Doublespeak Essays

Lutz’s unique style in this essay helps reveal his message about the dangers of doublespeak. He sets up his essay with a distinguishing style in order to develop his purpose - to not only help people to recognize doublespeak but to also oppose the dangerous aspects of it. Lutz begins his essay with examples of doublespeak. All the examples, “pavement deficiencies” for potholes, “revenue enhancement” for taxes, and “fiscal underachievers” for the lower class, are specific to a common situation that

In William Lutz’ “Doubts About Doublespeak”, the reader is given thorough explanations and examples of how doublespeak is used in society. He breaks down doublespeak into four different categories; euphemisms, jargon, gobbledygook and inflated language. The four of these types of doublespeak share the similarity that they are words or phrases that make something negative or bad sound good. Lutz doesn’t support the use of doublespeak and thinks of it as a deceiving approach to explain realities to

read doublespeak every day, but if you were to ask a person what doublespeak was, they’ll more than likely have no clue what you’re talking about. What exactly is Doublespeak? Doublespeak, often called “soft language”, or “doubletalk”, is language that has been distorted or changed in order to make an unpleasant, difficult, or just negative situation not sound nearly as awful as it actually is. In his essay “The World of Doublespeak”, author William Lutz discusses the ways in which doublespeak is

In the essay, “Life under the Chief Doublespeak Officer,” the author, William Lutz, describes the use of doublespeak and its effects on society. Life under the Chief Doublespeak Officer’s purpose is to express to the reader the way corporations try and cover up the real meaning behind what is going on through the use of doublespeak. The saying, “say what you mean and mean what you say” is the complete opposite of what doublespeak is. Double speak is saying what needs to be said to cover up the real

What is Doublespeak? Doublespeak is an old language that grew in the past and show the positive aspects of negativity. William Lutz wrote a book called, “Doublespeak: From Revenue Enhancement to Terminal Living” (The World of Doublespeak 347). He explains what doublespeak is and provides examples for each kind of doublespeak. Lutz was born in 1940. He has a Bachelor degree, a Masters degree, a Ph.D., and a JD from different universities. Lutz has written, co-written, or edited other books from different

Zelig (1983), featuring the main protagonist of the same name who can transform to any group he is with, is a mockumentary produced by Woody Allen. According to Stam, a commenter on Woody Allen’s production, describes Zelig as a film in which “artistic discourse is tested in its relationship to social reality” (196), which means that Allen attempts to use Zelig as a challenge to the media representation on what is reality. I would suggest that Zelig’s importance lies on three aspects: The challenge

Explore the ways that written and spoken language are used as a tool of control in Animal Farm. The pig’s knowledge of technical farming aspects from their ability to read, allows them to assume leadership positions. From the very start of the book the pigs are portrayed as the brains of the farm. We are first presented with this aspect when, in chapter 1, the pigs reveal that they have learnt to read and write: “The pigs now revealed that during the past three months they had taught themselves

“We Are All Confident Idiots” by David Dunning presents a phenomenon that people often fail to recognize their own ignorance. The article was recently published on the website of Pacific Standard, and it intends to reach a wide range of readers, among them, American youth and teachers are probably the main target audience. Living in a time surrouds by expedient aceess to knowledge, people however are not any wiser. Dunning sharply points out the great extent of confidence that different people show

Corinne LaLonde Professor Creighton CWP 102 8am March 8th, 2018 Critical Analysis of Men and Women in Conversation is Cross-Cultural Communication The issue of differences between men and women in conversation has been a subject of overreaching research, with various scholars in the subject of linguistics providing different views and conclusions. The current paper criticizes an excerpt of Deborah Tannen’s work, Men and Women in Conversation is Cross-Cultural Communication. In the exceprt of her

