prose-technical-mechanics

Place new or important information at the end of the sentence, the stress position identified by Gopen and Swan, and put known information at the start to link backward. Reordering clauses so the key idea lands at syntactic closure is the single highest-impact edit.

Anglo-Saxon words are short, concrete, and emotionally immediate (kill, break, blood), while Latinate words are longer, abstract, and authoritative (terminate, fraternity). Choosing between them controls whether prose feels intimate or distant.

Use a periodic sentence, which delays the main clause to the end, when you want suspense and a sense of arrival. Use a cumulative sentence, which opens with the main clause and adds modifiers, when you want thought to feel like it is unfolding in real time.

Present the strongest version of the opposing view (a steel man, not a straw man), concede what is true with signals like admittedly or to be sure, then pivot with a yes-but turn. Stating your warrant explicitly also prevents readers from rejecting unstated assumptions.

Mechanical analysis explains how effects are produced but cannot dictate taste or genre conventions. Orwell's own sixth rule applies: break any mechanical rule rather than write something barbarous, so judgment still governs when to deviate.