Billmon pointed me to this:
Politics and the English Language – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
- Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
- Never use a long word where a short one will do.
- If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
- Never use the passive where you can use the active.
- Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
- Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.
Not unlike Strunk & White (oops) in its quest for simplicity and directness.
One can cure oneself of the not un- formation by memorizing this sentence:
A not unblack dog was chasing a not unsmall rabbit across a not ungreen field.