Orwell Award

The NCTE George Orwell Award for Distinguished Contribution to Honesty and Clarity in Public Language (the Orwell Award for short) is an award given since 1975 by the Public Language Award Committee of the National Council of Teachers of English. It is awarded annually to "writers who have made outstanding contributions to the critical analysis of public discourse."^[1]

Noam Chomsky, Donald Barlett, and James B. Steele are the only recipients to have won twice.

Its negative counterpart, awarded by the same body, is the Doublespeak Award, "an ironic tribute to public speakers who have perpetuated language that is grossly deceptive, evasive, euphemistic, confusing, or self-centered."^[2]

Winners

1970s

1975: David Wise for The Politics of Lying
1976: Hugh Rank for the "Intensify/Downplay" schema for analyzing communication, persuasion, and propaganda
1977: Walter Pincus, reporter for The Washington Post—"A patient, methodical journalist who knew his job and who knew the jargon of Washington. Mr. Pincus was the man responsible for bringing to public attention, and thus to a debate in the Senate, the appropriations funding for the neutron bomb."—Hugh Rank, chair, NCTE Committee on Public Doublespeak
1978: Sissela Bok for Lying: Moral Choice in Public and Private Life
1979: Erving Goffman for Gender Advertisements

1980s

1980: Sheila Harty for Hucksters in the Classroom: A Review of Industry Propaganda in Schools
1981: Dwight Bolinger for Language—The Loaded Weapon
1982: Stephen Hilgartner, Richard C. Bell, and Rory O'Connor for Nukespeak: Nuclear Language, Visions and Mindset
1983: Haig Bosmajian for The Language of Oppression
1984: Ted Koppel, moderator of Nightline—"...a model of intelligence, informed interest, social awareness, verbal fluency, fair and rigorous questioning of controversial figures... [who has sought] honesty and openness, clarity and coherence, to raise the level of public discourse."—William Lutz, chair, NCTE Committee on Public Doublespeak
1985: Torben Vestergaard and Kim Schroder for The Language of Advertising
1986: Neil Postman for Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business
1987: Noam Chomsky for On Power and Ideology: The Managua Lectures
1988: Donald Barlett and James B. Steele for a series of articles in The Philadelphia Inquirer on the Tax Reform Act of 1986, in which they pointed out language disguising tax loopholes in the legislation
1989: Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky for Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media

1990s

1990: Charlotte Baecher of the Consumers Union for Selling America's Kids: Commercial Pressures on Kids of the 90s
1991: David Aaron Kessler—"Under the leadership of Commissioner Kessler, the FDA has begun seizing products with misleading labels, developing new guidelines for clarity and accuracy in food labels, and exposing false, misleading, and deceptive health claims on food labels and in food advertising."—William Lutz
1992: Donald Barlett and James Steele of The Philadelphia Inquirer for the series America: What Went Wrong?
1993: Eric Alterman for the book Sound and Fury: The Washington Punditocracy and the Collapse of American Politics
1994: Garry Trudeau, creator of the cartoon strip Doonesbury, was cited for consistently attacking doublespeak in all aspects of American life and from all parts of the cultural and political spectrum.
1995: Lies of Our Times was published between January 1990 and December 1994. It served not only as a general media critic but as a watchdog of The New York Times, which the magazine referred to as "the most cited news medium in the U.S., our paper of record."
1996: William D. Lutz for The New Doublespeak: Why No One Knows What Anyone's Saying Anymore
1997: Gertrude Himmelfarb for "Professor Narcissus: In Today's Academy, Everything Is Personal" in The Weekly Standard
1998: Two winners
- Juliet Schor for The Overspent American: Upscaling, Downshifting, and the New Consumer
- Scott Adams for his role in "Mission Impertinent" (San Jose Mercury News West Magazine, November 16, 1997), which highlighted the absurdity of managerial language and the overuse of the "mission statement."
1999: Norman Solomon for The Habits of Highly Deceptive Media: Decoding Spin and Lies in the Mainstream News (Common Courage Press)

2000s

2000: Alfie Kohn for The Schools Our Children Deserve
2001: Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber for Trust Us, We're Experts!: How Industry Manipulates Science and Gambles with Your Future
2002: Bill Press for the book Spin This!
2003: Susan Ohanian for the website susanohanian.org
2004: Investigative journalist Seymour Hersh and writer Arundhati Roy
2005: Jon Stewart and the cast of The Daily Show
2006: Steven H. Miles, M.D, author of Oath Betrayed: Torture, Medical Complicity, and the War on Terror
2007: Ted Gup, author of Nation of Secrets: The Threat to Democracy and the American Way of Life
2008: Charlie Savage, author of Takeover: The Return of the Imperial Presidency and the Subversion of American Democracy
2009: Amy Goodman, co-founder, executive producer, and host of Democracy Now!

