I am preparing for my first speech in the Toastmaster club and was attracted by the title "George Orwell’s 5 Rules for Effective Writing" in the article http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/george-orwells-5-rules-for-effective-writing. The original Orwell's essay can be found at http://www.orwell.ru/library/essays/politics/english/e_polit. Thinking about Orwell's vision presented in his book ‘1984’ regarding the transparency of person's life and today's internet, social media channels, Google maps, makes me think that he was very imaginative and smart. Hopefully whatever he wrote in his book will not become our reality.
Back to the effective communication, I would like to capture 5 rules by this remarkable writer:
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.
And the cumulative rule:
6. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.
I should definitely use these rules for my speech preparation.
