{"id":1308,"date":"2012-03-20T02:38:56","date_gmt":"2012-03-20T09:38:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mclasen.com\/wordpress\/?p=1308"},"modified":"2012-03-20T02:38:56","modified_gmt":"2012-03-20T09:38:56","slug":"george-orwells-6-rules-for-writers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mclasen.com\/wordpress\/2012\/03\/george-orwells-6-rules-for-writers\/","title":{"rendered":"George Orwell\u2019s 6 rules for writers"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class='posterous_autopost'>\n<div>\n<div><img height=\"16\" alt=\"star\" width=\"16\" \/>mclasen&#8217;s posterous reading list <br \/>March 19, 2012 3:53 PM <\/div>\n<div>\n<h2><a href=\"http:\/\/holykaw.alltop.com\/george-orwells-6-rules-for-writers\">George Orwell\u2019s 6 rules for writers<\/a><\/h2>\n<div>\n<p style=\"font-size: 11px;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/posterous.com\/users\/36UX5B63N7m9\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/files.posterous.com\/user_profile_pics\/236745\/Photo_Booth-7_thumb.jpg?resize=16%2C16\" height=\"16\" style=\"vertical-align: middle;\" width=\"16\" \/><\/a>&nbsp;&nbsp;Posted by <a href=\"http:\/\/posterous.com\/users\/36UX5B63N7m9\">Annie Colbert<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<div> <img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/getfile4.posterous.com\/getfile\/files.posterous.com\/guykawasaki\/rbcGatGlzvbnEzAeCBovlHlJgtxtlsHnaajbFElipjznoctmncbkvJvqbFnz\/media_httpuploadwikim_fzbBa.jpg.scaled500.jpg?resize=220%2C306\" height=\"306\" alt=\"Media_httpuploadwikim_fzbba\" width=\"220\" \/> <\/div>\n<\/p>\n<p>In 1946, George Orwell laid out his theories on writing in an essay titled \u201cPolitics and the English Language.\u201d Orwell criticized the use of complicated language and promoted clear, simple prose whenever possible. The essay concluded with six rules summarizing Orwell\u2019s opinion.<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.<\/li>\n<li>Never use a long word where a short one will do.<\/li>\n<li>If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.<\/li>\n<li>Never use the passive where you can use the active.<\/li>\n<li>Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.<\/li>\n<li>Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Via <a href=\"http:\/\/www.listsofnote.com\/2012\/03\/orwells-rules-for-writers.html\">Lists of Note<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Improve your <a href=\"http:\/\/writing.alltop.com\/\">writing<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/holykaw.alltop.com\/george-orwells-6-rules-for-writers\">Permalink<\/a> \t<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/holykaw.alltop.com\/george-orwells-6-rules-for-writers#comment\">Leave a comment&nbsp;&nbsp;\u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p \/> <\/div>\n<div>\n<p \/>Sent from my iPhone 4 by Michael<\/div>\n<p style=\"font-size: 10px;\">  <a href=\"http:\/\/posterous.com\">Posted via email<\/a>   from <a href=\"http:\/\/mclasen.posterous.com\/george-orwells-6-rules-for-writers\">mclasen&#8217;s posterous<\/a>  <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>mclasen&#8217;s posterous reading list March 19, 2012 3:53 PM George Orwell\u2019s 6 rules for writers &nbsp;&nbsp;Posted by Annie Colbert In 1946, George Orwell laid out his theories on writing in an essay titled \u201cPolitics and the English Language.\u201d Orwell criticized the use of complicated language and promoted clear, simple prose whenever possible. The essay concluded [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-maccconsulting"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p834Wu-l6","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mclasen.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mclasen.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mclasen.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mclasen.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mclasen.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1308"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mclasen.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1308\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1309,"href":"https:\/\/mclasen.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1308\/revisions\/1309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mclasen.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mclasen.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mclasen.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}