On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction, by William Zinsser (Harper Perennial, 30th anniversary edition, 2006). My rating: 5 of 5.
You write every day. Emails, reports, letters, posts. Most of it is longer than it needs to be, and some of it says less than you meant. Zinsser can fix that, and he does it with good humor.
What the book covers
Zinsser taught writing at Yale, and the book grew out of that course. It was first published in 1976 and revised several times. The first half covers principles: simplicity, clutter, style, the audience, words and usage. The second half applies them to forms of nonfiction, including interviews, travel, memoir, science, business, sports, the arts and humor.
He writes the way he tells you to write. The pages are clear, warm and often funny. He also defends nonfiction as a craft in its own right, not a lesser cousin of fiction or a lower form of journalism. The book has sold more than a million copies and has stayed in print for decades, because the problems it solves do not change. Wordy writing in 1976 looks a lot like wordy email today.
What stayed with me
Clutter is the enemy. The book’s most famous line is “Clutter is the disease of American writing.” The cure is to strip every sentence to its cleanest parts. “In order to” becomes “to.” “At this point in time” becomes “now.”
Clear thinking first. If a paragraph will not come clear, the thought is not clear yet. Fix the thinking, then the sentence.
Cut hard. “Most first drafts can be cut by 50 percent without losing any information or losing the author’s voice,” he writes. I treat that as a target for the second pass. It is humbling how often it holds.
Write what you would say. If you would not say “indeed” or “moreover” out loud, do not write it. Be yourself. Readers want a real person on the other end.
Kill the extra modifier. Strong words do not need help. Zinsser points out that “flabbergasted” already means total astonishment, so nobody is partly flabbergasted. The same goes for “completely unique” and “very essential.” Cut the adverb or find a stronger verb.
Humor tells the truth. His chapter on humor argues that good comic writing rests on something real. It is serious work, and it fails when it is only silly.
That and which. His rule is to use “that” unless it makes the meaning unclear, and to use “which” after a comma for detail you could drop. In a legal letter, that difference can change the meaning of a sentence.
A few notes
Zinsser calls writing an act of ego. He means confidence in your own voice, not self-promotion. Also, some kinds of writing call for deliberate formality, like a contract or a court filing. Apply his rules to clutter, not to precision the reader needs.
Who should read it
Anyone who writes for work, which is nearly everyone. Lawyers, accountants, managers, pastors and students will all find something to cut. Keep it near your desk and reread a chapter when your drafts start to sprawl.
Quotes are short excerpts credited to the author. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. The price you pay does not change. I read this book on my own, and no one asked me or paid me to review it. See Disclosures.