"Politics and the English Language"
George Orwell · 1946
The definitive essay on clear writing and political prose. Every journalist and every writer should read it. "Never use a long word where a short one will do." Still the best writing manual ever written.
The case against
Orwell breaks his own six rules within the essay, passive constructions and all, and the famous escape clause (break any rule sooner than say something barbarous) quietly forgives everything. His claim that sloppy language causes sloppy thought is asserted, never demonstrated. As a checklist it has bullied generations of prose toward plainness as the only virtue.
Essays · the Pro canon
The case for it and the rest of the canon open with Pro.
if this one calls to you, so will these →
