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• Politics and the English Language (Score:2, Informative)

  by quidity (1296)

  George Orwell wrote a good essay on this, Politics and the English Language [resort.com], two bits of which I liked in particular:

  It is easier -- even quicker, once you have the habit -- to say "In my opinion it is not an unjustifiable assumption that" than to say "I think".

  And this set of rules for writing well:

  1. Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
  2. Never us a long word where a short one will do.
  3. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
  4. N
  • Re:Politics and the English Language (Score:1)

    by koschei (147) <useperl@dellah.org> on 2002.05.22 1:51 (#8681) Homepage Journal

    Strunk and White, "The Elements of Style". Good book to live by.
    
    They even had your rule 3 as a rule. "Omit needless words."

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    • Re:Politics and the English Language (Score:1)

      by grinder (1100)

      Indeed.

      There is even a (cookie free) online version [sut.ac.th], although .th is Thailand, if I'm not mistaken. Otherwise there's this version [bartleby.com] but it wants a cookie.
      • Re:Politics and the English Language (Score:1)

        by koschei (147)

        Yep. However, do note that the current edition is the 4th edition, and what those sites have is the first. The 4th is somewhat more modern (it mentions computery stuff, but doesn't offer an opinion on terms such as email).

        It's usually best to have some form of modern style reference =)

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