On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction by William Zinsser (PDF)

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On Writing Well has been praised for its sound advice, its clarity and the warmth of its style. It is a book for everybody who wants to learn how to write or who needs to do some writing to get through the day, as almost everybody does in the age of e-mail and the Internet. Whether you want to write about people or places, science and technology, business, sports, the arts or about yourself in the increasingly popular memoir genre, On Writing Well offers you fundamental priciples as well as the insights of a distinguished writer and teacher. With more than a million copies sold, this volume has stood the test of time and remains a valuable resource for writers and would-be writers.

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: Review “On Writing Well belongs on any shelf of serious reference works for writers.” — New York Times“Not since The Elements of Style has there been a guide to writing as well presented and readable as this one. A love and respect for the language is evident on every page.” — Library Journal About the Author William Zinsser is a writer, editor and teacher. He began his career on the New York Herald Tribune and has since written regularly for leading magazines. During the 1970s he was master of Branford College at Yale. His 17 books, ranging from baseball to music to American travel, include the influential Writing to Learn and Writing About Your Life. He teaches at the New School in New York. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. On Writing Well, 30th Anniversary EditionThe Classic Guide to Writing NonfictionBy William ZinsserHarperCollins Publishers, Inc.Copyright ©2006 William ZinsserAll right reserved.ISBN: 0060891548Chapter OneThe TransactionA school in Connecticut once held “a day devoted to the arts,” and I was asked if I would come and talk about writing as a vocation. When I arrived I found that a second speaker had been invited — Dr. Brock (as I’ll call him), a surgeon who had recently begun to write and had sold some stories to magazines. He was going to talk about writing as an avocation. That made us a panel, and we sat down to face a crowd of students and teachers and parents, all eager to learn the secrets of our glamorous work.Dr. Brock was dressed in a bright red jacket, looking vaguely bohemian, as authors are supposed to look, and the first question went to him. What was it like to be a writer?He said it was tremendous fun. Coming home from an arduous day at the hospital, he would go straight to his yellow pad and write his tensions away. The words just flowed. It was easy. I then said that writing wasn’t easy and wasn’t fun. It was hard and lonely, and the words seldom just flowed.Next Dr. Brock was asked if it was important to rewrite. Absolutely not, he said. “Let it all hang out,” he told us, and whatever form the sentences take will reflect the writer at his most natural. I then said that rewriting is the essence of writing. I pointed out that professional writers rewrite their sentences over and over and then rewrite what they have rewritten.”What do you do on days when it isn’t going well?” Dr. Brock was asked. He said he just stopped writing and put the work aside for a day when it would go better. I then said that the professional writer must establish a daily schedule and stick to it. I said that writing is a craft, not an art, and that the man who runs away from his craft because he lacks inspiration is fooling himself. He is also going broke.”What if you’re feeling depressed or unhappy?” a student asked. “Won’t that affect your writing?”Probably it will, Dr. Brock replied. Go fishing. Take a walk. Probably it won’t, I said. If your job is to write every day, you learn to do it like any other job.A student asked if we found it useful to circulate in the literary world. Dr. Brock said he was greatly enjoying his new life as a man of letters, and he told several stories of being taken to lunch by his publisher and his agent at Manhattan restaurants where writers and editors gather. I said that professional writers are solitary drudges who seldom see other writers.”Do you put symbolism in your writing?” a student asked me.”Not if I can help it,” I replied. I have an unbroken record of missing the deeper meaning in any story, play or movie, and as for dance and mime, I have never had any idea of what is being conveyed.”I love symbols!” Dr. Brock exclaimed, and he described with gusto the joys of weaving them through his work.So the morning went, and it was a revelation to all of us. At the end Dr. Brock told me he was enormously interested in my answers — it had never occurred to him that writing could be hard. I told him I was just as interested in his answers — it had never occurred to me that writing could be easy. Maybe I should take up surgery on the side.As for the students, anyone might think we left them bewildered. But in fact we gave them a broader glimpse of the writing process than if only one of us had talked. For there isn’t any “right” way to do such personal work. There are all kinds of writers and all kinds of methods, and any method that helps you to say what you want to say is the right method for you. Some people write by day, others by night. Some people need silence, others turn on the radio. Some write by hand, some by word processor, some by talking into a tape recorder. Some people write their first draft in one long burst and then revise; others can’t write the second paragraph until they have fiddled endlessly with the first.But all of them are vulnerable and all of them are tense. They are driven by a compulsion to put some part of themselves on paper, and yet they don’t just write what comes naturally. They sit down to commit an act of literature, and the self who emerges on paper is far stiffer than the person who sat down to write. The problem is to find the real man or woman behind the tension.Ultimately the product that any writer has to sell is not the subject being written about, but who he or she is. I often find myself reading with interest about a topic I never thought would interest me — some scientific quest, perhaps. What holds me is the enthusiasm of the writer for his field. How was he drawn into it? What emotional baggage did he bring along? How did it change his life? It’s not necessary to want to spend a year alone at Walden Pond to become involved with a writer who did.This is the personal transaction that’s at the heart of good nonfiction writing. Out of it come two of the most important qualities that this book will go in search of humanity and warmth. Good writing has an aliveness that keeps the reader reading from one paragraph to the next, and it’s not a question of gimmicks to “personalize” the author. It’s a question of using the English language in a way that it will achieve the greatest clarity and strength.Can such principles be taught? Maybe not. But most of them can be learned.Continues…Excerpted from On Writing Well, 30th Anniversary Editionby William Zinsser Copyright ©2006 by William Zinsser. Excerpted by permission. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site. Read more

