Writing simply doesn’t require an unnaturally restricted vocabulary, and it doesn’t limit you to simple ideas. It means writing in a straightforward manner, using words that precisely express what you want to say, without the reader needing to fall back on allusion or guesswork.
If an idea is complex, then there may be no simple words to express it. That’s fine. However, dressing up simple ideas with complex words is not. That’s just deception.
Orwell was in favour of simple, direct language. Newspeak was insidious because it obscured meaning and eliminated expressiveness. Complex language can do the same, and Orwell was well aware if this. In “Politics and the English Language”, he railed against "pretentious diction" and "meaningless words". These, he said, were used to make biases look impartial and to obscure the point of a statement.
Orwell’s six rules of precise writing stand today. In summary:
1. Avoid overused metaphors, simile, or other figures of speech. They have likely lost any precise meaning;
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 a precise everyday English equivalent;
6. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.
If an idea is complex, then there may be no simple words to express it. That’s fine. However, dressing up simple ideas with complex words is not. That’s just deception.
Orwell was in favour of simple, direct language. Newspeak was insidious because it obscured meaning and eliminated expressiveness. Complex language can do the same, and Orwell was well aware if this. In “Politics and the English Language”, he railed against "pretentious diction" and "meaningless words". These, he said, were used to make biases look impartial and to obscure the point of a statement.
Orwell’s six rules of precise writing stand today. In summary: 1. Avoid overused metaphors, simile, or other figures of speech. They have likely lost any precise meaning; 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 a precise everyday English equivalent; 6. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.