What George Orwell can teach us about blogging
Posted by: Simon / 01.02.2012
I'm not sure if it was hearing the word "precariat" this morning in an HR related
discussion on Radio 4. Or the suggestion on twitter recently that
perhaps HR professionals should be renamed Social Sustainability
professionals. Or - while I am delighted that the Global
Entrepreneurship Congress 2012 is to take place in Liverpool,
and am looking forward to the benefits it will bring to the City -
I do wonder what is wrong with the word "enterprise".
Whatever it was, it reminded me of George Orwell's 6 rules for writing clear and
easy to understand English, and how often they are broken:
(i) Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech
which you are used to seeing in print.
(ii) Never us a long word where a short one will do.
(iii) If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it
out.
(iv) Never use the passive where you can use the active.
(v) Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon
word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
(vi) Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright
barbarous.
Now, having just published a book, I'm sure that readers of
it will be able to find plenty of examples where I've broken these
rules (I nearly suggested that people in glass houses
shouldn't throw stones, but that clearly breaks rule (i)). But it
did make me wonder what Orwell would have thought of the
"blogosphere" (oops - there goes rule (v)).
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