Credit to David Pesikoff at Triangle Peak Partners for highlighting what George Orwell wrote in his six rules for writing. Orwell was the author of the one of the greatest works of fiction, Nineteen Eighty-Four. Here are Orwell's rules:

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

The novel has continued meaning as we listen to the doublespeak coming out of Washington and Brussels. Nineteen Eighty-Four was also the inspiration for Apple's breakthrough MacIntosh commercial.

For business writers, especially those in marketing, following these rules would do a world of good. Confusing the buyer is appealing, but in the long term confusion never works. Breakthough ideas do.