Dept. of Egregious Collocations

Herewith George Orwell's essay Politics and the English Language, which you can take as a brief & readable writing style guide. It's interesting to read him riffing on real-life '40s-vintage intellectual babble, drawing from the same hatred of poor or denuded language that animated his portrayal of Newspeak in 1984.

The central nugget in list form:

(i) Never use a metaphor, simile or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.

(ii) Never use a long word where a short one will do.

(iii) If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.

(iv) Never use the passive where you can use the active.

(v) Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.

(vi) Break any of these rules sooner than say anything barbarous.

Kind of an abbreviated Strunk & White with some added midcentury political overtones. Not unworth reading!