Let's all read Orwell's essay "Politics and the English language again - and if you haven't read it, go and read it.

Kingsley Amis once wrote that every author should read what they have written out loud in order to improve the flow and clarity of their sentences. I'm no fan of Amis's politics, but I do admire his honesty and his clarity of language, and love some (not all) of his novels.

My own personal pet peeve is the popular (mis)use of the word "decimate", which is now used as a term for major destruction, rather than in the original sense of one tenth destruction.