- Sep 12, 2008
- 14,201
- 3,567
- 185
I have believed in the quotation below forever. Sloppy thinking leads to sloppy writing. Incoherent prose is the result of incoherent thoughts.
This is from an essay by Jonah Goldberg.
Words have meaning, and transferring meaning by words to places it does not belong, or covering up meaning in polysyllabic mush makes me doubt you.
You want to sell an idea, you need to be clear, direct and complete.
This is from an essay by Jonah Goldberg.
Orwell argued that bad thinking and bad language are, in the parlance of today's twelve-step culture, mutual enablers. "A man may take to drink because he feels himself to be a failure, but then fail all the more completely because he drinks," Orwell noted by way of illustration. The English language "becomes ugly and inaccurate because our thoughts are foolish, but the slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts."
This was especially true in the realm of political speech. He noted in his brilliant 1946 essay "Politics and the English Language" that "In our time, political speech and writing are largely the defense of the indefensible." The "transfer of populations" or the "elimination of unreliable elements" were, for example, what people say when they really mean, "I believe in killing my opponents when I can get good results by doing so."
Words have meaning, and transferring meaning by words to places it does not belong, or covering up meaning in polysyllabic mush makes me doubt you.
You want to sell an idea, you need to be clear, direct and complete.