In 1946, in his essay ‘Politics and the English Language’, George Orwell set out six simple rules for clear writing.
They are quoted often.
Followed less often.
From an editorial perspective, they read less like literary advice and more like a checklist of the things that often go wrong in corporate documents every day.
Here’s what they still get right.
1. “Never use a metaphor, simile or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.”
Orwell’s objection was to worn-out language.
Some metaphors are overused. Others are simply wrong.
On tenderhooks
Towing the line
Free reign
The originals are:
Tenterhooks
Toeing the line
Free rein
They slip through because they sound right. Spellcheck won’t catch them. Everyone has seen them before.
A proofreader’s job is to know when familiarity has replaced accuracy.
2. “Never use a long word where a short one will do.”
In professional writing, length and authority get confused.
It shows up as:
- utilise instead of use
- facilitate instead of help
- commence instead of start
The longer word isn’t necessarily wrong. It also doesn’t add much.
We are not cutting words for sport, but rather testing whether each one earns its place.
Precision builds credibility. Padding does not.
3. “If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.”
This is less about brevity and more about control.
Long sentences are not a crime. Uncontrolled ones are.
You see them in reports that try to protect every angle at once:
“The organisation is committed, in light of recent developments and in accordance with its previously defined objectives, to continuing to explore opportunities that may, subject to market conditions, deliver greater value.”
It’s technically all correct, but most people have zoned out by the time they reach the first comma.
If it takes that long to say, it probably needs saying differently.
4. “Never use the passive where you can use the active.”
Passive voice isn’t wrong. It’s just often unnecessary.
It tends to appear when a sentence is trying to sound formal. Or cautious. Or suitably corporate.
“It was agreed that…”
“It has been identified…”
Agreed by whom? Identified by what?
Active voice is usually shorter, clearer and harder to misread.
If the passive construction adds something, keep it. If it’s there out of habit, change it.
5. “Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.”
Internal language creeps into external documents. What is obvious to the team that wrote it is rarely obvious to the reader.
If a term needs explaining, it needs rewriting.
6. “Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.”
This is the line most worth keeping.
Because rules are tools, not commandments.
Sometimes a long sentence is necessary. Sometimes the technical term is exact. Sometimes the metaphor is doing real work.
But you should know exactly why it’s there.
You can ignore the rule. You can’t ignore the reader.
Orwell’s writing laws were never about minimalism for the sake of it. They were about discipline. About choosing words that mean what they say and sentences that hold together under scrutiny.
That remains the job.
Editors and proofreaders read what’s actually on the page, not what the writer meant to say. They check that phrases are accurate, that sentences aren’t overworked and that jargon hasn’t slipped in where plain English would do.
When something is published, it stands on its own. It should be able to stand up.
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