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐I read On Writing Well by William Zinsser twice. I loved this book. sOn Writing Well embodies what excellent writing should be. At first I thought the book would be a dull “how to write” book, much like a cookbook, without a lot of creativity. Instead, On Writing Well has depth and soul. It challenges me to ask, what can I achieve for the glory of God if I implement these nuggets of wisdom?On Writing Well gives me a high standard to emulate and debunks many myths perpetrated by people I consider more knowledgeable than myself. This book is a gift to anyone who takes writing seriously.I also believe there is a spiritual battle waged in Christian writing. The evil one does not want God’s glory to be revealed in human creativity. If he can persuade Christian writers through mediocrity and deception that publishing articles or books is the ultimate goal without a passion for truth, beauty, and redemption, our writing will be compromised. We will sacrifice our best-God’s creativity–for a cheap counterfeit. As Zinsser states so well, we need role models who exhibit good writing that we can copy to help us develop our own style.I also feel “normal” now knowing I am not “crazy” with my compulsion to rewrite things over and over as I fidget for the right construction. I take comfort in knowing at least Zinsser does the same thing.There are too many good points On Writing Well to summarize in a few short paragraphs, so I want to break them down into the four parts of the book as Zinsser presented them.Part I Principles All these principles would apply equally to fiction and nonfiction.1. Good writing must exhibit humanity and warmth. A writer’s product is himself, not the subject that he is writing about.2. Write clearly and eliminate all clutter.3. Be yourself on paper as you are in person.4. Write the way that is most natural to you.5. Write to please yourself–I like to think I am writing to please God. To paraphrase from the Bible, whatever I do, do it as if I am doing it unto the Lord, and give Him the glory. That means the reader deserves the best I have to offer.6. Writing is art through imitation.7. Avoid journalese and cheap words–the world has enough of them already (I know because I caption them every day). Instead, surprise the reader with the rhythm and cadence of verbs and nouns that express vitality and beauty in unexpected ways.8. Respect the English language and write correctly–it will show you care about the reader and respect his intelligence.Part II MethodsAll these principles would apply equally to fiction and nonfiction.2. Unity ensures orderliness in terms of presentation, pronoun, tense, and mood.3. Enthusiasm will keep the reader engaged.4. Leave the reader with one new thought or idea to consider after he finishes your story.5. Be flexible–let your writing take you where it wants to go. Trust your material.6. Make your lead so compelling that the reader can’t put your book down.7. Always have more material to draw from than you think you will need.8. Look for the story in your writing–people love stories.9. Know when to end (I have read my share of great books that I never finished because I became bored in the waning chapters).10. Use active and precise verbs and adjectives. Avoid overuse of adverbs.My translation is, if it sounds like writing, it’s a poor substitute. My favorite books are those where I get lost in the story–I have been transported to another world or another time and forget I am reading until something or somebody disturbs me.11. Omit the “little qualifiers.”In my book Children of Dreams, I did a word search for qualifiers I tend to overuse like “very” and removed them. I also did a search for exclamation points–most of those came out also. The change