What I have learned from Orwell and Peters

Here is what I have learned from Orwell and Pam Peters over the past week (Peters wrote the “Cambridge Guide to English Usage”):

1. See people as people and not according to race. The names for coloured people (those who are not white) are always changing. No name seems to hold up for more than 60 years – and even then, it can mean different things in different countries. “Coloured” itself is an example. It can mean anyone who is not white, as in Britain, someone who is mixed-race, as in South Africa, or black, as in America. It is out of fashion in Britain and America, but is still in fashion in South Africa.So it is best to avoid such names whenever possible and instead see people as people and not according to colour (unless race is at issue, of course).
2. Use “he” when you mean “he or she”. Not “he or she”, not “he/she”, not “s/he”, not “she”, not “he” here and “she” there, not “they” – just “he”. It is far more natural, few notice and even those who do – who act as if “he” can never apply to women, in the face of both history and good sense – still know what you mean.These other ways of saying “he or she” are ugly and we do not yet know which, if any, will become the settled practice of English a hundred years from now. So no matter which one you pick, it is twisted in the end. Better to use “he” and seem, at worst, old-fashioned. At least you will be in good company, from Shakespeare to Orwell.
3. English affects thought, so good English matters. Following Orwell’s rules for writing is not just a matter of good writing – it also helps us to think more clearly. This means that Peters’s postmodern idea of “no right or wrong” in English is dangerous. From Peters’s point of view, she provides us with the facts and we make up our own mind – we are not babies. But unlike Orwell she gives us no way to discover and root out bad English other than “If everyone does it, it must be right”.This gives us a way to make our English as good as everyone else’s, but no way to make it better. And if English has fallen, we have no way to pick it up again – just a way to feel good about lying on the ground.
4. From Orwell’s example it is possible to write good Common English. Also: Common English can keep us from writing much that is bad.
5. If you follow reason, you wind up with a spelling that is a mix of British and American. Reason does not lie on just one side of the Atlantic. I would argue that the spellings favor, recognise, traveler, defense, dialogue and theatre make the most sense. Half British and half American.

See also:

• Pam Peter: The Cambridge Guide to English Usage
  • international English spelling
• Orwell’s “Politics and the English Language”