https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5721253765

This is good - but at times repetitive. I recommend treating this like a reference text. Parts 1 and 2 (Principles and Methods) are required reading for the mechanics. You'll have fun reading them, too. Part 3 the reader can pick and choose from. I'd suggest Chapter 11 as a starter (Nonfiction as Literature), and then reading the section relevant to your project. Skim the rest, except Chapter 19 (Humor), which you should read.

Part 4 (Attitudes) blends the mechanics and Zinsser's experience. I found this part to be repetitive, but I would recommend Chapters 20, 21, and 23 (The Sound of Your Voice, Enjoyment, Fear, and Confidence, and A Writer's Decisions). If you're interested in his thoughts on working with editors, Chapter 25 (Write as Well as You Can) as well.

Published first in 1976 and reissued repeatedly (this edition in 2006), the text shows its age in some places. I would take a crack at updating the whole section on "pronouns" for today's times and understanding. I'm not as big a fan of the King James Bible as Zissner seems to be from his several references from it, though the references make sense.

Some of his core advice:
* Ask yourself - what am I trying to say? have I said it?
* Eliminate any element not doing useful work - put brackets around things not doing useful work in editing.
* SIMPLIFY
* Write for yourself
* Read your writing out loud
* Maintain unity in pronoun, tense, and mood (and time)
* Write sequentially - make sure you're telling the reader when and where you're at
* Subjects - think small
* Use precise, active verbs
* Most adverbs and adjectives aren't needed
* The quickest fix for a difficult sentence is often getting rid of it

* Rewriting is the essence of writing.
* Never let anything go out into the world that YOU don't understand.
* When writing memoir - think NARROW with detail

* Zinsser's 4 Tenets: Clarity, Simplicity, Brevity, & Humanity

I have a few notecards of notes, but these stand out. ( )

The difficulty with all books such as this is the necessity to already know a bit about writing in order to understand what the author is getting at. If it happens that you know a fair bit about it already, the book is largely useless to you until you get to the bits you aren’t aware of yet. So, the value of the book varies depending on what you already know. For me, this book was about one third useful. Mostly I was using it to brush up on my script writing chops. ( )

Specifically about writing nonfiction (principles, techniques + tips for all sorts of non-fiction writing e.g. memoirs, business, sports, art...) . You'll learn:
• The principles and methods for writing well, including how to find your unique voice, simplify your writing, write coherently, choose the right words, use "good" English, start and end well, and polish your writing till it shines.
• How to apply the principles and methods above to all types of non-fiction writing, from sports to travel, memoirs and business writing.
• How to get started on your writing journey and hone your skills as a writer.

Book summary at: https://readingraphics.com/book-summary-on-writing-well-william-zinsser/ ( )

I learned some things from this classic. ( )

On Writing Well provides advice on how to write non-fiction. It is logically organized into four sections: Principles, Methods, Forms, and Attitude. The first section covers the basics. It conveys tips on writing in a straight-forward uncluttered manner with emphasis on action verbs. The second focuses on organization, presentation, and structure. The third shows examples of different types of writing, such as travel, memoir, science, business, sports, arts, and humor. The last section explores finding your own voice. It covers intangibles such as setting high standards, gaining confidence, and taking risks. This book is geared toward writing in English, but the concepts can be applied to other languages.

Zinsser’s background, as a published author and former professor at Yale and Columbia, gives him credibility. The book is easy to read and understand. I particularly liked Zinsser’s analysis of writing samples, with suggestions for improvement. I smiled often at his use of humor: “Leave ‘myriad’ and their ilk to the poets. Leave ‘ilk’ to anyone who will take it away.”

Originally published in 1976, I read the 30th anniversary edition, which has been updated but still feels dated – such as references to printouts and word processors. The author holds strong opinions and states them forcefully. He also tends to repeat himself. Nevertheless, I discovered sound tools and techniques to incorporate into my writing. Life-long learners will value the content. ( )

I have mixed feelings about this book. I rate the first 94 pages five stars, but the rest average one and a half. That's a 28% good book, and that makes my final three star ratings more than generous.

What Zinsser writes in the first 94 pages cater to a level of practicality and emotional value that makes those pages worth more than any other 94 pages in the book. His words sink deep when other writing books skip on the surface. He gives a qualitative view on what counts as clutter, what counts as style, and that it's up to the writer to make these decisions. There are more exceptions than absolutes and we shouldn't bind to what a strict English teacher told us. We shouldn't be scared of writing. I love writing regardless of my experiences in school, and with that love I too have been equally scared.