2010s

2010: Michael Pollan, author of Food Rules and co-narrator of Food, Inc.
2011: F.S. Michaels, author of Monoculture: How One Story Is Changing Everything
2012: Peter Zuckerman and Amanda Padoan, authors of Buried in the Sky
2013: Paul L. Thomas whose publications include "Ignoring Poverty in the U.S.: The corporate takeover of public education" (2012) and "Challenging Genres: Comic books and graphic novels" (2010). Dr. Thomas has also edited a recently published volume titled Becoming and Being a Teacher: Confronting Traditional Norms to Create New Democratic Realities (2013).
2014 The Onion for its satire and "treatment of dramatically sensitive issues that plague our culture", in particular U.S. gun culture.
2015: Anthony Cody for The Educator and the Oligarch
2016: David Greenberg for Republic of Spin: An Inside History of the American Presidency
2017: Richard Sobel for Citizenship as Foundation of Rights: Meaning for America
2018: Katie Watson for Scarlet A
2019: Michael P. Lynch for Know-It-All-Society: Truth and Arrogance in Political Culture

2020s

2020: Dr. April Baker-Bell, author of Linguistic Justice: Black Language, Literacy, Identity, and Pedagogy
2021: Kristin Kobes Du Mez for Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation
2022: David Chrisinger for Public Policy Writing That Matters
2023: Kisha Porcher and Shamaine Bertrand for the Black Gaze podcast
2024: Jessica Lander for Making Americans: Stories of Historic Struggles, New Ideas, and Inspiration in Immigrant Education

References

^ "NCTE George Orwell Award for Distinguished Contribution to Honesty and Clarity in Public Language". National Council of Teachers of English. Retrieved 18 January 2017.
^ "The Doublespeak Award". www.ncte.org. Archived from the original on 17 January 2018. Retrieved 17 January 2018.

External links

List of past winners (NCTE website)

[1] "NCTE George Orwell Award for Distinguished Contribution to Honesty and Clarity in Public Language". National Council of Teachers of English. Retrieved 18 January 2017.

[2] "The Doublespeak Award". www.ncte.org. Archived from the original on 17 January 2018. Retrieved 17 January 2018.

[1]

[2]

v t e Recipients of the Orwell Award
1975–1999	1975: David Wise 1976: Hugh Rank 1977: Walter Pincus 1978: Sissela Bok 1979: Erving Goffman 1980: Sheila Harty 1981: Dwight Bolinger 1982: Stephen Hilgartner, Richard C. Bell, and Rory O'Connor 1983: Haig Bosmajian 1984: Ted Koppel 1985: Torben Vestergaard and Kim Schroder 1986: Neil Postman 1987: Noam Chomsky 1988: Donald Barlett and James B. Steele 1989: Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky 1990: Charlotte Baecher, Consumers Union 1991: David A. Kessler 1992: Donald L. Barlett and James Steele 1993: Eric Alterman 1994: Garry Trudeau 1995: Lies of Our Times 1996: William D. Lutz 1997: Gertrude Himmelfarb 1998: Juliet Schor 1998: Scott Adams 1999: Norman Solomon
2000–present	2000: Alfie Kohn 2001: Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber 2002: Bill Press 2004: Seymour Hersh and Arundhati Roy 2005: Jon Stewart and The Daily Show cast 2006: Steven H. Miles 2007: Ted Gup 2008: Charlie Savage 2009: Amy Goodman 2010: Michael Pollan 2011: F.S. Michaels 2012: Peter Zuckerman and Amanda Padoan 2013: Paul L. Thomas 2014: The Onion 2015: Anthony Cody 2016: David Greenberg 2017: Richard Sobel 2018: Katie Watson 2019: Michael P. Lynch 2020: April Baker-Bell 2021: Kristin Kobes Du Mez 2022: David Chrisinger 2023: Kisha Porcher and Shamaine Bertrand 2024: Jessica Lander
National Council of Teachers of English George Orwell