In his essay “The World of Doublespeak,” William Lutz define doublespeak as “a blanket term for language which makes the bad seem good, the negative appear positive, the unpleasant attractive, or at least tolerable” (2013). Lutz goes on to claim “It is language which avoids, shifts, or denies responsibility” (2013). He explains the purpose of doublespeak is to “mislead, distort, deceive, inflate” (2103). Based on many of his examples, such as wording an airplane as an airplane that has had “uncontrolled

Paraphrasing In my opinion, the purpose of the essay, “Life under the Chief Doublespeak Officer” the author, William Lutz shares a descriptive analogy of doublespeak words and terms used in this era by American businesses to manipulate. These words and terms are used everywhere from the corporate world, financial institutions to small independent businesses. One descriptive writing pattern used in this essay is compare the Unfamiliar to the Familiar where Lutz used buzzwords as “competitive dynamics”

In the essay Doubts about Doublespeak, William Lutz explores this concept of altering language to conceal one’s true meaning. Lutz gives several examples of governments using words with positive connotations in order to put a positive spin on negative events. “Do you question politicians

The art of deception William D. Lutz is an American linguist who specialized in the use of plain language and the avoidance of doublespeak. In the article ‘Empty Eggs: The Doublespeak of Weasel Words’, the author describes, how these days, are flooded ads in magazines, in newspapers,on the forums or websites in internet ,on TV or on billboards. Lots of these advertising claims for the products sound concrete, specific, and objective. However, William Lutz, in this topic points out that these

that while men and women may communicate differently, both are valid forms of communication, merely using language both parties understand will enhance understanding between the two groups. On the other hand, in William Lutz article, “The World of Doublespeak,” he takes a different approach to language discrepancies. Describing double speak as a detriment to communication, thus, should be eliminated to enhance communication. While both authors explore the concept of language use, the authors use different

The Cliché Barrier A cliché is a clever word, phrase or opinion that has been so overused, that it has lost all meaning and betrays a lack of original thought. Clichés tend to quickly kill the meaning of what you are trying to communicate. When listeners hear or read a cliché, they quickly take note of it and begin to cross-reference and compare it to the other past experiences in which they experienced the cliché. The listener or reader then loses all interest in the message trying to be conveyed

Six Major Obstacles to Effective Business Communication The class book insists, "To avoid obstacles to communication we should avoid clichés, jargon, slang, sexist and racist language, euphemisms, and doublespeak" (Business Communication, 2012, p. 63). Let us define each of them and see how they can serve us a bad service and, maybe we will find them useful in rare circumstances. The first obstacle to communication is Clichés. Cliché merely is a hackneyed phrase. The course book adds that "cliché

A Cliché is an expression that was once a new way to describe or express something but has been used so often that it is tiresome and boring to hear, yet again! (Literary Devices 2016) The perfect example of how a cliché comes to pass would be the word “epiphany.” Several years ago, talk show host Oprah Winfrey mentioned on a show that she had bumped her head on the side of the bathtub or something and serenely proclaimed that she “had an epiphany.” And suddenly every female between the ages of Soccer-Mom

In 1984 by George Orwell, the theme of danger following totalitarianism appears through various literary devices, tone, and syntax. For instance, on page 267 Orwell writes, “Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows”(Orwell 267). To elucidate, this citation emphasizes the importance of intellectual freedom and the ability to express thoughts and ideas freely. Specifically, the use of simple mathematical concepts highlights the basic nature of

Nowadays, persuasion has become an inevitable element of everyday life. Persuasion is used towards certain person or specific group of people. Even though the persuasive process is noticeable, the problem of defining and understanding persuasion still occurs. Persuasion has been investigated for many yearyears till today. The first one who studied and examined persuasion was Aristotle, raising the topic in his Rhetoric . Basing on the definition given by Aristotle, many scientists have created their

In English 102 this was taught through “Language That Manipulates: Politics, Propaganda, and Doublespeak.” One article students in English 102 examined was, “Selection, Slanting, and Charged Language.” This article explained that language can act as a filter. The principle of selection determines what information people take in. The information must