Title On Writing Well

Author William Zinsser

Year Published 1976

Kind of Book Writing/How To

How strongly I recommend it 10/10 

My Impressions A classic book on writing which offers oodles of practical tips for making your writing clear and powerful. Zinsser spends time addressing different genres of writing (Sports, Criticism ect.) as well as reexamining the goal of the writer. Terrific!

Date Read June 2020

Practical Takeaways

  • Try to avoid making your book over 200pages

  • Never talk down to the reader

  • Be true to yourself when writing

  • Rewrite your piece 8 or 9 times-E.B. White & James Thurber

  • Establish a daily writing schedule and stick to it

  • Use the method that works best for you: some work best at day, others night. Some with silence, other in noisy environments. Some by hand, some on the laptop. Some write the whole first draft and then revise. Others can't write the second paragraph until the first is perfect

  • Write with aliveness

  • Resist the temptation to make a simple sentence more complex than it has to be (we have a tendency to inflate to sound important)

  • Strip every sentence to its cleanest components

  • Beware of the long word that is no better than the short word

  • Get rid of adjectives if it is already implied in the verb (eg.to slowly crawl)

  • Get rid of adjectives already implied in the noun (eg. Tall skyscrapper)

  • Simplify, simplify

  • Constantly ask yourself "What am I trying to say?" "Have I said it?" "Is it clear to someone encountering the subject for the first time?"

  • In times of despair, remember that writing is hard for everyone

  • Examine every word you put on paper

  • Word Swap: avoid "greats"

  • Word swap: myself=me

  • Word swap: free up =free

  • Word swap: personal feeling=feeling (eg. My feeling is…)

  • Word swap: numerous=many

  • Word swap: facilite=ease

  • Word swap: remainder=rest

  • Word swap: initial=first

  • Word swap: individual=man or woman

  • Word swap: sufficient=enough

  • Word swap: attempt=try

  • Word swap: referred=called

  • Word swap: for the purpose of=for

  • Word swap: because of that fact that=because

  • Word swap: "I might add" If you might add, add it

  • Word swap: "It should be pointed out" point it out

  • Word swap: "It is interesting to note" make it interesting

  • Beware of people or corporations using cluttered writing to hide their mistakes

  • Cut your first draft by at 50% (most people's first drafts can be cut by 50%)

  • (when editing a student's paper) bracket the words you think are superfluous and can be cut out A: this allows them to see how the sentence can work with out all of the extra verbiage

  • Learn to put mental brackets around the clutter and words that you can omit

  • Look for clutter in your writing and prune it ruthlessly

  • Ask yourself "Is every word doing new work?

  • Ask yourself "Can any thought be expressed with more economy?"

  • Strip down your writing before you build it back up

  • Be genuine in your style (the reader can tell when a writer is putting on airs)

  • Be yourself while writing

  • Avoid a fancy introduction (none is necessary)

  • Write in the first person (eg. I, us, we) (it is more human)

  • Don't hide behind impersonal writing (eg. One might say )

  • Give yourself the right as a writer to say what you think

  • If you aren't allowed to use "I" at least think "I" while you write, or write the first draft in the first person and then take the "I's" out (it will warm up your impersonal style)

  • Believe in your own identity and your own opinions

  • Ask yourself "Who am I writing for?"

  • Don't try to visualize a mass audience when writing

  • Don't try to guess what sort of thing editors want to publish

  • Don't try to guess what the country is in a mood to read

  • Don't worry about whether the reader will "get it" when you indulge a sudden impulse for humor or nonsense

  • When in doubt, put the joke in (it can always be taken out later)

  • Write primarily to entertain yourself

  • Don't lose the ready through sloppy workmanship

  • Don't worry if the reader likes you

  • Don't worry if the reader agrees with you

  • Work hard to master the tools of writing

  • Use 'aint' and 'tendentious' in the same sentence

  • Don't write what is grammatically correct if it's just not you (e. whom am I writing for?)

  • Develop a respect for words

  • Avoid stale cliches (eg. Sending shock waves)

  • Be finicky about the words you choose

  • Don't assume that because an article is in a newspaper that it must be good

  • Use dictionaries

  • If you have any doubt what a word means, look it up

  • Learn the etymology of words

  • Master the small gradations between words that seem to be synonyms (eg. What is the difference between sustain and maintain?)

  • Use a thesaurus to remind yourself of your choices of words

  • When deciding which word to choose, keep in mind how it sounds in the sentence you're writing

  • Read The Elements of Style once a year

  • Try rearranging your favorite quotes or phrases (eg. To be or not to be, that is the question)

  • Always listen to what you write

  • Read everything out loud before letting it go out into the world

  • Try to gain variety by reversing the order of a sentence

  • Alter the lengths of your sentences

  • Make sure your writing doesn't sound like it is coming out of a computer

  • Use the occasional short sentences to deliver a punch and linger in the reader's ear

  • Always choose the grammatical form unless it sounds affected

  • Word swap: avoid the word hopefully

  • Learn to write by writing

  • Force yourself to produce a certain number of words on a regular basis

  • Decide what tone/mood you want to adopt

  • Stick to the same tone throughout the entire piece

  • Decide what tense you want to write in

  • Don't switch back and forth between tenses

  • Choose the tense that you are principally going to address the reader in

  • Decide what corner of your subject you are going to bite off and be content to cover it and stop. (you can always come back another day and bite off another corner)

  • Aim to leave the reader with one provocative thought he didn't have before. (not 2, or 5—one!)

  • Ask yourself "What one point do I want to leave in the reader's mind?"

  • If you find yourself gravitating to a different tense, tone, or style as you write. Don't fight it. Go back and change the beginning to match that tense, tone, or style (what is natural is probably the best choice)

  • Cut and paste words, sentences, paragraphs when writing

  • Make your first sentence draw the reader to the second, the second to the third etc.

  • Capture the reader immediately (don't count on the reader to stick around)

  • Lead with a paradox

  • Lead with humor

  • Lead with surprise

  • Lead with an unusual idea

  • Lead with an interesting fact

  • Lead with a question

  • Lead with something that nudges the reader's curiosity

  • Eventually tell the reader indirectly why he ought to read the piece

  • Eventually tell the reader indirectly why the piece was written

  • Take special care with the final sentence of each paragraph

  • Try to give the final sentence of the paragraph an extra twist of humor or surprise

  • Make the reader smile at the end of each paragraph (Make the reader smile and you've got him for at least one paragraph more.)

  • When you get a really funny quotation, find a way to use it

  • Hook the reader right away

  • Always collect more material than you will eventually use

  • Don't go on gathering facts forever (at some point you must decide to stop researching and start writing)

  • Look for your material everywhere, not just by reading the obvious sources and interviewing the obvious people

  • Give almost as much thought to choosing you last sentence as you did your first

  • Avoid making your ending just a compressed form of what you have already said. Watch out for writing "it can be noted that…" "In sum…" "Therefore…"

  • When you are ready to stop (a piece of writing) stop

  • If you have presented all the facts and made the point that you want to make, look for the nearest exit

  • You can get out of the article in a few sentences (just like it took a few to get into it)

  • Give the read one provocative thought to take home with him

  • Try ending an article with a quotation (eg. Something that is funny or has a sense of finality)

  • Write about things that surprise you (if something surprises you it will almost surely surprise and delight your reader)

  • Get people talking

  • Ask questions that will elicit answers about what is most interesting or vivid in their lives

  • Learn how to conduct an interview

  • Look for the human element in what you're writing about

  • (to get someone to do an interview) pretend you are writing for a real publication

  • Interview people in your community

  • Choose a person to interview who touches a corner of the reader's life

  • (for interview) Make sure you have a paper and at least two pencils

  • (for interview) Keep your paper and pencil out of sight until you need it (it will make people clam up)

  • Take some time to chat before the interview to get to know each other

  • Do whatever homework you can on the person you're interviewing beforehand (eg. Read their book, read other inteviews they've done)

  • Don't ask them about facts you could have learned in advance of the interview

  • Have a few questions you can ask if the interview stalls, but try to let the conversation flow and ask questions that come up in conversation