It's refreshing to have someone who has worked in newspaper, magazines, and teaching--at the prestigious Yale and smaller, community institutions--to tell you that as long as you work hard and know your basics you have every reason to be confident. He has a great voice and I can see myself reading those 94 pages again as a refresher and a pep talk in a few years.

However, the rest of the book is either common sense (or is that just me?) or biased based on personality and background. I don't blame him for this. The book was never designed to be objective, or his comforting voice wouldn't resonate, or his vivid vocabulary wouldn't have forced me to keep the dictionary with me while I read.

Between my background in science communications and my personality, much of Zinsser's advice has noticeable flaws. His degree of emphasis on "humanity", how emotional and sensual humanity is, is worded like an absolute. It's the correct way to write. But it's merely a preference--the persuasive kind that is often marketable and employed by public relations writers. However, he reiterates throughout the book how much your writing needs to be you and you have to write for yourself and not for an editor or the assumed marketable audience. You.

Given how many times in the first 94 pages Zinsser mentions individuality and every writer needs to approach a story differently, not to mention his broad experience, I'm surprised that he narrows his perspective in the rest of the book. He doesn't grasp how variant personalities and world views are.

Many don't share his world view. While an article or a book automatically has some humanity because a human wrote it--especially if the writer keeps their voice--there's no obligation to be sensual. A lot of people just aren't expressive in that way and trying would feel and sound fake. An intelligent article in of itself also appeals across nonfiction.

Many history enthusiasts love the facts and a narrative that gives flow to the facts, like embodying the book with its own personality. Science books may never feature a human. They may have a cast of dedicated, knowledge-driven scientists. There may be no drama to elicit deep emotions in a reader that is readily swayed. But there is an audience for that style of presentation and they love it.

Essentially feeling-oriented writers seem to dominate the literature world. They make it their world. However, thinking-oriented writers have the thinking-oriented readership the other writers estrange. To these readers sensual writing is, to borrow the most frequent quote, "That's B.S." But an orchestration of logos, information that offers a new perspective, and a dose of a writer's reasonable personality wins them. They want something that is either exclusively practical or something that's intellectually enlightening. They aren't even uncommon; just understated.

I found the first 94 pages be wholesome, but the rest was conceptually incomplete.



On a side note, contrary to the chapter about science and technology,chimpanzees are not "down a rung on the ladder" to humans. That would be all the primates, mice, fish, and bacteria from bygone eras. Chimps have their own ladder. They also have a meme for this misconception and thus I find it humourous enough to mention. ( )

On Writing Well is a book to help improve non-fiction writing. It preaches simpleness in writing, and calls clutter “the disease of American writing.” Often, we use too many words and phrases that add nothing to our writing.

The book believes all writing can be improved upon, even business, legal and scientific works. A lot of these pompous writings are stripped of their humanity, which leaves them boring and dull. The human element is why people read.

Zinsser gives dozens of good and bad examples to show his principles in action. The examples unleash the power of Zinsser’s teaching and are the strongest part of the book.

This is the best practical guide I’ve read about writing. I loved the books On Writing by Stephen King and Zen in the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury. But, now I see, I liked them because the authors were interesting. They inspired me to write but they didn’t give me clear advice for writing well. On Writing Well has given me methodical ways of thinking about and improving my writing. ( )

An excellent guide to writing nonfiction, this book includes memorable quotes and quality advice for writing all kinds of nonfiction without losing character or falling into any traps. ( )

Very helpful book. I love the wit and warmth of the author. I learned from the book and was encouraged to continue thinking about my writing. I will likely reference this book in the future. I would recommend it for aspiring writers. ( )

Zinsser packs the book full of good points. Making every word do meaningful work is one of his best. ( )

Finished reading.

Now?

Do I recommend reading it? Yes.

Do I recommend following it? No.

Yes, I sure learned a few things here and there, but skimmed/skipped many parts, almost 20% of the book.

Why?
Well, in this book he tells how he writes, not how you should write. And the skimmed parts weren't relevant to my business of writing. :D

He provides tips on how to induce humour, how to hook a reader or how to end your piece. But, it should be at your discretion to decide your style of writing, depending on what type of writing project you are doing. ( )

I first read this book over ten years ago and I still come back to it often. It's life-changing. The expression "it should be mandatory reading" is overused, but in this case I can't think of a better summary. I have been juggling government work and academic research for fifteen years now, and both of those environments can degrade your writing to the point of ridiculousness ("stakeholders", "has been found to be", etc). This book is a form of damage control; it helps me keep my writing minimally sane and comprehensible. Buy it, read it, apply it, re-read it, recommend it to your friends and coworkers, buy several copies and gift them to everyone you care about.

