Principles and the English language

I work with words. Sometimes they���re my words. Sometimes they���re words that my colleagues have written:

One of my roles at Clearleft is ���content buddy.��� If anyone is writing a talk, or a blog post, or a proposal and they want an extra pair of eyes on it, I���m there to help.

I also work with web technologies, usually front-of-the-front-end stuff. HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. The technologies that users experience directly in web browsers.

I think a lot about design principles for the web. The two principles I keep coming back to are the robustness principle and the principle of least power.

When it comes to words, the guide that I return to again and again is George Orwell, specifically his short essay, Politics and the English Language.

Towards the end, he offers some rules for writing.

Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print. Never use a long word where a short one will do. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out. Never use the passive where you can use the active. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.

These look a lot like design principles. Not only that, but some of them look like specific design principles. Take the robustness principle:

Be conservative in what you send, be liberal in what you accept.

That first part applies to Orwell���s third rule:

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

Be conservative in what words you send.

Then there���s the principle of least power:

Choose the least powerful language suitable for a given purpose.

Compare that to Orwell���s second rule:

Never use a long word where a short one will do.

That could be rephrased as:

Choose the shortest word suitable for a given purpose.

Or, going in the other direction, the principle of least power could be rephrased in Orwell���s terms as:

Never use a powerful language where a simple language will do.

Oh, I like that! I like that a lot.