Reading Arguments

Reading Arguments

1. What two qualities do Orwell’s “five specimens” (para. 2) share? According to Orwell, what is the “most marked characteristic of modern English prose, and especially of any kind of political writing” (4)?
2. Where in the essay does Orwell use deductive reasoning?
3. How does Orwell use cause-and-effect argument in his essay? For instance, how does he use it to explain why political speech and writing are bad? What other examples of cause-and-effect argument can you identify?
4. Orwell argues that “political language” consists “largely of euphemism, question-begging, and sheer cloudy vagueness” (13). What is a euphemism? What does “question-begging” mean?
5. Where does Orwell make a proposal argument? What does he propose?

Reading Argument Answer

George Orwell, “Politics and the English Language”

1. The two qualities which Orwell’s ‘five specimens’ share is cause and effect. The most marked characteristic of modern English prose, especially political writing, is the inability to have meaning and to express it. He defined this as vagueness and sheer incompetence, which renders modern English prose and political writing as futile.

2. He used deductive reasoning in paragraph two as he described that language have “political and economic causes.”