language" and "The Science of Scientific Writing"

Given what is going on in the world today and particularly our country, I think that George Orwell’s essay “Politics and the English Language” holds particularly true. Often politicians like to make their people feel inferior or manipulate their lack of knowledge in order to get ahead in their political ambitions. This is shown in political writings with politicians choosing complicated words and metaphors to get their points across. This confuses its citizens who then become misinformed in the process. Orwell is arguing that these writings should be in their simplest form.

This really struck a chord with me (hah) because I think that in college, students feel pressured to make their writing sound extremely academic and will just end up creating more difficulty than is necessary or worse, jargon. As I am learning to become a better writer, I will keep this in my mind and try not to use elaborate speech. Simplicity is sometimes more important when writing.

In regards to Swan’s piece, “The Science of Scientific Writing” I felt hesitant to read it because I am so absolutely scared of science. It was actually my worst subject in school and I always had difficulty understanding the texts. This piece really resonated with me however, because it taught me how to think about structuring things in my writing. I think that the basic formulas of writing are often not reiterated enough in schools. While I do cringe at the word science, I think that this piece breaks down the process of writing and what it takes to be a good writer.