Six Rules of Writing

Some good rules of the writing road for our students:

• 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.

George Orwell: ‘Politics and the English Language’
First published: Horizon. — GB, London. — April 1946.

And I add my own:

• If you see an adverb, kill it.