Name
Block
Mr. Lee
Date
Orwell Says, I Say Prompt
The following sentences are from the later half of Orwell’s “The Politics of English Language”. In a
piece no longer than 2 pages, select one of the claims and respond to it using the ideas
presented in They Say, I Say. Regardless of whether you agree, disagree, or wish to qualify
Orwell’s original statement, it is imperative that you:
 Revisit the location of the claim in order to ensure you are not taking it out of context
 Provide rationale and evidence as justification for your response
 Develop the elements of your response in a manner that does not necessitate intimate
knowledge of your sources or the essay for comprehension
Here is a list of his claims:
1. In our time, political speech and writing are largely the defense of the indefensible.
2. The inflated style itself is a kind of euphemism.
3. If thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.
4. This invasion of one's mind by ready-made phrases can only be prevented if one is
constantly on guard against them, and every such phrase anaesthetizes a portion of
one's brain.
5. The decadence of our language is probably curable. Those who deny this would argue, if
they produced an argument at all, that language merely reflects existing social conditions,
and that we cannot influence its development by any direct tinkering with words and
constructions. So far as the general tone or spirit of a language goes, this may be true,
but it is not true in detail.
6. Political language -- and with variations this is true of all political parties, from
Conservatives to Anarchists -- is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder
respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind. One cannot change this
all in a moment, but one can at least change one's own habits, and from time to time one
can even, if one jeers loudly enough, send some worn-out and useless phrase…into the
dustbin, where it belongs.
Other notes:
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This piece will be due via Turn It In by 11:59 PM on Friday, September 25th.
You do not have to produce a works cited page or a bibliography, but you must write in a
manner that precludes any question as to where you are getting your information from
(tell me the source of a quotation in your sentence).
Our class will not pause for this assignment; you will continue work on your summer
reading essay as well as other materials as we move forward with our curriculum.
It will be worth 10% of your Term 1 Grade.