As i began reading this essay by George Orwell titled Politics and the English Language I started to see how much i use common phrases and metaphors, just as he was discussing, in papers or even everyday writing. Its so easy to turn to what sounds good than what the truth of your writing really is. He talks about making your writing interesting and still bringing the point through to the reader without changing words and meaning to sound scientific. The fact of the matter is that a lot of times we try to sound smart by using words we may not even know the meaning too. Which in turn makes us look very dumb.
Orwell then set up a few general rules to not use commonly worked phrases or metaphors especially when they don't fit with your writing. Secondly don't try to fluff up your paper when you find nothing to write about, such as using bigger words where a smaller word would fill it in just fine. And if the word is smaller and more accurate it should definitely be used over the vague larger word. Another idea he brings up is to use the active verbs over the passive meaning use "running" over needing to run. Once again this is another way for you to add more bulk to your paper but in the end you need to be precise and more accurate rather than vague and having a lot of big extravagant words to deal with.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment