Meaningless Words 2.4.2017

          Some writers purposely use large and complex words to make their writing seem more advanced. However, the use of these words play the opposite effect. According to George Orwell, these words serve no purpose and instead cause the author's main idea to be confusing. In reality, many people still use meaningless words. For example, Donald Trump uses the word "great" often, but the word is vaguely used and has no meaning in the context of what he is saying. Another example is the word "natural" in food advertisements. The word "natural" has no specific meaning, but is used just to make a product more appealing. Orwell believes that these jargon words can also cause readers to interpret a text differently compared to its original purpose.

          Orwell makes a strong argument about the negatives of using meaningless words in his text "Politics and the English Language." In the text, he starts off with giving examples of words that he considers meaningless, such as the use of the words "romantic, plastic, values, human, dead, sentimental..." in art criticism. This use of examples causes the reader to think about the use of these words and realize Orwell's point that these words have no meaning. Orwell makes his argument even more convincing with his comparison of a well-known verse from Ecclesiastes to what it would be written like in modern English. This comparison shows that modern English makes a text difficult to comprehend and seem desperate to sound sophisticated. Writing with complex words is not always a good thing if the word is just a filler with no meaning. If a writer has to think twice about putting a word in his/her writing, he/she should search for a new one.