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that you can pleasantly read despite of the "tedious" topic A well written book (could it be different).
Zinsser has also taught writing at Yale and Columbia University.We get a glimpse of Zinsser's political views in places. What if we hear his likes and dislikes. If you find that writing is hard, it's because it is hard."Zinsser's section on the principles of writing sounds like Strunk and White's The Elements of Style. Simplicity is the highest virtue--"The secret of good writing is to strip every sentence to its cleanest components." On the other hand, "clutter is the disease of American writing."Clarity, simplicity, brevity, and humanity are Zinsser's "four articles of faith." He says that any piece of non-fiction writing can be enjoyable if it is written with "warmth and humanity." And he proves his point. After all, he's a real person writing with warmth and humanity. Very few sentences come out right the first time, or even the third time. There's something for everyone. A clear sentence is no accident.
"Few people realize how badly they write," says William Zinsser. Few have been as helpful as On Writing Well. I do realize how badly I write. Mr. On Writing Well is full of stories about real people. I enjoy reading it as much as any novel. But there's hope. Writing, he says, is a craft that can be learned by anyone who is willing to work at it.
Zinsser's goal is to make better writers. None have been as enjoyable to read. For that reason, I read every book on writing that I can find. He has written books on subjects from baseball to jazz, including this book that has sold over one million copies and is in its seventh printing. Zinsser doesn't just talk about principles, grammar, and style.
Unlike some books on writing, this one is not trying to persuade the reader politically or morally. If you want a book that will help you become a better non-fiction writer, this is the one. Though they are different than mine, it doesn't change the way I feel about the book. We should remember something about the man or woman who, in our mind, sits down at the keyboard and types out the perfect piece on the first go: that person doesn't exist."Writing is hard work. Zinsser is qualified to tell us how to write.
His book has chapters on nearly every genre of non-fiction writing: interviews, travel articles, memoir, business writing, science and technology, sports writing, reviewing, and humor. Remember this in moments of despair. I read half of it in the bookstore before I bought it, and I have read it several times since then.
Nothing is missed as he discusses the various genres Sports, Humor, Science and Technology, Memoirs, interviews, nonfiction, and more.I appreciated the chapter on Unity, The Sound of Your Voice, The Tyranny of the Final Product, and Write as Well as You Can. The author does a brilliant job walking the reader through a series of writing techniques and methods.
A fabulous reference for language arts classrooms. The seniors in my classroom who are writing research papers are constantly hearing comments about writing clearly, made as I cover each chapter in the book. A friend had loaned me a copy of On Writing Well, thinking I'd enjoy reading it. I loved it so much I immediately bought a copy for myself.
I suspect those days are gone.I lost most of my confidence in him gradually except when he began to enthuse about his "Webster's Dictionary" which I know as a generic term, i.e., nearly useless. It is bad advice, and that is when I lost the big chunk of any remaining confidence in the value of his book.Much of it would be useful, in lieu of any other instruction, for a high school student or college freshman. Learn to eliminate excess verbiage, and continue learning the English language and other topics also.There, I have saved you the price of this book. There is no "Webster's" company, it has become a generic term for a large number of INFERIOR dictionaries. There are better books to recommend, however. As others have pointed out, the writer is a coach or cheerleader and as such may be quite effective. However, I got the impression he was a bit of a hack himself, in a position for many years such that he was paid whether he wrote well or badly.
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