  • If the interviewee strays hopelessly off subject, drag him back

  • If you like the direction the interview is going forget the questions you intended to ask and go with him

  • Ask if it's alright to record the interview

  • If the person talks faster than you can write, ask them to "hold it a minute please" (no one wants to be misquoted)

  • Develop a shorthand for writing what people say in an interview

  • As soon as you can fill in the complete sentences

  • When you get home type out your notes

  • Present the person's position accurately

  • If the interviewee chooses his words carefully, quote him word for word

  • If the interviewee's conversation is ragged and what he says makes little sense when quoted word for word, clean up the English and provide the missing links

  • Make sure what the person said makes total sense to you before writing about it

  • Remember you can always call the person you interviewed to ask them to clarify something they said

  • Break quotations/dialogue up. (eg: "Come on" Julie pleaded "tell me the secret!") (it makes them livelier)

  • Start the sentence with the quotation rather than lead up to it with; the man said "stop"

  • Break quotations as soon and as natural as you can, so the reader who knows who is talking, but so it doesn't destroy the rhythm of what they're saying.

  • Don't strain to find synonyms for "he said" to avoid saying it multiple times. (the reader's eyes skip over it and other synonyms can feel forced)

  • Only tell people what made your trip different from everybody else's. Don't tell them every little detail (eg. Someone go stuck on a ride at Disneyland)

  • Avoid syrupy adjectives when describing a place (eg. Wondrous, majestic, fabled)

  • Choose your words with unusual care

  • If a phrase comes to you easily (when writing), look at it with deep suspicion (it's probably a stale cliché)

  • Strive for fresh words

  • (when writing about a place) avoid every fact that is obvious (eg. The sea had waves, the beach was white)

  • Use active verbs unless there is no comfortable way to get around using a passive verb (eg. Joe hit him not He was hit by Joe)

  • Eliminate most adverbs (most adverbs are unnecessary)

  • Avoid redundant adverbs (eg. Blare loudly)

  • Don't use adverbs unless they do some work

  • Eliminate most adjectives (most adjectives are unnecessary )

  • Word swap: get rid of "a bit" "a little" "sort of" "Kind of" "rather" "quite" (eg. Don't say you were a bit tired. Be tired) (every qualifier whittles away some fraction of trust on the part of the reader.)

  • Use the word "very" very sparsely

  • Break long sentences into 2 or three short sentences

  • Write shorter sentences (most writers don't reach the period soon enough)

  • If you want to write long sentences, be a genius

  • If you want to write long sentences, make sure the sentence is under control from the beginning to end, in syntax and punctuation, so that the reader knows where he is at every step

  • Don't use the exclamation point unless you must to achieve a certain effect

  • Instead of using an exclamation point, construct your sentence so that the order of the words will put emphasis where you want it.

  • Don't use exclamation points to notify your reader that you are being sarcastic or ironic

  • Use the semicolon sparingly

  • Remember that a semicolon will slow your writing to a Victorian pace

  • Use the en dash to amplify or justify in the second part of the sentence a thought that you stated in the first part (eg. We decided to keep going—it was only 100 miles more and we could get there in time for dinner.)

  • Use the en dash to set apart a parenthetical thought within a longer sentence (eg. She told me to get in the car—she had been after me all summer to have a haircut–and we drove silently to town)

  • Use a colon to bring your sentence to a halt before plunging into an itemized list

  • Use a colon to bring your sentence to a halt before a quotation

  • Alert the reader as soon as possible to any change in mood from the previous sentence. (eg. But… yet… however…. Nevertheless… still…

  • Start sentences with "But"

  • Use "But" over "However" (However is a weaker word)

  • Don't start or end a sentences with "however". Put it as close to the beginning of the sentences as possible (eg. I do, however, think that you were lying)

  • Use "Yet" and "Nevertheless" interchangeably

  • Always make sure the reader is oriented. Keep asking yourself where you left him in the previous sentence

  • Use contractions to make your style warmer

  • Avoid "I'd" A: it could mean I would or I had

  • Avoid "He'd" A: it could mean he would or he had

  • Avoid "We'd" it could mean we would or we had

  • Avoid "could've" A: it's not a word

  • Don't invent contractions

  • Let your humor sneak up so that they hardly see it coming

  • Don't overstate (eg. The living room looked as if an atomic bomb had gone off there)

