Orwell's six rules for writers

• 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.

from Politics and the English Language (1946)