Carrying on with the Orwell theme I came across this article on the BBC concerning office-speak. Reading over it I was struck by how much of it is also used by politicians, both publicly and for internal meetings.
I realise I am not always known for the clarity of my writing – I do try though! But it is uncanny how easy it is to allow jargon and long words in place of simpler and clearer language. In particular for me I have a tendency to think using a combination of Marxist and scientific jargon, and I’m constantly reading over my past writings and cringing at them. I think that is a reflection of what i read mostly, Marxist texts and scientific (especially biology) documents, and that seeps into the brain unconsciously.
Its partly because of this that I try to balance my reading with some good literature, but workloads don’t always allow for that. In particular I read over the essays of George Orwell annually, especially ‘Why I Write‘ and ‘Politics and the English Language‘.
These two essays actually are central to my writing (both here and elsewhere) and thoughts about blogging, and I do strive to follow the advice given by Orwell. I know I don’t always succeed, but I do try. The essay on NewSpeak itself can be found here.
I was kind of curious though if there were any particular NewSpeak unique to Bermuda, or at least used more often here than elsewhere. Off hand I can think of a few deriving from local politics (‘platinum period’; ‘next level’; ‘train wreck in slow motion’), but I thought I would put it out there and see what people came up with.
Oh, and feel free to critique my own writing here using Orwell’s rules. I haven’t reread them now for some time…
At my old job, people talked non-stop about “synergy” to the point where the term was a cariacature of itself. Bleh.
The whole ‘testicular fortitude’ term used in politics of recent years is close to vomit-worthy.