On Writing Well by William Zinsser

1. On Writing Wellby William Zinsser �� there is a personal transaction that is at the heart of all good non-fiction writing.�

2. On Writing Wellby William Zinsser �Good writing has an aliveness that keeps the reader reading from one paragraph to the next, and it is not a question of gimmicks� It is a question of using the English language in a way that will achieve the greatest strength and the least clutter. Can such principles be taught? Maybe not. But most of them can be learned .� (Zinsser 6)

3. On Writing Wellby William Zinsser �Our national tendency is to inflate and thereby sound important. The airline pilot who wakes us to announce that he is presently anticipating experiencing considerable weather wouldn�t dream of saying that there�s a storm ahead and it may get bumpy. The sentence is too simple--there must be something wrong with it.� (Zinsser 7)

4. On Writing Wellby William Zinsser �The secret to good writing is to strip every sentence to its cleanest components. Every word that serves no function, every long word that could be a short word, every adverb which carries the same meaning that is already in the verb, every passive construction that leaves the reader unsure of who is doing what�these are the thousand and one adulterants that weaken the strength of a sentence. And they usually occur, ironically, in proportion to education and rank.� (Zinsser 7)

5. On Writing Wellby William Zinsser �� clear our heads of clutter. Clear thinking becomes clear writing: one can�t exist without the other. It is impossible for a muddy thinker to write good English. He might get away with it for a paragraph or two, but soon the reader will be lost, and there is no sin so grave, for he will not be easily lured back.� (Zinsser 9)

6. On Writing Wellby William Zinsser �The writer must� continually ask himself: What am I trying to say? Surprisingly often, he doesn�t know. Then he must look at what he has written and ask: Have I said it? Is it clear to someone encountering the subject for the first time? If it is not, it is because some fuzz has worked its way into the machinery. The clear writer is a person clear-headed enough to see the stuff for what it is: fuzz.� (Zinsser 12)

7. On Writing Wellby William Zinsser �Writing is hard work. A clear sentence is no accident. Very few sentences come out right the first time, or the third. Keep thinking and rewriting until you say what you want to say.� (Zinsser 13)

8. On Writing Wellby William Zinsser Pick the best line� These are the times that try men�s souls. Times like these try men�s souls. How trying it is to live in these times. These are trying times for men�s souls. Soulwise, these are trying times. What if Thomas Paine had used one of the last four? Diction is concerned with the words that you choose, and syntax is how you arrange the words in a sentence. As you work through your draft, please pay attention to diction and syntax. Is there a way to say things that is better than what you have in your draft?