Behold:<\/p>\n
1. Always try to use the language so as to make quite clear what\u00a0you mean and make sure your sentence couldn’t mean anything else.<\/strong><\/p>\n
2. Always prefer the plain direct word to the long, vague one.\u00a0Don’t implement promises, but keep them.<\/strong><\/p>\n
3. Never use abstract nouns when concrete ones will do. If you mean\u00a0‘More people died’ don’t say ‘Mortality rose’.<\/strong><\/p>\n
4. Don’t use adjectives which merely tell us how you want us to\u00a0feel about the thing you are describing. I mean, instead of telling\u00a0us a thing was ‘terrible’, describe it so that we\u2019ll be terrified.\u00a0Don\u2019t say it was ‘delightful’; make us say ‘delightful’ when we’ve\u00a0read the description. You see, all those words (horrifying,\u00a0wonderful, hideous, exquisite) are only like saying to your\u00a0readers, ‘Please will you do my job for me’.<\/strong><\/p>\n
5. Don’t use words too big for the subject. Don’t say ‘infinitely’\u00a0when you mean ‘very’; otherwise you\u2019ll have no word left when you\u00a0want to talk about something really infinite.<\/strong><\/p>\n