George Orwell wrote this essay about “Modern English” in 1946.
Here’s his take on how awful Modern English has become. (This is a parody of a well-known verse from Ecclesiastes.)
Objective considerations of contemporary phenomena compel the conclusion that success or failure in competitive activities exhibits no tendency to be commensurate with innate capacity, but that a considerable element of the unpredictable must invariably be taken into account.
The article, though long, is worth reading. Click here to read “Politics and the English Language,” in its entirety, by George Orwell.
If you don’t have time, here are George Orwell’s rules in a nutshell:
(i) Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
(ii) Never us 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 outright barbarous.