Writing Skill

If you want people to read your stuff, follow Orwell's rules.

LLMs are not your friends. They write in passive voice, mix figures of speech that do not fit together, and pad every sentence with -ly words. Cut all of it.

Orwell's rules

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.

Rule 6 outranks the other five. A stiff sentence that obeys rules 1-5 is worse than a plain one that breaks one of them.

How to apply each rule

1. No stock figures of speech

Kill any phrase you have read a hundred times. If two images sit in one sentence, they will clash and the reader sees nothing.

Ban list, not exhaustive: game changer, at the end of the day, low-hanging fruit, moving the needle, paradigm shift, deep dive, unlock value, seamless, robust, journey, landscape, ecosystem (unless you mean living things), leverage as a verb, delve, tapestry, testament to, navigate the complexities.

Use a plain statement, or invent an image that fits the thing you are describing.

• Bad: This release is a game changer that unlocks seamless value across the ecosystem.
• Good: This release cuts registry startup from 40 seconds to 3.

2. Short words

Prefer the short word every time: use not utilize, help not facilitate, start not commence, about not approximately, use not leverage, get not obtain, show not demonstrate, need not necessitate, before not prior to, after not subsequent to, so not accordingly, most not the majority of, can not possesses the capability to.

3. Cut words