  • Don't inflate an incident to make it more flamboyant or bizarre than it actually was (you will lose the reader's trust)

  • Choose one noun instead of smashing multiple nouns together. Preferably a short and specific one (eg. Rain not precipitation activity)

  • Avoid usages that treat women as possessions of the family male (eg. Early settlers pressed west with their wives and children)

  • Only use "he or she" sparingly when writing pronouns

  • Only use plural pronouns sparingly (eg. All employees should decide what they think is best for them and their despondent vs. An employees should decided what she thinks is best for her and her despondent) (plurals are weaker than singulars)

  • Don't use he/she for pronouns

  • Never use the slant (/) in the English language

  • Keep your paragraphs short (especially if you're writing for newspaper or magazine) (it makes the piece look inviting and easy to read)

  • (for newspapers) Make each paragraph have 2-3 sentences on average

  • Don't compete with others. Go at your own pace

  • When you find yourself getting stuck on a sentence, ask yourself if yo need it at all. Try getting rid of it (often you don't need it and getting rid of it will breath life into the rest of the piece)

  • Don't talk down to the reader

  • Don't hesitate to imitate the best writers

  • Study the men and women who are doing the kind of writing you want to do

  • Read great writing to warm yourself up to write

  • Avoid vague words when writing

  • Writing exercise: Describe how something works in linear detail (eg. A bicycle, a sewing machine, getting a new law made) A: it will a)force you to really know how it works b)force you to write clearly enough, so that the reader understands

  • Think of science writing like an upside-down pyramid. Start at the bottom with the one fact the reader must know before he can learn any more. The second sentences broadens the first, the third sentences broadens the second and so on

  • Weave a scientific story around a person's story

  • Write like a person, not like a scientist (for writing about scientific things)

  • Write without pretense

  • Look for a thread of humanity between yourself and the reader

  • Don't hide behind fancy pretentious words

  • Make sure your writing for your customers is clear and personal and not pretentious corporate speak (your customer isn't going to keep translating the corporate jargon into English very long before he starts looking for a new company

  • Avoid the word "capacity")

  • Don't believe the myth that simple writing reflects a simple mind (simple writing reflects hard work and hard thinking)

  • Avoid pompous writing

  • Make the writing for your company personal. Ie. Locate the missing "I"

  • Be yourself when you write

  • Never be afraid to repeat the person's name for clarity sake. Don't think you have to create a different way to describe him or her every time (eg. John doe 2nd the right fielder, the OSU grad )

  • Avoid excess statistics, dates, and numbers in your piece

  • (as a critic) love the medium you are reviewing

  • If you think movies are dumb, don't write about them

  • Go to every movie wanting to like it

  • When reviewing something, don't give away too much of the plot

  • Steep yourself in the literature of the medium you want to critique

  • Don't write about "what remains to be seen" Take your stand with conviction A: everything remains to be seen

  • Don't pee down both legs ie. Don't say it could be X. Then again it could be Y

  • (for writing comedy) Heighten some truth to the level where it will be seen as crazy

  • Don't give people a sermon when writing humor (Sermons are the death of humor)

  • Stick close to the form you are parodying

  • Don't repeat the same kind of joke 2 or 3 times

  • Trust the sophistication of readers who do know what you're doing and don't worry about the rest

  • Be willing to go against the grain (when writing humor)

  • Be willing to state what the populace and the President may not want to hear

  • Build your humor on four things everybody does-Chic Young (Blondie Creator)

1.Eating

2.Sleeping

3.Raising a family

4.Making money

  • Master the craft of writing good straight English

  • Don't strain for laughs and try to get a laugh every line (humor is built on surprise and you can only surprise the reader so often)

  • (for writing humor) Represent yourself as the victim or the dunce, helpless in most situations (this enables the reader to feel superior, or at least identify with a fellow victim)

  • Don't be funny on every line

  • Whenever you have three straight funny lines, cut the first two-George S.Kafman

  • Instead of being dragged kicking and screaming into the future by new technology, be the one who drags everyone else kicking and screaming into the future

  • Read your article out loud from beginning to end

  • Don't write the second paragraph until the first is one is right

  • Save all your drafts

  • Name your first draft [title1] second draft [title2] etc.

