Follow George Orwell's Call to Action

In 1946, author George Orwell wrote a powerful essay titled “Politics and the English Language.” In it, he analyzed the flaws of political writing as it is translated into the larger culture. He warns that the decadence, or gradual breakdown, of the language connects to a breakdown in the values and norms of the culture.

When politicians, business leaders, and others use words to blur their meaning rather than clarify it, both writers and readers suffer. The main cost of divorcing words from their meaning is a loss of ability to think clearly. As the saying goes, clear writing is a sign of clear thinking. When people cannot think coherently, they cannot write coherently, and vice versa. Fortunately, however, Orwell's essay offers hope. He believed that if each individual takes it upon himself to use fresh, compelling images, avoid pretentious language, and write clearly, we can change the world one word at a time.

I recommend that you read the entire nine-page essay (just Google the essay’s title and you can find the pdf or book). Here I offer you a few excerpts from the piece. He suggests that writers ask themselves six key questions and follow six rules:

“A scrupulous writer will ask himself these questions:

• What am I trying to say?
• What words will express it?
• What image or idiom will make it clearer?
• Is this image fresh enough to have an effect?
• Could I put it more shortly?
• Have I said anything that is avoidably ugly?”

Once we have answered those questions, we must write our document. For this, too, Orwell has practical suggestions that apply to all writers. He says, “What is above all needed is to let the meaning choose the word, and not the other way about.” Here are the rules he suggests:

1. Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech that you are used to seeing in print.
2. Never use a long word when a short one will do.
3. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
4. Never use the passive voice 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.

As the author of 1984, Animal Farm, and numerous outstanding essays, Orwell knew about good writing. I hope you will take his advice and eschew obfuscation forever.