English 4UI

Orwell Essay Assignment

Tips

Learning Goals We will read and understand George Orwell's essay

"Politics and the English Language" We will understand Orwell's writing rules  We will understand how to use rhetorical devices with skill

and effectiveness in our writing We will understand how to identify and analyze examples

of good and bad writing We will understand how to apply Orwell's rules to our own

writing We will be able to use punctuation correctly and accurately

The Task

Illustrate the principles of graceful writing Find a sample of bad writing; tell what is

bad about it, and tell what effect it has on the reader

Find a sample of good writing; tell what is good about it, and tell what effect it has on the reader

Bad Writing: where can you look?!

Politicians (eg. George Bush, Sarah Palin)

The media (eg. newspapers, letters to the editor, articles, etc.)

Good writing: Where can you look?

Consider the models from class (eg. Churchill, Kennedy); find a fresh example

Novels (eg. one of your Independent Study novels or another recent read)

The Bible, Milton, classics, etc. Other great political orators (eg.

Abraham Lincoln, Barack Obama, etc.)

Structure

4 paragraph essay Introduction (introduce the pieces of writing—

authors, sources) 1st body paragraph: sample of bad writing,

what is bad about it, what effect does it have? 2nd body paragraph: sample of good writing,

what is good about it, what effect does it have? (save best argument for last)

conclusion

Thesis

Create 2 principle clauses; use a semi-colon!

First clause: tell what makes the first writing sample bad and what effect it has

Second clause: tell what makes the second writing sample good and what effect it has

Be sure to identify the kind of good/bad writing and its effect

Model thesis:

Bad political writing confuses and bores the reader with jargon and redundancies; good political writing, on the other hand, with vivid adjectives, forceful verbs and effective sound devices like assonance, alliteration, and onomatopoeia, drives the reader to emotion through the mental images it creates.

Topic Sentences

1st body paragraph: topic sentence should come from first half of thesis

2nd body paragraph: topic sentence should come from 2nd half of thesis

Body Paragraphs for body paragraphs, explain what kind of

good/bad writing it is eg. if writing is bad because it lacks

parallelism, illustrate the lack of parallelism in the example; be specific (specify)

then explain what is the effect (eg. good imagery creates a visual picture in the reader's mind; pretentious diction loses the reader because the meaning is not clear)

make your argument about bad writing stronger by rewriting it in better English

Not about citation

This essay is not about citation; no works cited list needed

Rather, include the author, source (eg. title of article and newspaper, or title of novel) right in your paragraph

You can cite the page number of a novel Eg. “Sunrise, tantalize” (45).