…according to George Orwell, one of the finest novelists and essayists of the last century, good writing in the English Language should obey six simple rules. It was the height of irony to see them summarized on Twitter this evening, shortly after I had completed the mammoth task of going through the references for all 200+ university applicants at Bishop’s. Short though the sections of prose in those references are, reading all of those words written by all of those different people did get me thinking about what makes a good writer, and whether great writers are born or trained.
I remember having that same thought when I was last drinking coffee at the Nero outside Broadcasting House, with the statue of Orwell jabbing his finger rather aggressively in my direction. Then too, I was about to draft a blog, and there’s nothing like the proximity of a memorial to a literary genius to emphasize the feeling of inadequacy when opening the laptop…
Those six rules then:
- Never use a metaphore, simile or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print;
- Never use a long word where a short one will do;
- If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out;
- Never use the passive where you can use the active;
- Never use a foreign phrase, scientific word or jargon if you can think of an English equivalent and
- Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous!
It is hugely important that youngsters learn to write clearly and succinctly. That is one of the key jobs that schools need to concentrate on and, to be perfectly honest I see plenty of examples of poorly structured, mis-spelt and unclear writing which arrives at my email inbox daily. I recall an elderly relative (an ex-Head of an infant school) bemoaning educational standards in modern schooling. There is that temptation, as we get older, to look back and fantasize about how things were better back then. They probably weren’t – there were just different methods and technology. The need for teaching of writing is still as it always has been, and the importance of reading and creative writing has in no way diminished. English Departments still lie right at the heart of what we do in schools, though the responsibility for encouraging reading and developing sound writing skills spills across the curriculum and throughout the age groups.
Another Orwell quote hits home; “If people cannot write well, they cannot think well, and if they cannot think well then others will do their thinking for them”. That thought underpins Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, where Newspeak is the minimalist means of communication and as a result populations run out of words to express their ideas and emotions. Words are important, just as much now in a post-truth World as they always have been. We can’t all write like an Orwell, but writing for analysis, for meaning and for different audiences is still a central part of what we should all be trying to teach our youngsters, whatever the context or the subject matter might be.
Now – I must look back over some of those blogs…!
SDS
