There's a line in Shakespeare's "Hamlet" that I live and die by as a writer. "Brevity is the soul of wit," he states about halfway through the second act. Ironically, it comes from the mouth of Polonius, the blustering and notably long-winded comic relief, whose advice is taken by nobody.
Funny, how history repeats itself.
Much later, in both Orwell's "Politics and the English Language,” and "Five Characteristics of Academic or Scholarly Prose,” each authors laments the "current" state of the English language. Classrooms the world over warn students against over-elaboration (or pretentious diction, as Orwell says), passive voice, dead metaphors and myriad other leeches of good writing.
What I find baffling is that while these rules are preached, assigned readings so often break these very same rules. History texts, research papers, scientific analysis, even some NYTimes ledes...all revel in "academia-speak." wordy, boring, and often indecipherable. And as they say, mistakes garner mistakes.
Are we a society of Poloniuses?
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