on writing well william zinsser sparknotes

Choose a mood/tone: are you telling a story, writing an informative article, giving guidelines?.

Choose a pronoun to write from, and stick to it (first person, second person).

The problem needs to be confronted and solved. Read your text out loud to find out what is right and what isn’t.Īll writing is ultimately a question of solving a problem. Make a habit of reading the authors that write what you want to write. Never say in writing what you wouldn’t say in a conversation. Please yourself and the reader will be pleased. You are writing for yourself, and to please yourself. Style is tied to the psyche, and writing has deep psychological roots.ĭon’t think about the audience. One way to do so is to put the words you don’t need in brackets. In general, people do the opposite, which is why writing is bad.Īll words that serve no purpose should be taken out.Ĭlutter is the official language used by corporations to hide their mistakes. Good writing is stripping a sentence to its cleanest components. Whatever helps you write will do.Ĭurrent writing is cluttered with fluff that makes it hard to understand. There is no such thing as “the right method to write”. Summary of On Writing Well Written by William Zinsser Part 1: Principles The first half of the book gets an 8/10, and the last two parts get a 2/10. I recommend you read the book, but only the first two parts.Īlternatively, you can read this summary. The author speaks so much about himself that you’re wondering if you’re still reading the same book.

Halfway through, the book becomes a painful lesson on good and bad writing, with examples nobody cares about.

He tells you how he went to interview a professional bird watcher or how he traveled in Morocco (I skimmed this part). Zinsser, who advises writing stuff people want to read, fails to respect his own advice. Second, you will only find good writing advice in the first and second parts of the book because the rest is awful. Stephen King also wrote a book on writing that he called “On writing”. This isn’t surprising since William Zinsser admitted at the beginning of the book that he did not enjoy writing.įirst of all, calling one’s own book “ On Writing Well” is pretentious. While this book is regarded as one of the best books on writing, it’s not. I learned that good writing happens when you can convey a message as precisely as possible with as few words as possible. The author gives a bunch of principles in the first part of the book then explains how to write each type of non-fiction text. The book is a guide to writing non-fiction. On Writing Wellwas written by William Zinsser. Most writers don’t write periods soon enough.Good writing is as simple as possible with as few words as possible.

On writing well william zinsser sparknotes