3 ms·
Here are his six rules from the end of the article: 1. Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print. 2.
by imp 17y ago
Here are his six rules from the end of the article:
1. Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
2. Never us a long word where a short one will do.
3. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
4. Never use the passive where you can use the active.
5. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
6. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.
- raffi 17y agoThe Plain English community is big on these rules and they're at the heart of the style checker I built for After the Deadline. I flag passive voice (4), complex words (2), cliches (1), redundant expressions (3), some jargon phrases (5), and I use a statistical model to eliminate suggestions that make no sense (6).