Improve Your Writing with Orwell's Six Questions
George Orwell, the British author whose works include Animal Farm and 1984, said that a careful writer will ask themselves at least four questions about each sentence they write. Let's look at each one and how they can improve your writing.
1. What am I trying to say?
Orwell believed that one cause of bad prose was writers only having a general idea of what they are trying to say. He said that it's important to think carefully about what you want to communicate.
2. What words will express it?
Orwell argued that knowing what you are trying to say allows you to choose the best words to say it. If you're not exactly sure what you're trying to say, Orwell said, you're more likely to use what he called "stale" language to express yourself.
3. What image or idiom will make it clearer?
Using an image or idiom can help explain an idea. However, Orwell said writers must make sure these are new and interesting.
4. Is this image fresh enough to have an effect?
Orwell said that a new expression is much better at creating a strong idea in people's minds and helping them understand what you are trying to say than a well-known one. He argued that old phrases have lost their power to create ideas in people's minds.
Orwell also offered two more useful questions for writers to ask themselves: "Could I put it more shortly?" and "Have I said anything that is avoidably ugly?"