[kldaace]

I don't know whether this has been or can be studied formally, but anecdotally I think modern writing often suffers from excess verbiage. Essays sometimes go on for a long time without saying much, and this can cause a lot of frustration for readers. I'm sure many of you have felt this frustration when reading political opinion pieces.

A fun exercise that illustrates Orwell's point, when reading a sentence, see how much you can reduce it without losing its original meaning. For instance, I frame your question as follows:

"Do we know if this has been studied? It's not obvious that succinctness is better for readability and comprehension. It might be worse."

You can think of this as the writer's version of code golf.

[carlob]

>but anecdotally I think modern writing often suffers from excess verbiage.

I love how meta this sentence is :)

[kldaace]

;)

[anilgulecha]

On a tangential note, most of pg's articles are succinct and to the point. I feel he pays special attention to using the minimum number of words to express an idea.. one of the reasons I enjoy reading his essays.

[TheOtherHobbes]

PG is an exceptionally good essayist.

The content is.. often very debatable. But I think the style and presentation are so good they should be studied in schools.

[conistonwater]

You changed the meaning! For example, "It's not quite so obvious" means "It's not as obvious as Orwell seems to think it is", and is not the same as "It's not obvious". (Otherwise the "quite" would have been unnecessary, and I wouldn't have used it.)

;)

[denzil_correa]

> anecdotally I think modern writing often suffers from excess verbiage.

Ironical, given that verbiage itself means excess.