in overall appearance was stunning.12. Avoid contractions like “I’d, he’d, and we’d.” I don’t write these words captioning because I don’t like them (they don’t exist in my captioning dictionary), so I am glad to know I don’t ever need to write them.13. Don’t overstate. I have been turned off by writers who overstated a fact. My translation is, don’t insult the reader’s intelligence.14. Don’t compare your writing to others. Your only competition is with yourself.15. If something can’t be fixed, take it out. In captioning parlance, when in doubt, take it out. Better not to caption it than to caption it wrong.16. Keep paragraphs short.17. Rewrite, rewrite, rewrite. Part III Forms (Noted for my own edification)1. Dramatic nonfiction should have no inferring or fabricating, but a condensing of time and events is acceptable to tell the story, raising the craft of writing nonfiction to art.2. Seize control of style and substance when writing about people and places; take unusual care with details.3. A memoir covers a short span of time and is not autobiographical. Use sound, smell, touch and rich remembrance to allow the reader to enjoy the journey alongside you.4. When writing science, write as an ordinary person, sequentially, and never forget the human element is what will make the story come alive.5. Strip from business writing all the extra “lingo” and write with what Zinsser calls the four articles of faith: Clarity, simplicity, brevity and humanity.6. Sports writing is rich in opportunity for nonfiction writers–a source of material for social change and social history. Strip away the sports jargon and write with active verbs and colorful adjectives. (This chapter spoke to me personally as it takes months of training to become a competent sports captioner. Because I hope to incorporate sports into my creative writing, I’m glad to know that good sports writing eliminates the junkie lingo that I caption every day).7. Criticism is a serious intellectual act undertaken by those trained in the area of inquiry. The first qualification should be to love the type of art being critiqued.8. Humor is the secret ingredient to nonfiction writing that adds zest and joy to truth and life.Part IV AttitudesThe following would apply to fiction except for 6 through 10. All would apply to nonfiction.1. Avoid cheap writing, clichés, and breeziness. Develop a style that the reader with recognize as “your voice.”2. Write with sincerity. Your best credential is yourself.3. Focus on process, not outcome. Zinsser calls it, “The Tyranny of the Final Product.”4. Quest and intention should guide us in our writing. Quest is the search for meaning and intention is what we wish to accomplish–the soul of our writing.5. Writing is about making decisions, and ultimately, where you wish to take the reader on your journey.6. Consider the resonance of the words you choose and its emotional impact on the reader.7. As a nonfiction writer, “You must get on the plane.” (I think about the adoption of my two daughters from Nepal and Vietnam. My book Children of Dreams is about their adoptions. If I never got on the plane, I wouldn’t have them. Neither would the reader have my book.8. When writing memoir, choose one point of view to preserve unity; i.e., writing from the viewpoint of the child versus the adult looking back. They are different kinds of writing.9. Remember, when writing memoir, it’s your story. Memoirs should have a redemptive quality–readers won’t connect with whining.10. Organize your memoir through a series of reductions, focusing on the small stories tucked away in memory. The reader will connect because the stories will resonate with universal truth.11. Strive to write the best you can. Give all of yourself. The reader deserves the best you have to offer.

