On Writing Well, 25th Anniversary: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction Paperback – September 18, 2001
Author: William K. Zinsser | Language: English | ISBN: 0060006641 | Format: PDF, EPUB
On Writing Well, 25th Anniversary: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction – September 18, 2001
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- Series: On Writing Well
- Paperback: 320 pages
- Publisher: Collins; 25th anniversary ed Non fiction guide edition (September 18, 2001)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0060006641
- ISBN-13: 978-0060006648
- Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.3 x 0.8 inches
- Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #65,073 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #66 in Books > Medical Books > Research
Zinsser asserts that writing well can be learned. This is good news. I thought I wrote well until I compared my reviews to those of some of the consistent top reviewers on Amazon. How do they do that?
According to Zinsser (and affirmed by Tom Clancy on a TV interview), good writers follow rules, editing each sentence and paragraph multiple times. They write against deadlines whether or not they're feeling inspired. When done properly, the finished product can look deceptively simple to write. Following is my liberally abridged summary of Zinsser's rules:
1. Do - prune out every word that does not perform a necessary function. Strip each sentence to its cleanest components. A clear sentence is no accident.
2. Do - use the thesaurus liberally. Learn the small gradations between words that seem to be synonyms.
3. Do - try to improve the rhythm by reversing the order of a sentence, substituting a word that has freshness or oddity, and by varying the lengths of sentences.
4. Do - make your first sentence the best one - your lead must capture the reader.
5. Do - make each sentence lead into the next. Readers think linearly.
6. Do - Take special care with the last sentence in your paragraph - its the springboard to the next paragraph.
7. Do - make your paragraphs short. Readers think in segments.
8. Do - pay special attention to the last sentence. The perfect ending should take your reader slightly by surprise and yet seem exactly right.
9. Do - Read it aloud to see how it sounds and re-edit - then do it again. Clear writing is the result of lots of tinkering.
On the other hand:
1.
If writing non-fiction is an important part of your personal or professional life, reading this classic will be a sound investment. I read this book many years ago, when it was in its first edition, and its wisdom has had a profound impact on me. I can think of few experiences that have had such a demonstrably positive influence on my career (I am currently a professor of computer science). I have found Zinsser's sage advice to be applicable to writing technical papers, letters to the PTA, and virtually every other form of non-fiction.
Zinsser patiently instructs his readers on how to write about travel or science, how to conduct an interview, how to craft an effective lead and ending, and even how to get started. Along the way, Zinsser entreats us to omit clutter and cliché, strike out useless adverbs, adjectives, and qualifiers, incorporate active verbs, and strive for correct usage as well as unity of pronoun, tense, and mood. But the overriding messages are clarity, simplicity, and directness. Keep it crisp. Oh, and just like driving a car, always signal your intentions (keep that "but" at the beginning of the sentence).
Two specific pages in Zinsser's book have remained etched in my mind from the moment I took them in almost two decades ago. They comprise the most genuine and revealing demonstration I have ever seen in a book on writing. On those two pages (pages 10 and 11 in the first edition), Zinsser provides a glimpse at the penultimate draft of the very book you are reading, juxtaposed with the corresponding pages in final form; in so doing, Zinsser invites you to critically examine his own writing, while revealing something of his process. This was brilliant.
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