George Orwell's Rules for Writing English

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1. Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
2. Never use a long word where a short one will do.
3. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
4. Never use the passive where you can use the active.
5. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
6. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.

George Orwell, author of "1984" (maybe it should have been called "2010")
#george orwell rules #writing english language
  • Profile picture of the author DJL
    Whenever I feel that my writing might be getting a bit stale, I find it very refreshing to spend a couple of hours with Orwell. Many of his ideas were rubbish, but he was a master of clear writing.
    Other favorites of mine include:
    Bertrand Russell
    H. L. Mencken
    Edward Gibbon
    Stuart Chase (largely forgotten, mostly rubbish, but beautifully expressed)
    Philip Wylie
    Robert Heinlein
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    None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.
    --Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Elective Affinities (1809)

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