On Familiar Style

It is not easy to write a familiar style. Many people mistake a familiar for a vulgar style, and suppose that to write without affectation is to write at random. On the contrary, there is nothing that requires more precision, and, if I may so say, purity of expression, than the style I am speaking of. From Joozone.com.

It utterly rejects not only all unmeaning pomp, but all low, cant phrases, and loose, unconnected, “slip-shod” allusions. It is not to take the first word that offers, but the best word in common use; it is not to throw words together in any combinations we please, but to follow and avail ourselves of the true idiom of the language. To write a genuine familiar or truly English style is to write as any one would speak in common conversation who had a thorough command and choice of words, or who could discourse with ease, force, and perspicuity, setting aside all pedantic and oratorical flourishes. Or, to give another illustration, to write naturally is the same thing in regard to common conversation as to read naturally is in regard to common speech.

----Hazlitt

作文地带提供论平易的文体中文翻译：

写一篇文体平易的文章并不容易。很多人错误地认为平易就是粗劣，觉得不加修饰的写法就是涂鸦。其实不然。相反，平易的文体比其他任何文体更需要精确，或许应该说是更需要讲究用词。它不仅要拒绝一切毫无意义的华丽词藻，还要抛弃一切粗俗的语言、行话和松散的、没有任何联系的典故或暗示。

不要使用首先想到的词语，而要选择最适用于日常谈话的词语；不应该随心所欲地把词语胡乱组合在一起，而应该根据语言中确有的惯用手法加以应用。要写出真正平易的英文文体，就要像一个完全懂得如何自由使用和选择词汇的人平常说话一样自然，或者像在演说中可以做到收放自如而表意明晰的人那样，拒绝一切陈词滥调和语言堆砌。换一种说法就是，自然的写作和日常谈话的关系，就如自然朗读和日常说话的关系一样。