David was asking about this, so I figured that I'd post about it. George Orwell's six elementary rules of writing, outlined in his essay Politics and the English Language, are as follows:
- Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
- Never use a long word where a short one will do.
- If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
- Never use the passive where you can use the active.
- Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
- Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.
The first one is my standing excuse for making up so many of my own turns of phrase.
Posted by madhava at January 21, 2004 02:51 PMAbove rules are doubleplusgood!
Posted by: Mike B at January 21, 2004 05:21 PMIt's a great essay, but the following speaks against another of your verbal habits:
"...the normal way of coining a new word is to use Latin or Greek root [sic] with the appropriate affix and, where necessary, the size formation. It is often easier to make up words of this kind (deregionalize, impermissible, extramarital, non-fragmentary and so forth) than to think up the English words that will cover one's meaning. The result, in general, is an increase in slovenliness and vagueness."
Not that there's anything wrong with that.
Posted by: Susan at January 23, 2004 06:00 PM