Why I Write? An Orwellian look at the use of the correct language

I once read a book by George Orwell, one of his later works if memory serves, entitled: Why I Write? (1946) In it a quote stands out: "Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful, murder respectable and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind." You have to really know Orwell to be able to appreciate the cynicism in his tone, but nonetheless a certain truth to it may be appreciated. After all he is the visionary author behind 1984, and we see in our daily lives that what he wrote in 1948 turns out to be true slowly but surely.

As a lawyer, a constitutional scholar to be exact, I mostly choose to use legal rather than political language, however, legal jargon (also called Legalese) is also met with a fair share of criticism for being overly technical from time to time. However, at least it does not make pure wind appear as a solid matter and it does not make murder respectable. Whether it is the specific jargon of press reviews compiled as part of daily work done in foreign service (working for embassies), whether it is summarizing court decisions for a school project or writing an essay for a Master class or a doctoral dissertation, the use of the correct language and intimate knowledge of the subject matter is always indispensable. This is how we provide information, and this is why we write. But! It also matters, how we do it.

Coming back to why I write; I was recently asked to write a couple of blog posts for a start-up blog by some of my former law students (Gordius / gordius.blog.hu), and it was then that I really got the hang of writing, outside the bounds of an academic paper. The way the Z generation does it. For a blog, no less.

If you were to ask me now why I write, and why for this blog especially, it would be because it is a good place to share ideas on International Relations, law and governance on the European level, democracy in Europe and across the globe, the whole nine yards. The use of the correct language (whether legal, diplomatic, political or professional) is of quintessential importance in International Relations. It might prevent, but it also might lead to war or deeper conflict. (For a current example, just think about the many tensions surrounding the use of language rights by minorities in many of the countries of the world, even right in our neighborhood.)

If the language is too legal, then non-lawyers will have difficulty reading it. Sadly, my earlier blog posts on Gordius met an early demise as the topic and language might have been too much technical. After all, I am a lawyer by profession, and most of the time professional specificity is required in legal texts. However, I have also worked for an embassy and did press review for a short bit, which required a different kind of language to be used: shortening journalistic publications in a concise but clear style and form, for use in the official communications within and by “the Center”: the nickname for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Starting this blog for the International and Regional Studies Institute and for all our students and colleagues (and all our readers other than the two previous groups), I hope will encourage me as well to step a little bit out of my depth, and try myself in writing (in many different types of languages) about topics other than my research field in constitutional law. Still, the main guideline is that I should try and avoid making lies sound truthful or give the appearance of solidity to pure wind.

I hope I shall find the time to do it, but in the meantime, I urge all of our future bloggers to ask and answer themselves: "Why I Write?" And also - while you are at it: maybe share a few thoughts here with us as well.

Márton Sulyok