This is my favorite excerpt:

"…the secret of 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 that carries the same meaning that’s 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 in proportion to education and rank." ( )

I've reviewed this book in full here: https://niklas.reviews/2021/04/29/on-writing-well/ ( )

It is targeted at non-fiction writing, but Zinsser has a lot of tips that can readily apply to fiction writing as well. Easily a book of reference I could see myself returning to for a refresher course on the finer points of crafting stories. ( )

This is a classic that I have just discovered. The book was written many years ago, but has been updated.

It focuses on non-fiction writing and has lots of great guidelines plus great advice.

My favorite piece of advice was - if you are having difficulty with re-writing a sentence, try deleting it and see what the effect is.

The basic tenet of the book is that writing is re-writing. No one gets it right first time, so be prepared for re-writing and re-writing.

I know from personal experience that I can improve existing writing - but a blank page is hard to edit.

It has specialist sections on most popular types of non-fiction writing. I skipped a few that I don't write about e.g. Sport.

Highly recommend.

If you are interest in fiction writing check out Stephen Kings' (yes THE Stephen King) classic - On Writing. ( )

I'm writing a math book, and after I published the first few chapters, someone offered to buy me a copy of this book. It's a nice gesture if you don't think very hard about it.

Anyway, on to the book. It's got some good points: write for yourself, ruthlessly trim prose, and decide on a consistent tone before getting started. That's it; now you don't need to buy this book as I did.

Zinsser goes on several tirades about the sanctity of language, about how he refuses to use any neologisms, and so too should you. The book suddenly begins to show its age; none of his examples were words I had ever considered to be problematic. Maybe "trek" was once contested, but finds itself safely ensconced in the language today.

The majority of "On Writing Well" is "how to write newspaper articles about topic X." Business, news, artistic reviews, you name it. I briefly skimmed over the science section, thinking it might be helpful in my pursuits. It wasn't. Zinsser takes the viewpoint that science is scary, audiences don't care, and so a writer must do ones best to handhold the reader along. Science reporting at its finest.

In conclusion, I learned a few things, but it wasn't worth my $14. Guess I should have let that guy buy it for me instead. ( )

When I was in high school, I asked an English teacher to critique my writing. This was a big mistake. She did a great job offering feedback but I was not mature enough to receive it. As a result, the experience turned me off to writing. I struggle to write well but I continue to try and I have come to enjoy the writing experience. In an effort to improve my writing, I picked up On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction by William Zinsser. After reading it, I would concur that this book will help you write better. Read more ( )

Zinsser first published this book in 1976 and this version is the seventh edition. Not a bad run and he's had to update it to cope with word processors and computers. I've just recommended it to my son. In fact, I bought it in the quiet hope that he might read it and gain some inspiration.....but no luck there. As one might hope, it is well written and rather easy to read. Short chapters ...active not passive voice. Some really good hints about interviewing people and for including dialogue into your writing. It is shamelessly directed towards non fiction writers and it is clear that Zinsser has done a decent apprenticeship as a writer. He comes across as viewing writing as a job more than as an inspiration. But I would not hesitate to recommend this to anyone who is keen to improve their writing ...I love some of his "throw-away"lines (though as he points out they are probably very carefully thought through)... eg. "Leave 'myriad' and their ilk to the poets. Leave 'ilk' to anyone who will take it away".
A seriously useful reference book. I give it five stars. ( )

Encouraging words for non-fiction writers. ( )

Clarity. Simplicity. Brevity. Humanity. ( )

I will try to keep this clear, simple, brief, and human. Zinsser has provided excellent advice for beginner writers. I would recommend this book for anyone without any formal training in writing. His tips and suggestions are easily applicable. I would argue however that writing should be more creative and flexible than Zinsser proposes. He believes works, sentences, and even words should be shortened, compact, and active. I personally enjoy having to think through more complex texts. I appreciate the attempt at making writing a more conquerable obstacle, but I am also impressed by an extensive vocabulary. This content could be easily applied in a classroom for high school students to build their writing skills. ( )

From my Cannonball Read 6 review ...

I love participating in Cannonball Read for a few reasons. I didn’t know AlabamaPink, but I followed her on Pajiba and am happy to support fundraising in her name. I love that CBR motivates me to pick up a book instead of a video game or magazine, and I know I wouldn’t have read nearly as many (mostly good) books in the last 18 months without it. But one benefit I didn’t fully understand until recently is that CBR gives me the chance to improve my non-fiction writing on a weekly basis. This latest read has been particularly useful with that goal.

