Doublespeak Essay

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Meaningless Words William Lutz’s “The World of Doublespeak” strategically explains how language is being used to bend the truth. As it is Lutz feels as if he lives in a pit of unexplained mysteries. Lutz exquisitely explains that doublespeak is just a new way to get around the truth without actually having to tell a fable by expressing them through extensive examples. Doublespeak as perceived by Lutz is a way of making an idea- or object- sound more interesting than it possible is. Through examples Lutz attempts to persuade readers to believe that doublespeak is “simply inflated language.” By using common examples such as “toothbrush” and explaining how in doublespeak it may be called a “home plaque removal instrument” shows that really doublespeak truly is just a way of making things sound fancy. Later on in the passage Lutz graduates to more graphic and detailed examples of doublespeak. Lutz uses the striking example of “the murder of three American nuns” to trigger the reader’s feeling of desire to know the truth, but by using doublespeak “Secretary Haig” is able to raise doubt that maybe the nuns were at fault. More directly Lutz uses the word “diversion” to explain that basically when people use doublespeak they are tricking their audience by creating diversions through language. Such diversions consist of “millions of dollars” which is not truly from raising the money, but also “overcharging Iran for arms.” As if selling arms to Iran has gotten the government anywhere, but into more debt. That being said Lutz also used words like “cleaned” and “fixed” to explain that by diverting the citizens thoughts using doublespeak the government was able to cover up or stash any evidence of the deals made for arms. In other words Lutz honestly wrote this essay to inform the reader of the deception that doublespeak causes if they are not well educated on the things

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