Simplicity deserves to be highlighted as one of the defining characteristics of a good style. It also deserves, and will receive, simple treatment, for once the importance of simplicity has been stated, we are almost ready to move on.The advantages of simplicity are implicit in almost all that was said in the section about the need for clarity. In order to keep your structure clear, adopt a simple, logical structure. In order to keep your sentences clear, write simple sentences. In order to keep your meaning clear, choose simple everyday words in preference to long, complicated, or technical ones.In the context of our present discussion, simplicity is a kind of bridge between two neighboring qualities. If it is a requisite for clarity, it is equally a requisite for elegance. Visual elegance, as we know from the worlds of fashion, architecture, and interior design, is not usually ornate or complicated. A gown with several rows of frills or extravagantly trimmed with diamanté is less likely to be elegant than one that is plain but well cut and tailored to the wearer. A skyscraper in a geometric shape with sheer walls of glass is possibly more elegant than one with an Art Deco cap and gargoyles. This is not to say that ornate buildings, clothes, and objects are uninteresting or inartistic. But elegance generally requires sleekness of outline and simplicity.It is not always easy to be simple. Most work seems to involve developing a complex end product from simpler materials. When the work in question is writing, however, that process sometimes has to be put into reverse. First formulations and first drafts are frequently wordier and more complicated than they need to be. Simplifying them usually makes them clearer and more elegant. This requires effort, often more effort than it would take to produce a version that might appear more impressive but does not hit the nail on the head quite so squarely. For example, you may have written,In the process of researching this paper we undertook an extensive study of the meteorological conditions generally obtained in western China in order to better understand their possible effects on the economy of that region. But consider whether the following would not convey the same idea more economically and less pretentiously:As part of the research for this paper we studied the weather in western China in order to find out what effect it had on the region's economy. As another example, imagine you describe a character like this:Mr. Jackson's nature was such that one could easily conceive of him as having it within himself to commit acts of the most ferocious cruelty. Consider whether he would not be equally well described like this:Mr. Jackson seemed the sort of man who could be ferociously cruel if he wanted to be. Simplicity need not be bland or drab or uninteresting. It should be sharp, to the point, and elegant.
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