ORWELL—WRITING SHOULD BE LIKE SPOKEN LANGUAGE.

ORWELLL—WRITING SHOULD BE LIKE SPOKEN LANGUAGE. It may seem that the extreme space limitations on texts and tweets and the short cuts and abbreviations that they have produced show that the internet is corrupting the language. Simon Kuper, who takes the view that “…mostly, social media have done wonders for writing”, argues that getting written language closer to speech is a good thing. In this he agrees with George Orwell, who recommended that in writing “you habitually say to yourself, ‘Could I simplify this? Could I make it more like speech?” Kuper quotes from this article by Orwell: “Spoken English is full of slang, it is abbreviated wherever possible, and people of all social classes treat its grammar and syntax in a slovenly way.” Slang, abbreviations, slovenly grammar and syntax—just like texting.