Rhetorical Analysis Of George Orwell's Politics And The English Language

443 Words2 Pages
In George Orwell’s critical essay “Politics and the English Language” he argues that the English language is failing in its effectiveness to successfully communicate. He makes the bold claim that, due to factors like trite figurative speech, meaningless inclusions to sentences, and unnecessarily large words, mankind has become more slovenly and less respectable overall. The author then goes on to provide examples of these specific fallacies, as well as discuss writing as an overall topic. The purpose of sharing these opinions with his audience, other writers and critics, was to introduce the prominent connection between politics and the current decline of language. As politicians manipulate and advocate, their diction and connotation becomes of the utmost significance, and Orwell…show more content…
Orwell, a highly respected and revered author, is qualified to comment on the style, diction, and appropriateness of other’s writing because he has already triumphed in these fields. However, he still manages to convey his ideas through a serious but manipulative tone. Although a slight sense of authoritativeness permeates his declarations, this is voluntary as it assists in the development of ethos throughout the passage. He utilizes examples in order to illustrate his claims; these are derived from sources such as an essay on psychology published in Politics, and a letter in Tribune. Within the letter, topics like, “humanization and galvanization” (Orwell 532, 6) are discussed, which appear to be scholarly and advanced. Orwell, ensuring to refer to the educators often, only received examples from professors. This has the effect the Orwell is above the professors in stature because he is correcting them, and, subconsciously, this causes the readers to place more trust in the author of the piece than his cited counterparts. An additional method which Orwell thoroughly implements is irony through exemplification. Subsequently to the introduction of each of his corrections,

    More about Rhetorical Analysis Of George Orwell's Politics And The English Language

      Open Document