  • Teach children simple logic before teaching them to write (anyone whose thinking is fuzzy will never write well)

  • Don't say anything in writing that you wouldn't comfortably say in conversation. (eg. If you're not someone who says "indeed" or "moreover" in conversation, don't ever write it

  • Whenever you write a sentence that is stiff and pompous, relax and write a new one right after it that expresses the warm and lovable person you really are. Then delete the earlier sentence

  • Trust your material. Don't go out of your way with tricks to get people to be interested

  • Try cutting every part of a piece of writing where you express an opinion or imply to the reader how they should feel

  • Let the reader have their own emotional response to what you're writing without implying to them how they should feel

  • Eliminate adverbs like "predictably" or "surprisingly" that put a value on a fact before the reader encounters it

  • Present your material in a way that serves it best

  • Never go into a store looking for a bargain (quality is its own reward)

  • As a writer think of yourself as part entertainer

  • Write as entertainingly as possible

  • To make your writing entertaining: Use humor, anecdote, surprise, paradox, an unexpected quotation, a powerful pact, an outlandish detail

  • opt for concrete details rather than vague abstractions

  • Be willing to defend your work against editors, agents, and publishers

  • Don't let anyone mess with your writing, even after you submit it

  • Have an editor look at your writing to get an objective eye on it

  • (when editing) make sure that you don't add your own voice or tone and whatever corrections you make sound like the writer's words

  • Work with an editor you can trust

  • Negotiate with your editor

  • (when editing) never allow the writer to publish something you can't understand (clarity should be an editor's number one goal)

  • Assume that there is always one person in the audience who has never seen you before. Play for that person and don't let him down. ( I always thought that there was a least one person in the stands who had never seen me play, and I didn't want to let him down.")-Joe DiMaggio

 

Big Ideas

  • Rewriting is the essence of writing.

  • In order to think well you must write well and vice versa

  • Very rarely do sentences come out perfect the first time when writing

  • The accumulation of getting many small details right (or wrong) determines whether or not something is good or bad

  • Corporate America uses clutter and jargon to hide their mistakes in their wiring

  • Writing is an act of ego

  • You learn to write by writing

  • Being preachy is detrimental to humor

  • Many writers don't like to write, but like to have written

  • If your verbs are weak and your syntax is rickety, your sentences will fall apart.

  • A writer will do anything to avoid the act of writing.

  • It is easier to make a good piece of writing critical rather than complementary

  • Humor writers are every bit as serious as "Serious" writers

  • Humor sometimes functions as a way to deflect anger

  • We often write in impersonal tone of voice to avoid revealing ourselves to the reader

  • Qualifying words cause the reader to trust the writer/speaker less

  • Most writers write sentences that are too long

  • Fuzzy thinking equates to fuzzy writing

 

Surprising Facts

  • The drum in West Africa was so refined it could be used to tell stories and recite proverbs

 

Unknown Terms

Pyrotechnics:the science and craft of using self-contained and self-sustained exothermic chemical reactions to make heat, light, gas, smoke and/or sound. The name comes from the Greek words pyr and tekhnikos.

Journalese: 1) The style of writing often held to be characteristic of newspapers and magazines, distinguished by clichés, sensationalism, and triteness of thought. 2)
A style of writing fit only for rapid newspaper work; a style abounding in pretentious words and sudden colloquialisms and making crude bids for popularity.

Word processing: The creation, input, editing, and production of documents and texts by means of computer systems.

Lead (journalism): The first few sentences of an article or piece of writer meant to pull the reader in and hook them.

Editorial: 1)an article written by the senior editorial staff or publisher of a newspaper, magazine, or any other written document 2). are typically published on a dedicated page which often features letters to the editor from members of the public 3)Many newspapers publish it without the name of the leader writer. Tom Clark, leader-writer for The Guardian, says that it ensures that readers discuss the issue at hand rather than the author.