My husband read ‘On Writing Well’ and thought I’d enjoy it. It bodes well for a book that aspires to be a guide to writing nonfiction that it is so easy to read. Mr. Zinsser wrote the first edition of this book in 1976, but has updated it many times, most recently about eight years ago. It is well-organized, fun to read, and most importantly filled with fantastic advice, as my notebook filled with quotes from it confirms.

A few of Mr. Zinsser’s suggestions are obvious, but that doesn’t mean most people actually follow them. One thing he pushes for repeatedly is to take a stand and remove the passive voice. Until graduate school many of my instructors required that I write in the passive voice; thankfully that changed but I still find myself having to work at using my voice in my writing, especially at work. I don’t think I’m alone in that, and it’s nice to get some advice on being even stronger with my word choice.

But there’s so much more in this book than Mr. Zinsser’s enthusiasm for active sentences. He provides great examples to support his point that we should be crafting sentences, paragraphs and pieces that readers want to read. We shouldn’t be looking for the longest synonym or the most clauses in a sentence; we should tell the story in a way that works for us. He offers great advice to get us there; a few of my favorites are:
• “What do your readers want to know next? Ask yourself that question after every sentence.”
• “Examine every word you put on paper. You'll find a surprising number that don't serve any purpose.”
• “Most adverbs and adjectives are unnecessary.”
• “Clarity, simplicity, brevity and humanity.”

Unfortunately, while Mr. Zinsser understands and reinforces the power of language, he seems to only allow that power in so far as he agrees with it. He mentions that he used to use ‘he’ as his generic pronoun, but feminists convinced him that such usage was sexist, and so he changed his style. He saw that not using a gender-neutral form whenever possible reinforced the idea that male is the default, and female the anomaly. But in other areas he suggests that being careful with language is just ‘political correctness’ and dismisses it. The specific example he uses – expressing his distaste for the term undocumented resident and preference for the term illegal alien – shows that he still chooses his words based on his political inclination. He sees the error in his ways on gender, but apparently not yet on nationality. That is disappointing.

Despite that one (important) area where Mr. Zinsser and I disagree, I know that much of what he wrote is solid advice. Hopefully as I incorporate his suggestions my writing – for Cannonball Read, for work, and for my own blog – will improve. Or, I should say, I will improve my writing. ( )

“Writers do not merely reflect and interpret life, they inform and shape life.”
– E.B. White

“Writing is the geometry of the soul.”
– Plato

In On Writing Well – The Classic Guide To Nonfiction, William Zinsser writes an easy-to-follow no-nonsense approach into the core essentials of writing.

Providing a smattering of meticulous examples, On Writing Well does a lucid job of clearing up some of the confusion writers might have about style, methods, leads, endings, et al., while setting the foundation for a stronger individual repertoire.

In fact, regarding this, Zinsser speaks about the importance of everyone to have good writing skills given today’s newfound environment where a lot of communication takes place through the emails, the internet and so on. This is crucial since most of us employ the tool of writing in a daily fashion. Zinsser urges individuals to seek to sharpen their skill set in order to become better communicators simply by employing tenets in this book.

As hinted to before, Zinsser also make incisive use of many salient examples throughout the book by breaking them down and suggesting some writing tips in cogent fashion. Within these examples the author covers people, places, science and technology, writing within a job, writing about sports, and more.

Broken down into four parts, the book covers [1] Principles, where notions such as clutter and style are covered, [2] Methods, where leads and endings are covered, [3] Forms, where various forms of nonfiction are explored at length and [4] Attitudes within writing, which is self explanatory. All parts offer ample insights, many of which would be useful to nigh all individuals nowadays, especially if you have to write anything on a daily basis, whether it is emails, memos, etc. and are new to writing.

To accomplish sound things in life, one needs an ironclad scaffolding upon which to set oneself in. Writing well is no different. The insights provided by this book will help those that employ them. Couple the tenets in this book with those of those within The Elements of Style, and one has the recipe for success. Both have helped me quite a bit, as I hope they help you. ( )

Easily the best book on craft that I've read. It's definitely a nonfiction guide, but it covers a wide variety of subgenres and would be helpful for anyone who communicates with the written word... so yeah, that includes you. The book will rest on my bookshelf in a deserved spot in between The Elements of Style and The Little, Brown Handbook. ( )

The subtitle of this book is "The Classic Guide to Writing Non-Fiction." Do not ignore this book if you are not a professional writer. This book is about clearly communicating ideas whether in email, presentations, or conversation. The book has echoes of the classic guide The Elements of Style ("Be concise") but it is not a grammar book. Wise choice of words, tense, and proper use of grammar become the tools for explaining ideas. Revisit it often to improve your communication skills. ( )