to George Orwell, this evolution of the English language is full of bad habits which are spread by

imitation and which are leading to the general collapse of English. This bad English is caused by

various mental vices which lead to bad writing that is vague that and lacks precision. These mental

vices include the use of dying metaphors, pretentious diction, and meaningless words. The

combination of these mental vices give Modern English a certain staleness of imagery and lack of

While a good metaphor assists an author by evoking a visual image in the reader,

"dying"metaphors that are too commonly used can lose their vividness. For example, in an article

for the Ottawa Citizen, Dan Leeth described the landscape of the Grand Canyon as vast

emptiness", a metaphor that has lost it's effect on the reader due to the fact that it is used too

frequently in Modern English. Another way that a metaphor can lose it's effect on the reader is

when it is manipulated by the author and twisted out of context. For example,

like "deft direction" and "performers cavort". Instead of using these words, the authors could use

often string words together in long passages that are completely lacking in meaning. Instead of

that intrigues with starkness, yielding no hint that

thunders..." and "...taken the theater scene by storm" are too frequently used just because the

pretentious diction is when large, useless words are used in sentences where it would be

Some common words found in the essay are:
Modern English, English Authors, George Orwell, Randall Denley, Jamie Portman, Grand Canyon, , modern english, pretentious diction, words sentences, meaningless words, Dan Leeth, mental vices, words sentences appear, diction meaningless words, dying metaphors, metaphors pretentious, diction meaningless, pretentious diction meaningless, sentences appear, example article, metaphors pretentious diction, it's effect reader,
Approximate Word count = 763
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)