Watch your language

I think I'm becoming a curmudgeon.  I've seen some really horrible business writing in presentations and memos recently, and I just want to give people a rap on the knuckles.  Really, there's no excuse for it.  We work in communications.

Henry over at Trends reminded me of this gem from George Orwell's famous 1945 essay "Politics and the English Language."  Today these remain great rules for any memo or Powerpoint presentation.  We should all memorize them.

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.

Orwell also offers these questions to ask while you're writing.

1. What am I trying to say?
2. What words will express it?
3. What image or idiom will make it clearer?
4. Is this image fresh enough to have an effect?
5. Could I put it more shortly?
6. Have I said anything that is avoidably ugly?

Genius stuff (and now that I think about it, also not a bad formula for making an ad).  If we could all follow that even ten percent of the time the world would be a better place.

Comments

[Marcus Brown]

Here's my take on the top 6.

Point 1: is great.
Point 2: limited vocabluary helps me avoid this
Point 3: same as point 2
Point 4: this is great
Point 5: this is really tricky. Let's be honest we all break this one. At least 10 times a day. Einverstanden?
Point 6: ok.