With this simple device ....

.... You too can become your very own blather detector.

Many of you have already heard me recommend a certain essay by George Orwell. I recommend it once again. Every writer in the Anglophone world should read "Politics and the English Language" at least once a year. Business majors, in particular, shouldn't be allowed to graduate without having memorized it.

Here is Orwell's list of rules for meaningful writing:

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

2. Never us a long word where a short one will do.

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

4. Never use the passive where you can use the active.

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

6. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.