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If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
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A scrupulous writer, in every sentence that he writes, will ask himself at least four questions, thus: What am I trying to say? What words will express it? What image or idiom will make it clearer? Is this image fresh enough to have an effect? And he will probably ask himself two more: Could I put it more shortly? Have I said anything that is avoidably ugly?
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Never use a metaphor, simile or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print. Never use a long word where a short one will do. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out. Never use the passive where you can use the active. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday British equivalent. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbaric.
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The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one’s real and one’s declared aims, one turns, as it were, instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish squirting out ink.
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Eric Arthur Blair, known by the pseudonym George Orwell, was born in Motihari, British India. He studied at Eton College and, after completing his studies, enlisted in the Indian Imperial Police, serving in Burma. This experience, as well as his life as a worker in Paris and Barcelona, profoundly influenced his views on imperialism and oppression. During the Spanish Civil War, he fought alongside the Republic against Franco's forces, where he was wounded. This experience contributed to his aversion to authoritarian and totalitarian regimes. His novels "Animal Farm" (1945) and "1984" (1949) are political allegories that criticize Stalinism and the dangers of totalitarianism, respectively. "1984", in particular, with its concept of "Big Brother" and "Newspeak", became a landmark in dystopian fiction and influenced popular culture and political thought. Orwell was also a prolific essayist, addressing themes such as literature, politics, and language in works such as "The Lion and the Unicorn" and "Politics and the English Language". He died in London, victim of tuberculosis, in 1950.