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.Never use a metaphor, simile or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.2.Never use a long word when a short one wil do.3.If it is possible to cut out a word, always cut it out.4.Never use the passive voice when 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.Orwel was concerned primarily with formal academic, literary or political writing, but his rules form a solid foundation for copywriting, too.Let'stake them one at a time.Never use a metaphor, simile or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in printIn other words, avoid Clichés.If you are used to seeing a particular metaphor in print, then so is your reader.And that means it has lost itsvisual power and is just a worn-out piece of language.I'm fond of looking for subtexts, as you know, and the subtext of any cliché is, “I am toolazy to think of an original idea so I used this hackneyed phrase because it was easy for me.”Just so we're clear, metaphors and similes are words that stand in for other words, usual y with a strong visual feeling.Metaphors replace theword altogether, as in “Our sales director is a bear when we miss our targets.” Similes are comparisons: “Our sales director acts like a bearwhen we miss our targets.”Used wel , both metaphors and similes can create strong pictures and ideas in your reader's mind and al ow you to emphasize certain pointsin an original and interesting way.That word “original” though, is the key.It takes a lot of hard work to come up with an arresting metaphor oreye-catching simile.But work is what you have to do if you want to engage your reader and compel them to act as you want to, simply bywriting to them.What you must avoid at al costs is worn-out language: words and phrases so tattered by overuse that they impress nobody.Second-hand similesReaching for the wel -used simile brings nothing to your writing but the faint odour of second-hand clothes.You may trust a favoured supplierimplicitly, but when you write of them that they are as “honest as the day is long” you are doing them a disservice.Why? Because this particularover-worked simile has attained the status of cliché.And like al Clichés, it tends to be read as a turn of phrase rather than the literal truth.Mixed metaphorsThere's a cold wind blowing through the industry and it's going to swamp us if we're not ready.The new investment will ensure our competitive edge is our golden goose.These are both examples of mixed metaphors, where the writer starts off with one visual idea then concludes with another.Winds can't swampthings (though tidal waves can) and edges can't be geese, golden or otherwise.It's a common fault, but one you should avoid.Avoid Clichés (like the plague)Clichés infect everybody's writing; they are part of how we speak.But although you want to write as you speak for tone, you don't for style.Clichés come in three basic varieties:112General, everyday clichés In-houseOne hand washes the other This space is left blank forNose to the grindstoneyou to fil in your own specialLeave no stone unturnedfavourites.Diff'rent strokes for………………………………diff'rent folks………………………………Without a shadow of a doubt ………………………………Business Clichés………………………………Get our ducks in a row………………………………Blue-sky thinking………………………………Win/win situation………………………………Pushing the envelope………………………………Low-hanging fruit………………………………Best practice………………………………Going forward………………………………Bal park………………………………Global………………………………Strategic………………………………Never use a long word when a short one will doAs children, we learned to write using short, simple words.Then, as our confidence grew and our education progressed, we graduated(sometimes literal y) to using longer and more complex words.It al started to go wrong when we began deliberately choosing longer words,even though there were perfectly acceptable shorter words at our disposal.Most people contract thesaurusitis at some point in their careers; the question is, how strong is their immune system? Can they resist theinfection and return to a simpler, plainer way of writing that their readers wil understand?I'm sure you've come across a few infected specimens in your time.This kind of thing:“Our primary objective is the collation and dissemination of best practice.”When al the writer real y means is:“Our main aim is to find out what works best then share it.”Don't get me wrong; long words aren't bad—no words are.But using a long word when a shorter one would do is a bad habit.The writer ismore concerned with showing off, or with pleasing themselves, than with ensuring their readers can understand what's been said.ExerciseShorter wordsIf you can make your meaning clear using a short word, rather than a longer synonym, do it.You will spend less time writing, andyour reader less time reading.Write in a shorter equivalent for each of the following:information ………………………………facilitate………………………………fortunate………………………………immediately ………………………………construct………………………………objective………………………………anticipate………………………………sizeable………………………………exceedingly ………………………………If it is possible to cut out a word, always cut it out“Omit needless words.”As wel as being co-author, with EB White, of The Elements of Style—one of the best little books on the English language you'l ever buy—Wil iam Strunk, Jr coined this pithy phrase that al editors and writers should have tacked onto their foreheads.How do you stick only to what'snecessary? Remember these four rules [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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.Never use a metaphor, simile or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.2.Never use a long word when a short one wil do.3.If it is possible to cut out a word, always cut it out.4.Never use the passive voice when 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.Orwel was concerned primarily with formal academic, literary or political writing, but his rules form a solid foundation for copywriting, too.Let'stake them one at a time.Never use a metaphor, simile or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in printIn other words, avoid Clichés.If you are used to seeing a particular metaphor in print, then so is your reader.And that means it has lost itsvisual power and is just a worn-out piece of language.I'm fond of looking for subtexts, as you know, and the subtext of any cliché is, “I am toolazy to think of an original idea so I used this hackneyed phrase because it was easy for me.”Just so we're clear, metaphors and similes are words that stand in for other words, usual y with a strong visual feeling.Metaphors replace theword altogether, as in “Our sales director is a bear when we miss our targets.” Similes are comparisons: “Our sales director acts like a bearwhen we miss our targets.”Used wel , both metaphors and similes can create strong pictures and ideas in your reader's mind and al ow you to emphasize certain pointsin an original and interesting way.That word “original” though, is the key.It takes a lot of hard work to come up with an arresting metaphor oreye-catching simile.But work is what you have to do if you want to engage your reader and compel them to act as you want to, simply bywriting to them.What you must avoid at al costs is worn-out language: words and phrases so tattered by overuse that they impress nobody.Second-hand similesReaching for the wel -used simile brings nothing to your writing but the faint odour of second-hand clothes.You may trust a favoured supplierimplicitly, but when you write of them that they are as “honest as the day is long” you are doing them a disservice.Why? Because this particularover-worked simile has attained the status of cliché.And like al Clichés, it tends to be read as a turn of phrase rather than the literal truth.Mixed metaphorsThere's a cold wind blowing through the industry and it's going to swamp us if we're not ready.The new investment will ensure our competitive edge is our golden goose.These are both examples of mixed metaphors, where the writer starts off with one visual idea then concludes with another.Winds can't swampthings (though tidal waves can) and edges can't be geese, golden or otherwise.It's a common fault, but one you should avoid.Avoid Clichés (like the plague)Clichés infect everybody's writing; they are part of how we speak.But although you want to write as you speak for tone, you don't for style.Clichés come in three basic varieties:112General, everyday clichés In-houseOne hand washes the other This space is left blank forNose to the grindstoneyou to fil in your own specialLeave no stone unturnedfavourites.Diff'rent strokes for………………………………diff'rent folks………………………………Without a shadow of a doubt ………………………………Business Clichés………………………………Get our ducks in a row………………………………Blue-sky thinking………………………………Win/win situation………………………………Pushing the envelope………………………………Low-hanging fruit………………………………Best practice………………………………Going forward………………………………Bal park………………………………Global………………………………Strategic………………………………Never use a long word when a short one will doAs children, we learned to write using short, simple words.Then, as our confidence grew and our education progressed, we graduated(sometimes literal y) to using longer and more complex words.It al started to go wrong when we began deliberately choosing longer words,even though there were perfectly acceptable shorter words at our disposal.Most people contract thesaurusitis at some point in their careers; the question is, how strong is their immune system? Can they resist theinfection and return to a simpler, plainer way of writing that their readers wil understand?I'm sure you've come across a few infected specimens in your time.This kind of thing:“Our primary objective is the collation and dissemination of best practice.”When al the writer real y means is:“Our main aim is to find out what works best then share it.”Don't get me wrong; long words aren't bad—no words are.But using a long word when a shorter one would do is a bad habit.The writer ismore concerned with showing off, or with pleasing themselves, than with ensuring their readers can understand what's been said.ExerciseShorter wordsIf you can make your meaning clear using a short word, rather than a longer synonym, do it.You will spend less time writing, andyour reader less time reading.Write in a shorter equivalent for each of the following:information ………………………………facilitate………………………………fortunate………………………………immediately ………………………………construct………………………………objective………………………………anticipate………………………………sizeable………………………………exceedingly ………………………………If it is possible to cut out a word, always cut it out“Omit needless words.”As wel as being co-author, with EB White, of The Elements of Style—one of the best little books on the English language you'l ever buy—Wil iam Strunk, Jr coined this pithy phrase that al editors and writers should have tacked onto their foreheads.How do you stick only to what'snecessary? Remember these four rules [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]