George Orwell, on Writing

In his essay, “Politics and the English Language“,  George Orwell presents us with five rules on writing:

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

I think the last rule is crucial. This blog presents many recommendations and “rules”. But we must not fall into the trap of mindless, unthinking rule-following, because that may be our downfall. As in the case of language, when it comes to answering a GP essay question, rules are mere guidelines. We must always ask: is this the exception to the rule? And when we think that it might be, we must be bold enough to break the rules. Because the fact is, there are exceptions to every rule – and that includes this one.

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