Getting started

Dear all,

Because it may be difficult to know how to get started with all this, I drafted an invitation letter destined to a few people I thought would be interested in joining in the blog. This should give some direction to our project, at least in a general sense. Please read this before you post, just so we're all on the same wavelength.

Happy posting!

---------------------


Hi there!

This is an invitation to the weblog of our A2 English class, called Doublespeak. I would like you to join our campaign for clearer and better language in non-fiction writing.

We are basing our work on the essay *Politics and the English Language* by George Orwell, following up on his idea that sloppy language leads to sloppy thinking and eventually to endoctrination. We are going to choose texts from a variety of sources to comment on and even respond to, demanding clearer and better language. More than a grammatical spring cleaning, this is about demanding clear expression from those who deliberately hide what they believe, often using complicated or pretentious expressions as camouflage.

Your input, even a single post, would be very much appreciated! The recipe is:

1. Find a text which shows symptoms of doublespeak. Political commentary is the most obvious, but often seemingly 'objective' texts can be more interesting to analyse

2. Post the link, or paste a short passage to show the rest of it

3. Write your analysis of the text, to share with the rest of us. It is worth mentioning whether the linguistic 'camouflage' is any of the items Orwell describes in his essay (e.g. useless latinate words), or if you have picked up on a newer version of this.

4. Perhaps a plea to the author, if s/he is still alive, under the form of a letter which we could sign up to.


Hope you can have some fun with this. We certainly will!

Yours pedantically,

David