Day 14: Nineteen Eighty Four

Orwell in his book Politics and the English Language gave us his point on crispiness and the importance of lucid simple language. He votes “vague language” as a powerful and helpful tool in politically manipulating readers. In a nutshell here the six rules for writers:

• 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.

Source: Nineteen Eighty Four

Nineteen Eighty Four was written by George Orwell. It was published in 1949.