George Orwell, the infamous writer of many novels and nonfiction essays, gives his opinion on good writing in his essay “Politics and the English Language.” He states that good writing “ needs rules that one can rely on when instinct fails” (214). This “instinct” is the writer’s instinct to know how to write, and good writing “cuts out all stale or mixed images, all prefabricated phrases, needless repetitions, and humbug and vagueness generally” (Orwell 214). This sentence is rather ironic because Orwell is essentially telling the reader that good writing is not vague, uses short and simple words, and unnecessarily repeated phrases; however, his sentence is rather vague and unclear itself. Regardless, he is saying that he believes good writing contains those specific elements no matter what, even if he does not practice what he preaches. There are plenty of people that would agree and to a certain extent, they could be right. Writing does need to have some of these rules, however, it is not true for all writing, especially in nonfiction. There are many times when an essay or journalistic writing requires sophisticated words and jargon, but it all depends on the purpose of the writing and the needs of the
George Orwell, the infamous writer of many novels and nonfiction essays, gives his opinion on good writing in his essay “Politics and the English Language.” He states that good writing “ needs rules that one can rely on when instinct fails” (214). This “instinct” is the writer’s instinct to know how to write, and good writing “cuts out all stale or mixed images, all prefabricated phrases, needless repetitions, and humbug and vagueness generally” (Orwell 214). This sentence is rather ironic because Orwell is essentially telling the reader that good writing is not vague, uses short and simple words, and unnecessarily repeated phrases; however, his sentence is rather vague and unclear itself. Regardless, he is saying that he believes good writing contains those specific elements no matter what, even if he does not practice what he preaches. There are plenty of people that would agree and to a certain extent, they could be right. Writing does need to have some of these rules, however, it is not true for all writing, especially in nonfiction. There are many times when an essay or journalistic writing requires sophisticated words and jargon, but it all depends on the purpose of the writing and the needs of the