⭐For me this is the clearest “how to” on writing I’ve encountered, and I wish I’d had it as an undergraduate. I still remember struggling with writing classes all that time ago under the apparently mistaken idea that one either does or does not have the writing gene. I learned from this book that it’s not like that at all. Writing well is more about disciplined application of a few well-chosen principles. For the kinds of factual (non-fiction, mainly expository) writing that I do in my work this book has been a real gem and I recommend it highly.

⭐Not much to review on a book. Need it for my MBA course and found it more affordable here than through the University. Delivered in perfect condition.

⭐I read a number of books on writing, of which there are many. This book does not push but gives encouragement and example. It’s got some of the best stories that go well beyond what the author has written and includes what he’s read—what I should be reading.

⭐Regardless of the non-fiction category, or your experience, there is an abundance of good advice in this book. It is the type of reference you can revisit over the years, to remind you of the simple, core principles that make for good non-fiction.

⭐Do you know how to write? I asked myself this before buying the book. I didn’t know the answer. My writing experience through college was that the professors assumed that I knew how to write, assigned a paper, and then graded it with no feedback. I wrote a lot but didn’t learn a lot about writing. Since college, I had started writing again. I had picked up a few tips here and there from reading books and blogs. I felt like I knew what I was doing.Then my friend recommended me this book. It made me question what it means to write well. I knew what I thought writing well meant, but I didn’t know what successful authors thought it meant. That ignorance made me decide to buy the book.Reading this book was a journey — it started out great, then dragged on and became unbearable, and then ended on a high note with the most useful information.The beginning either taught me keys to writing well or reinforced ones that I already knew: write with confidence; speak from the first person; tell your story; use a unique perspective; and use peculiar phrases to keep the reader attentive.Then came the descent. Zinsser is a great writer, but not the best teacher. I wasn’t sure I took away all the key points. Each chapter covers a different subject, with a lot of points scattered throughout the paragraphs. I’m not sure I picked up on everything he writes about. It would have been easier if he ended each chapter with bullet points of the key takeaways, or ended it with questions that ask the reader if they understood the key points.Then Part 3 put me to sleep. Part 3 is about writing about different subjects. The problem again is how the material is presented. Each chapter is about a different subject. In each of them are many passages from other writers that he uses as examples to analyze. He often quotes a passage, spends a paragraph or two analyzing it, and then jumps straight to the next passage with no clear delineation. I found myself drifting off for a page or two and then realizing I didn’t know what I was reading. I had to go back and re-read often. If he had made clear breaks, like starting each passage on the next page, giving each passage a header, or some other visual break, it would have been much easier.Not only was Part 3 hard to follow, he didn’t always appear to be an expert on the subject he was talking about. I don’t consider myself a funny person, but I learned nothing about humor from reading his chapter on the subject. He states that he has taught classes on humor writing — suggesting he has expert insights — but he only provides common knowledge: don’t explain jokes, and don’t repeat them.But suffering through Part 3 was worth it. Part 4 contains the most valuable information in the book. He breaks down one of his own articles piece by piece and offers his thought process on writing. I got a lot out of it. He gives a lot of useful tips: think what the reader wants to know next after each sentence; the last sentence of each paragraph should springboard to the next paragraph; know when to end an article; and have a strong ending.

⭐The importance of this book is not difficult to explain – this is an essential must have for all interested in books, not only for those who write, but for anyone who reads; at the end of it, youll be better in both. The book focuses on how to write well non-fiction, but virtually all its comments do apply also to fiction. And it goes further and helps to understand why good writing is good writing and why good literature is good literature.My favourite part is that dedicated to the basics: what not to do when writing, and specifically how to avoid, as the author calls it, the “clutter”, with many examples of that “clutter”: how banks, insurance companies, large corporations and, most obviously and constantly, the politians use the language not to explain, but to conceal what they mean, or to look more important; and all by means of using longer (and generally useless, many times gramaically incorrect) expressions. Thus: the very silly “at the present time” instead of the plain yet far more correct “now”. There are an array of examples like this one.As I said in the title of this review: a must have for anyone who reads or write; for anyone.

⭐This book kicked my ass. In the spirit of Zinssman’s book, I’ll keep my review brief. The book teaches you that clutter is the #1 enemy of all writers, and that tightening your prose can make you a better writer in every area of your life.This is non-optional reading for all writers and professional, aspirational people in general.

⭐As you would expect this is very well written and gives clear guidance on how to improve your writing. It is litterd with fantastic examples and anecdotes to brighten up what can be a dry subject. It lacks some of the charm of Eats, shoots and leaves. but makes up for it in depth.Having studied Journalism a decade ago I wish I’d had this book then. It taught me everything I should have learnt but was never taught. It demonstrates the subtleties of using the English language. Which, it seems to me, that between school, college and uni they expect you to learn but never actually teach. It took me only a week to read this book and I am a more confident writer as a result. There are some chapters that are specific to particular types of writing such as sports, or memoir so you can skip these if not suitable for your needs. This book is written by a journalist and so it is geared around getting you to write snappier more engaging pieces that would suit the news or feature stories. I wouldn’t recommend it for academic writing so much.My only criticism is Zinsser’s attempt to wipe out the semi-colon in favour of the dash. How will we wink then 😉

⭐Amazing read. Fresh and lively. so much to take on board, but you have to read with your full attention. The gems are hidden through the book. So, keep a watchful eyes to discover the hidden treasure.

⭐Such a wonderful and exquisite learning tool. Just a mere reading taught me a lot. I, without wasting a single second thought of gifting it to the most deserving. My happiness knew no bounds when I saw that person reading it analytically and grasping the message on the go.I strongly believe that this budding litterateur shall definitely rise up with a creative work jaded and jazzed up with jewels of words and garlands of phrases. I recommend it for all and sundry. If “On Writing Well” is read along with “The Elements of Style”, the combination can help one assimilate and accumulate wealth of knowledge about the nuances of the literature world. Read and relish the jelly-jam churned out like fresh butter with honey drops falling on it.

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