Orwell’s 6 Rules for Writing Clear English

Have you ever read a sentence so full of jargon and fluff that you had to read it three times, only to realize it said almost nothing? We live in an age of “leveraging synergies”, “optimizing deliverables”, and making statements where “mistakes were made.” This kind of vague, pretentious language is everywhere, from corporate boardrooms to political speeches. But long before it became the norm, one writer diagnosed the disease and prescribed the cure: George Orwell.

In his brilliant 1946 essay, “Politics and the English Language”, Orwell argued that lazy, imprecise language wasn’t just a stylistic flaw; it was a tool for political manipulation and a symptom of lazy thinking. He believed that clear language leads to clear thought. To help writers everywhere fight back against the tide of bad prose, he laid out six simple, powerful rules. They are as relevant today as they were over 75 years ago, serving as a timeless guide for anyone who wants to communicate with clarity and power.

Orwell’s Six Remedies for Bad English

Orwell’s rules are not about being a grammar pedant. They are a practical toolkit for making your writing direct, honest, and effective. Let’s break them down one by one.

1. Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.

“[A] newly invented metaphor assists thought by evoking a visual image, while on the other hand a metaphor which is technically ‘dead’ (e.g. iron resolution) has in effect reverted to being an ordinary word and can generally be used without loss of vividness. But in between these two classes there is a huge dump of worn-out metaphors which have lost all evocative power and are merely used because they save people the trouble of inventing phrases for themselves.”

The Problem: Clichés are the zombies of the English language—mindless, shambling husks of what were once living, breathing ideas. Phrases like “think outside the box”, “at the end of the day”, “low-hanging fruit”, or “par for the course” have been used so often they’ve lost all meaning and impact. They are placeholders for real thought.

The Fix: When you’re tempted to use a common phrase, stop. Ask yourself what you’re really trying to say. Either state it plainly or, if you want the power of figurative language, invent a fresh, vivid image of your own. Don’t let tired phrases do your thinking for you.

• Instead of: “We need to think outside the box to find a solution.”
• Try: “Our usual methods have failed. We need an entirely new approach.”

2. Never use a long word where a short one will do.

The Problem: Many writers, especially in academic or professional settings, use long, often Latinate words in an attempt to sound intelligent or authoritative. This rarely works. More often, it makes the writing dense, pompous, and hard to understand.

The Fix: Choose simple, direct words. Prefer Anglo-Saxon roots over Latin ones when you have the choice. This isn’t about “dumbing down” your writing; it’s about precision and respect for your reader’s time. Why say “utilize” when you mean “use”? Why “ameliorate” when you can “improve”? Why “commence” instead of “start”?

• Instead of: “We will endeavor to ameliorate the situation subsequent to our investigation.”
• Try: “We will try to improve things after we look into it.”

3. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.

This is perhaps the most crucial rule for any writer. It’s the heart of good editing.

The Problem: Unnecessary words and redundant phrases add clutter and dilute your message. They are the weeds in the garden of prose, choking the life out of your main idea.

The Fix: Be ruthless with your own writing. Hunt down and eliminate filler words. Every word in a sentence should have a job. If it doesn’t add meaning or rhythm, it has to go.

• “due to the fact that” → “because”
• “at this point in time” → “now”
• “in order to” → “to”
• “a total of six” → “six”

By trimming the fat, you make the core message stronger and clearer.

4. Never use the passive where you can use the active.

From a linguistic standpoint, this is about sentence structure, but for Orwell, it was about honesty and responsibility.

The Problem: The passive voice often obscures who is performing an action. It creates dull, wordy, and sometimes evasive sentences. The classic example comes from politics: “Mistakes were made.” This sentence avoids assigning blame. Who made the mistakes? The passive voice lets them hide.

In the passive voice, the object of the action becomes the subject of the sentence. For example: “The window was broken by the boy.”

The Fix: Make the doer of the action the subject of the sentence. This is the active voice. It’s more direct, concise, and energetic. “The boy broke the window.”

• Passive: “A new policy was implemented by the management.”
• Active: “The management implemented a new policy.”

The active voice makes your writing more dynamic and forces you to be clear about responsibility.

5. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.

The Problem: This rule targets another form of pretentiousness. Using jargon or foreign phrases like vis-à-vis, c’est la vie, or corporate-speak like “synergy” and “paradigm” often serves to exclude readers or create a false sense of sophistication. It builds a wall between you and your audience.

The Fix: Write for a clear and intelligent general audience. If you’re a scientist explaining a concept, find an analogy. If you’re a manager writing a memo, drop the business buzzwords. Good writing is inclusive. Find the simple, everyday English word that means the same thing.

• Instead of: “We must leverage our core competencies, vis-à-vis the current market paradigm.”
• Try: “We need to use our main strengths to deal with the current market.”

The Master Rule: Break the Rules to Avoid Awkwardness

After laying out his five pillars of clarity, Orwell adds a sixth, crucial rule:

6. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.

The Point: Orwell was a pragmatist, not a fanatic. He understood that these were guidelines, not unbreakable laws. The ultimate goal is clarity and grace. If following a rule makes a sentence sound clumsy, unnatural, or “barbarous”, you should ignore the rule.

For example, sometimes the passive voice is the better choice, especially if the person or thing performing the action is unknown or unimportant (“My car was stolen last night”). Sometimes, a popular metaphor, used knowingly, can work. The point is to think consciously about your choices. These rules are there to make you think, not to stop you from thinking.

Why Orwell’s Rules Still Matter

Orwell’s advice is more than just a style guide. It’s a call for intellectual honesty. He saw how convoluted language could be used to “defend the indefensible”, to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable. By striving for simple, clear, and direct prose, we are not only becoming better writers—we are becoming clearer thinkers and more honest communicators.

In a world saturated with misinformation, corporate speak, and political doublespeak, embracing these six rules is a small but powerful act of rebellion. They empower you to cut through the noise and make your voice heard, clearly and truthfully.