NCEA English 3.4 Writing Folio – Critical Review of Nineteen Eighty-Four
Quote analysis “there will be no words in which to express it. every concept that can ever be needed will be expressed by exactly one word.”
this quote from 1984 expresses a dystopia an alternate future. In our present time the global vocabulary is constantly modernising with new words being created and outdated words becoming forgotten or brought back to the forefront of our minds with different meanings “gay” for example has changed meaning as it started off as a descriptive word for cheerfulness then changed to express one’s sexual orientation and this modern interpretation of the word has been used with both negative and more recently positive connotations as the modern world has adjusted to accommodate all people no matter what race,gender,religion,or sexual orientation they identify as.
However, 1984’s future is dissimilar from our current reality as in the quote they aim to take the soul out of literature. They plan to execute this by merging concepts and definitions of words to be seen and spoken as one, for example, a word like happy has many alternate interpretations such as content, glad etc however in 1984 they remove the alternate ways of expressing the word until it is just “good” or “plus good”.the reason they do this is to restrict the level to which people can think due to fact that once all words are outlawed there will be nothing to think. no way to process thoughts without vocabulary no way to convey feelings to one another and most importantly in 1984 no way to conspire against the government. Most individuals find not being able to verbalise thoughts let alone process thoughts can be frustrating. However, the average people in this dystopia seem so numbed and committed on partaking in the governments every wish that they are fine with letting the developed language that has been spoken and improved for well over a thousand years deteriorate and be lost.
However, Syme’s attitude towards this destruction in 1984 is strangely excitement although it suits the tone of the novel to me personally it comes across as ignorance.
You have understood the intention of the question, however in the draft at this point it is unclear where you are planning to take the article. The areas for attention lie with the structure and writing aspect of this piece:
1) You must set up the article a lot more thoroughly in the introduction. Your reader should be able to get a clear sense of the ideas you’re examining – the fact that you’ve decided to pick up on a warning issued by George Orwell in and explore this in relation to the world today. This needs context. What is Nineteen Eighty-Four? What kind of text? What effect has it had on the world or you as a reader? Why would it make sense to make parallels between it and today?
2) Your sentence structures are overly repetitive. Your first two paragraphs start with the formulation of ‘Article – noun’ (A… thing). This provides no insight into the fact that you’re discussing your or George Orwell’s ideas. This structure simply states facts in terms that they exist. To make your writing compelling, it’s important to use active verbs and a variety of sentence structures – some to explore nuances (complex sentences) and some to hammer points home.
3) Explore the use of figurative language in your own writing to help illuminate (that’s a metaphor) the ideas you’re expressing.
Speak to me if you’d like me to expand on any of this advice.
Not Achieved
This piece is incomplete.